I highlighted this book on my Booktube channel. The video can be accessed here: https://youtu.be/v5hTPt_UrA4

This cozy mystery was indeed a treat... pun intended 😅 I loved the characters, the manor setting, the locked-in vibes, and of course the baking show aspect. It was a fun & intriguing read, I definitely recommend it!

A murder mystery mixed with a baking competition that kept me guessing. I finished it in 24 hours & highly recommend!

I so desperately wanted to like this but just felt it was so-so. I’m not sure if it’s because cozy mysteries aren’t really for me or something else. Quick read overall, fun premise, so I’m a little disappointed.

I honestly feel like I was late to the party on this title! Have heard some buzz but did not expect to enjoy this book as much as I did! From the first page I felt like I was falling into a fluffy chiffon cake and could not wait to finish. The characters were all well rounded and actually all were enjoyable to “ watch” as the baking contest developed and there was just enough of the baking show crumbs to not feel like the story was overwhelmed. Mentioning this title at the next few book clubs as a definite read!

This is a perfect book for lovers of the The Great British Bake Off and mysteries. The Golden Spoon is a fast-paced, easy read with short chapters and a bit of a twist at the end. It doesn't require a ton of focus or brain-power, but that doesn't mean it isn't enjoyable. Take this book on a trip for a distracting, fun read.

This was such a fun murder mystery. If you like Bake Off, you will LOVE this book. I thought the characters were well thought out and I was immediately invested in all of them. It was also fun and fast which was great. This is a must read if you like cozy mysteries, clue, and baking! I received this book as an ARC through NetGalley, but I was not able to read until after release.

tantalizing clues will keep you on the edge of your seat until the very last page.

Jessa Maxwell has written a masterful novel with The Golden Spoon. The plot is gripping and the characters are complex and intriguing. The setting, a beautiful Vermont estate, adds a touch of magic to the story.

One of the strengths of this novel is its pacing. Maxwell keeps the story moving at a fast clip, and readers will be unable to put the book down. The twists and turns in the plot will keep you guessing until the very end.

Another aspect of The Golden Spoon that is particularly well-done is the character development. Maxwell has created a cast of characters that are all unique, with their own motivations and secrets. It is fascinating to see how each character reacts to the murder, and how their own pasts are intertwined with the events unfolding around them.

Overall, The Golden Spoon is a thrilling and engaging read that is sure to delight fans of both mystery novels and baking. Jessa Maxwell has crafted a masterpiece, and this book is sure to be remembered as one of the best of its genre. Highly recommended!

This was good book about mystery. For me it was good and I would recommend it to those looking for an easy but entertaining book!

The Golden Spoon is about an American version of The Great British Baking show called Bake Week that takes place at an old manor dubbed Grafton Manor. Betsey Martin is an endearing and grandmotherly figure as host and judge of the show (very Mary Berry inspired) but she may not be quite as sweet in real life.

This story jumps through multiple perspectives of Betsey and several of the contestants throughout the novel. Some of them have secrets, some are tied to each other in the past and some are actively making less than ideal decisions.

When Bake Week begins things start going awry for contestant after contestant that reek of something nefarious being planned by someone outside of themselves. Things really come to a head when someone ends up dead and everything begins to unfurl.

A wonderful mix of The Great British Baking Show & Only Murders in the building; I found this cozy mystery a delightfully devious and indulgent read!

4 Stars.

Thank You to NetGalley and Atria Books for the E-Arc in exchange for an honest review!

What if Agatha Christie hosted Top Chef: Bakery edition? This is Maxwell's debut novel and I enjoyed the mystery ride she took me on. Applause all around for a solid first!

6 contestants compete for The Golden Spoon on Bake Week, a popular tv show hosted by America's Grandmother, Betsy Martin. But the competition quickly spirals out of control when a body is found on the Grafton mansion's property. The question remains, who dunit?

Maxwell did a fabulous job creating bringing to life 3 dimensional characters. Honestly, I would love to hear who her favorite character to write was. This was a great, light read and something I suggest to add if you need to get over a book hangover.
I give this one a solid 3 and thank you NetGalley for granting me this ARC.

I wish people would stop comparing this book to Only Murders in the Building, although I can kind of see why one would make the connection. I think the tv show has more nuanced red herrings and connected events and history than this story did. That being said, this was an overgrown cozy mystery more than a real thriller. It was entertaining and fun and kept me engaged from beginning to end. It didn't hurt that a cooking competition was the scene of the crime.

Oh, and I loved the ending. It was unexpected, but very well deserved.

I feel like the author wrote the book with the eye towards having it turned into a film because it's a perfect script. It has a fantastic setting, a motley crew of diverse characters, and a good murder mystery to boot. It was an easy, fun read and I look forward to more books by this author.

Thanks, NetGalley, for the chance to read and review this book. All opinions expressed are mine and given freely.

This book was so much fun to read! It came with a unique approach featuring multiple perspectives that created a puzzle of secrets, lies, and discoveries throughout the story.

The characters were distinct and well-crafted, although the initial introduction to each character made it slightly confusing to keep track of the perspectives. However, once I adjusted, switching between them became effortless, and I became fully immersed in the story.

While it wasn't exactly a nail-biting thriller, the book had moments of being a real page-turner, and it had the feel of a whodunit, although it wasn't quite that.

Overall, I found it to be a solid debut novel and would be interested in reading more from this author in the future.

⚠️TW: murder, death, sexual assault, rape, alcohol, sexual harassment, blood

9/10

Holy crap! This is one heckuva debit novel that Jedda put together. It’s almost up there with Nita Prose’s “The Maid” in terms of me thinking “how can a writer this good not have written a novel before this”.

The story is essentially “The Great British Bake Off” meets Clue. It really can’t be described any better.

