The story begins with the planning of a wedding. The bridezilla, a middle-aged woman almost twice the age of the groom, finds herself in a situation she hates, but can't change. Her mother wants her cousin to bake the wedding cake. And then, the baker is killed.
So far, I liked the characters and the plot. After the deadline body appeared, I expected the story to switch to a cozy detective story, but it quite didn't. There were moments when I forgot about the killing at all, since all the characters dealt with was the wedding.
I later found out that this is part of a series of books. Perhaps, if I had read the previous books before, or if I had been familiar with the author's style, I would have enjoyed the novel.
The truth is that I didn't care much about this book. The bride didn't seem as a woman the age she's supposed to be, and the ending was sort of disappointing. I've seen that many readers liked it, so it may have been just me.

I love the characters! They are so much fun to read. I enjoyed the articles in between the chapters of the cozy mystery. The background stories are entertaining. OMG surprises galore! Too many to count. The ending had me hyped. A must read story! A page turner! Way to go on another great read.

Hayley Powell is back with another mystery to solve, alongside her BFFs, boyfriend, and brother. Wedding bells are ringing for her friend Liddy, but the walk down the aisle will be anything but smooth. After Liddy's horrible cousin Lisa is poisoned by the wedding cake she was baking for Liddy, Hayley starts to wonder if Liddy was actually the intended victim. While trying to solve that, Hayley must also try to figure out why Liddy's intended, Sonny, is acting so odd. Is it just cold feet, or is something more sinister afoot?

Lee Hollis's Hayley Powell mysteries are always fun reads. I like the little newspaper columns that Hayley writes being interspersed throughout the book, especially since they contain food and cocktail recipes! One annoying thing about this book is the attempt to build suspense at the end of several chapters near the beginning. Example: "But what she ddin't know, or couldn't know, was just how bad things were about to get." Several different variations of that occur before the murder. We get it, something bad's going to happen! The title MIGHT have clued us in! But if that's the only complaint I have about the book, then I think it's pretty good!

Death of a Wedding Cake Baker” (Hayley Powell Book #11) by Lee Hollis
4.5/5

I’ve reviewed books from the Hayley Powell Mysteries series before, and mentioned with the most recent book that I think they are going through a nice resurgence so I was very excited to discover that another book in the series is being released.

Hayley’s best friend, Liddy Crawford, is getting married to her long-time love, lawyer Sonny Lipton. Despite their desire for a stress-free wedding planning experience, Liddy’s mother pushes Liddy into getting her wedding cake made by her cousin and arch-nemesis Lisa. Liddy and Hayley discover Lisa’s body when arriving for a cake-testing appointment, discovering that she was poisoned by her own cake! Hayley and Liddy must work to uncover who wanted Lisa dead while still putting the finishing touches on the wedding.

I liked the premise of this book — Sonny and Liddy have been together for a decent bit of time, and I liked reading about Liddy as a bit of a bridezilla. I also understood the stress of trying to plan a wedding (though thankfully I haven’t had to experience what Hayley did of being assigned a terrible bridesmaids dress — anytime I have been a bridesmaid I was given a beautiful dress!)

Liddy’s cousin, however, is awful. She berates Liddy’s cake choices, and keeps trying to serve her cakes that she is allergic to. But, because she is family, Liddy’s mother demands that she make the cake for the wedding. After Lisa’s body is discovered, it appears that there is no shortage of suspects, given her prickly nature. However, Liddy quickly becomes suspect number 1. Hayley works overtime in order to ensure that Liddy is not arrested before she has to walk down the aisle.

This book was great! I don’t want to give away too much of the plot, but it was great to have so many twists and turns given that it is the 11th book in the series. The direction of the book was very unexpected, and it made it so hard for me to put the book down. And the ending! It ended on such a cliffhanger that now I will be counting down the days for the next book to be released!

I think the only thing that bothered me about this book is that I find Hayley’s boyfriend to sometimes be written as an almost petulant child. And maybe that’s part of it, since he and Hayley have always been a little antagonistic and it means their relationship is a little different, but it makes it hard for me to like them being together. I don’t want Hayley to be with someone who pouts. But at the same time, Hayley just seems to bend over backwards to put anyone else’s needs before her own (and her boyfriends). If I was on a date and someone knocked on the door, I would not be inviting them in for multiple cups of coffee and dessert that I had made. I would talk with them and they would leave. I just got very irritated with how she doesn’t understand that putting the needs of an acquaintance before her romantic dinner with her boyfriend isn’t very cool. I know it was annoying that her boyfriend got upset and pouted about it, but she was pretty rude too. So, maybe they both need to work on being better to each other.

That’s my rant about how women in cozy novels need to stop catering to everyone else under the guise of politeness.

Overall, it was a fun, exciting book that added some great plot details to a solid book series, even if it had one scene that drove me bonkers.

I truly enjoy Lee Hollis’ writing. Her style of writing is engaging and conversational. The characters really come to life and the relationships are both believable and enjoyable. In Death of a Wedding Cake Baker, Hayley Powell’s best friend Liddy is getting married. The mother of the bride insists Liddy’s cousin Lisa make the wedding cake. There is just one problem, neither Liddy nor Lisa care for each other very much. After many arguments Lisa is fired by Liddy. Soon after Lisa is poisoned. Liddy becomes the perpetrators next target. It appears the wedding is simply not meant to go off without several very large hitches! Hayley has her hands full playing peacekeeper, bodyguard and amateur detective. Who hated Lisa enough to kill her? Why did Liddy become the next target? What will it take to stop the murdering menace? You’ll enjoy finding out the answers to these questions in the current installment of the Hayley Powell mysteries.

I love this series and with each installment it gets better and better.
Characters like old friends, a plot that keeps you turning the pages, romance, a great setting and recipes to die for (pun intended!)
Don't miss this latest book in the series. It has it all!

This is another entertaining Hayley Powell adventure. It's filled with good friends, good food (and great recipes that I can't wait to try), a lovely Bar Harbor setting, a compelling plot, a wonderful sense of humor, and just the right touch of romance. Hayley's BFF, Liddy Crawford, is getting married and both Liddy and her mother Celeste have turned into bridezillas, involving Hayley in the process. Celeste is insisting that Liddy's cousin Lisa who is a baker make the wedding cake, but Lisa is refusing to make the cake that Liddy wants and so Liddy fires her. When Lisa is later poisoned and has left her hefty fortune to Liddy, it becomes Hayley's job to keep her out of trouble so she can make the trip down the aisle. And when the brake lines on Liddy's car are cut while Hayley and Liddy are in it, Hayley becomes driven to find the culprit. I loved this book and can't wait for Hayley's next adventure.

I just love this series. Even this far into it the stories are still fresh and the characters still fabulous. Liddy is getting married to the much younger Sonny but her mom has become a mother-of-the-bride-zilla forcing Liddy to hire her nasty cousin to make the cake or she won't pay for the wedding. Someone else didn't like the baking cousin either as she ends up dead. Great recipes as usual and I'm so in love with Haley's brother -in - law the police chief.