I really adored this book. I am usually not a fan of cozy mysteries so was hesitant to read but I am so glad I did.

The setting and characters were incredible and although it wasn't as nail-biting as a true thriller, I found myself unable to put this book down and finished it in one day.

It played out like a movie in my head. My only wish is that it was longer!

The Golden Spoon follows six baking contestants who are whisked away to Betsy Martin's family estate to take part in Bake Week, a baking competition show, but something happens to derail Bake Week, and everyone's lives forever.
When I read that this was similar to Great British Bake Off meets murder mystery, I was very interested. To me, this should be compared to more of a cozy mystery. It takes a very long time to get to any of the murder mystery, and we followed a LOT of baking.
Where it fell flat for me was the extreme slow burn followed by the rush of activity at the ending, as well as the characters feeling very similar which lead to them being a bit hard to tell apart. A lot of this story is predictable and I was able to guess a lot of the twists and turns.
I will note the ARC had a decent amount of typos and grammatical errors, I'm assuming those are fixed for publication.
This was a quick easy read, and if you want something light and fluffy, this might fit the bill.
Thank you to NetGalley and Atria Books for an Advance Copy for review.

Just an easy to read, fast paced mystery with short & engaging chapters that I couldn’t wait to keep coming back to. The perfect slump buster.

This book tells the story of six bakers competing for a television baking competition called Bake Week held at a Vermont estate, where the show's host, Betsy Martin, resides. Betsy is famous for her baking and her on-camera charisma, but she demands perfection offscreen. However, things are less than perfect in this competition, starting with sabotage and ending in murder with no shortage of suspects since not everyone is what they appear on the outside.

This is a slower-paced mystery told from multiple points of view. I loved the premise and the setting, but wish it had a little more depth. I enjoyed the flash-forward at the end, again through multiple points-of-view, to see what happened with all the characters after the murder is resolved and to experience a couple more surprises before the ultimate ending of the story. Overall, this is an enjoyable cozy mystery that I would rate 3.5 stars.

I received an advance copy of this ebook from NetGalley and Atria Books, but my review is voluntary and unbiased.

The Golden Spoon
By: Jessa Maxwell

Pub Date: March 7, 2023
eARC & Book Review

For fans of The Great British Baking show, this one is for YOU!

In this debut thriller by Jessa Maxwell, we find the characters on the grounds of Grafton, TV chef and personality, Betsy Martin’s personal estate.

Hailed as “America’s Grandmother,” Betsy is the host (now co-host) of “Bake Week” — a baking competition that pits 6 bakers against each other for a week. At the end of the week, the winning baker takes home the elusive golden spoon.

Seems all sunshine and rainbows, right? Wrong.

What starts as a simple enough competition turns bloody as secrets are revealed and one person turns up dead.

🥄

I ATE this book up! It was so much fun to read and I could not put it down. The entire time, I was picturing the cast and setting of The Great British Baking Show! It had so many fun parallels to the show.

At first, I did think the many POVs would be confusing, but once you learn who is who, it makes it so much fun. I loved getting into the heads of each character.

Characters and plot aside, I also really loved reading about the recipes and bakes each day.

I cannot wait to pick up a physical copy of this one!

Thank you NetGalley and Atria Books for this eARC in exchange for my honest review.

This was a very entertaining read. It was fun to be "on set" of a reality tv baking show and get a look behind the scenes. There were a lot of characters/POV to follow - I actually took some notes at first to ensure that I could keep them straight. The characters were all very different though, so it was easy to not get them mixed up. It was interesting to see the characters' different motivations for being there. That is what really pulled me into the story more than the murder mystery element.

I would definitely not classify this as a thriller. It was more of a character driven, cozy mystery. The pacing of the novel was a bit off as it was slow building up to the actual murder and then it sped through the resolution.

I will note that the ending was rather unrealistic. Since the overall tone of the book was rather light, I was able to go with the flow on the ending. I did appreciate that it was an upswing book, which is not often the case with a murder mystery. Overall, this would make for a great read to escape reality for a little while.

Thank you to NetGalley and Atria Books for an early digital copy.

I am 50% done with this book and I LOVVEEE the mystery aspect that is sprinkled in each chapter and seeing the competition from the viewpoint of not just the customers but also the host Betsy. This is the perfect cozy mystery that isn't too scary (because I enjoy sleeping at night!) but it keeps you on your toes and makes you think and re-read parts to make sure you're not missing any hidden clues. Can easily see this being a 4-5 star read and wonderful debut novel!!! cannot wait for what else Jessa writes in the future!