There’s a baking show that is on its 10th season. Six amateur bakers are selected to compete over one week for the Golden Spoon.

Betsy (“America’s grandmother”) is the host and the judge and the show takes place at her family’s palatial estate in Vermont.

However, somebody is dead.

It sounds like this could be a bit campy, doesn’t it? Well it’s not, thanks to Jessa’s mastery of prose. The book tells the story of the week in question, but each chapter is from a different participants point of view.

What Jessa so incredibly well is give you deep insight into each of the characters despite the fact that they each only have a few chapters in the book. I can’t think of another story that unfolds so meticulously by being told through different peoples perspectives.

Great athletes, great chefs, great leaders…they all make difficult tasks seem easy.

This story is very complex and the characters are very complex, but Jessa has made it seem like it was so simple to write. I’m in awe.

It’s no wonder that Hulu has optioned this for a limited series.

If this doesn’t become a NYT best seller, I will be shocked and disappointed.

How it can only have a 3.61 rating on Goodreads (as of 4/24/23) is beyond me.

Well done Jessa!

#netgalley #thegoldenspoon

*I received a copy of this book on NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for this opportunity.*

If you love the Great British Bake Off (GBBO), murder, and character development then do I have a recommendation for you.

THE GOLDEN SPOON is told through seven (that's right, seven) different points of view-- and Maxwell somehow manages to make each narrator distinctive and interesting in their own right. Which also meant, despite my worries, it was easy to differentiate between each character because they were all so unique.

While the story line wasn't complex or intricate-- this story was still sumptuous, fun, and such a pleasure to read. The murder mystery portion of the story was slow to begin, but Maxwell pulled it off with her wonderful cast of characters (can you tell how much I love them all?) and then, in what felt like a moment, everything began to snap into place like a puzzle.

This was a fun, well-written mystery. I will recommend it to patrons. ARC provided by NetGalley in exchange for a fair review.

This title is on many "most anticipated" lists and has many positive reviews.

👍First, the good:

🎥The setting and details of producing and filming the bake off show feel spot on! From the description of the tent and baking station to the bakes themselves. Many readers will have the Great British Bake-off as a reference point, and I feel like the resemblance is more than coincidental. Also, I can totally see sabotage and a new edgier co-host to spice things up as being a part of reality TV.

👥 Some of the characters are very engaging with interesting backstories and reasons for being on the show that are revealed over the course of the book. The setting plus the cast of characters plus hints of their past or reasons for being present feel like a throwback to Agatha Christie (not necessarily a bad thing).

🥨 There is a minor twist that surprised me, and I appreciated that.

👎The not so great:

😱 For a book billed as a thriller, this is not very thrilling. The mystery aspects are wasted because the mystery from the past and the dead body from the prologue don't arrive until almost the very end of the book, so not much tension or real sleuthing there either. It kind of seems like it wants to be a locked room mystery and a cozy and it isn't really either.

🥨 While I didn't figure out the major twist, it was obvious that something was off, and when it was revealed, it felt like something I've read before.

❓️Do I recommend this book❓️ I really did enjoy it overall. I think this book in some ways is a victim of it's hype. And perhaps has a little identity crisis. Perhaps if you go into it moderating your expectations, you'll find you enjoy it more.

Thank you Netgalley and the author for an ARC copy in exchange for my review.

Think British Baking show with a little murder, lol
Six amateur bakers are living their dream when they are chosen to be contestants on Bake Week, a well-known competition show.
Y'all, everyone showed up to this thing with some kind of baggage.
There was so much going on, sabotage, lies, affairs oh, and murder.
I felt like this one had 2 different plots going on at once.
Two of the characters had a brutal past together and that shared history definitely affects the entire plot.
But, there was also the scheming and drama happening among the rest of them.
I liked it, wasn't in love and honestly guessed a lot of what would happen.

Enjoyed this, but not quite as much as I hoped. I was expecting more literary mystery, and this was firmly in the cozy genre, atmospheric but predictable without much in the way I’d twists and turns. Still a fun cozy! It was a nice enjoyable read, if not terribly notable.

This book was so much fun! Imagine The Great British Bake Off, but then add in a little bit of a murder mystery element and you have this debut book by Jesse Maxwell!

The story follows along six home bakers as they arrive at Grafton Manor, the home of America’s Grandmother, Betsy Martin, and the location of the show, Bake Week. Over the course of the next week, the contestants will be pitted against each other in a series of bakes with one person being eliminated each day until one is left and wins the coveted Golden Spoon. But off the bat, things start to wrong and a sinister undertone begins to take shape…

This book is told in seven POVs— the six bakers and then Betsy herself! Though it took a tiny bit of adjusting to catch onto the narrative shifts, I did like who each character had their own distinct personality and background that it made it easier to remember each AND figure out who your favorite characters were.

Throughout the course of the competition, I genuinely felt like I was watching a baking show, but in book form and I loved it! Plus it made me crave so many baked items so prepare yourself! Aside from the “on screen” aspect, I also enjoyed the behind the scenes where you start to learn that something is going on at Grafton Manor. Certain contestants are seemingly being messed with during their bakes and you don’t know why are who. But the conspiracies behind it are endless.

Ultimately, everything comes crashing down at the end and secrets come out for the first time in decades. Admittedly, my biggest critique of this book was with the ending because it felt very rushed when I didn’t think it needed to be. (The book is only 270 pages so could’ve been drawn out a bit more.) Plus I thought the reveal into the whole baking mess was so quick and underwhelming that it left some to be desired.

I still very much enjoyed this and found it to be a fun mystery! It did also cover some other topics like workplace assault/ abuse, depression, and more + had a sweet found family aspect to it in the end.