This book was such a fun read! As a fan of the Great British Baking Show, and baking in general, I was excited to read this. Baking and a murder mystery? Great combo!
The book starts off with a dead body discovered on the grounds of the beautiful Grafton Manor where the ever-popular baking competition show "Bake Week" is filmed. Throughout the novel, told from multiple POVs, we are introduced to each of the contestants, each with their own distinctive stories and personalities. We also get to meet Betsy Martin, the beloved host of the show.
Overall, this was an easy ready for me, with short chapters, fun characters, and a mystery that had me guessing until the very end!

Thanks to Atria for the free book.
This was fun. If you’re a fan of The Great British Bake Off, I think you’ll enjoy this. While there is some mystery and murder, the main part of this book focuses on the cooking show and how things are just a bit off. I found it easy to keep track of all the different characters - there are 7 POVs here. I’m a big fan of cooking competition books, so this one was a winner for me. It is a slow burn, so if you’re expecting a thriller, this isn’t it.

The epitome of a cozy mystery. This was an enjoyable easy read- essentially Great British Baking Show meets Clue/The Hunting Party.

Anything set in a gothic mansion appeals to me, but my biggest compliment is that the different POVs are very clearly distinctive voices. I have read so many books that give me whiplash switching POVs and trying to figure out who’s talking. It’s quite clear who is speaking even without the identifying names.

My biggest complaint is pacing issues. The mystery aspect was introduced a lot later than I’d have liked. It wasn’t all too clear where the plot was going for the first 50%. Lots of “setting things up”. But overall an easy read that was perfect for what I needed.

I really liked this book! If you don’t like baking or are not into cooking shows, this might not be your thing, but I was pretty entertained. This was a great cozy mystery. I loved the multiple POVs and getting to know the different characters on the show. I really felt like I was watching a reality tv show 😂 The pacing might be on the slower side for some, but I didn’t have an issue with it, probably because I do really enjoy baking, and watching food competition shows.

“Clue meets The Great British Bake Off.” 5 contestants. Two judges. A murderer. Betsy Grafton has opened up her beloved home, Grafton Manor, to film this season of Bake Week. The six contestants are from all walks of life and, from the youngest to the oldest, are all thrilled to be featured. When a series of pranks culminates in a murder, the contestants don’t know where to turn or who to trust, or if they can trust anyone.

WHAT WORKED FOR ME:

The premise. The premise of this book is great. The potential was definitely there. It sounded like it would have everything I loved. A country house, an isolated group of suspects, and people not being who they seem to be.

WHAT DIDN’T WORK FOR ME:

Literally everything else. Including the actual story. This novel suffers from extremely bad marketing. It’s being billed as similar to clue, to Agatha Christie, to Lucy Foley, and to The Appeal by Janice Hallett. All of those are incorrect, and honestly give a very false impression of what this book actually is. It’s not a murder mystery, in any but the broadest possible sense. The murder that you know within two pages has happened, is never mentioned again until the 80% mark of this book and you know I immediately who did it. I’m not talking about having a suspicion. I mean that it is obvious from jump.

It’s told from 6 different POVs. Multi-POV stories don’t bother me, but all these people are one-dimensional cliches. There’s no real difference in voice, so that everyone eventually starts to sound the same. Everything is given in info dumps and there’s zero actual investigation going on. The pranks played on the contestants amount to a whopping two, and no one even knows they’re pranks, so no one investigates.

The characters are all fairly vile and disgusting. I liked Lottie, an older baker, the best, but even her story was all told and never shown. The other characters are basically what people asssume men are and what people assume women are. The young one is ambitious and ruthless; the rich man is jaded and disillusioned. Nothing at all is ground breaking.

The mystery itself is basically nonexistent. Around the 70% mark something finally happens and it’s not really all that interesting or original. There’s not even much baking to speak of. Basically all the characters are nothing more that devices to move the plot from point to point and it’s uneven and clunky in its execution. Simply put, I was bored by the 30% mark and it never let up.

Where it really went wrong was when all of a sudden it turned into a raging #metoo book. I took extreme issue with this because it completely ignored the way the characters had been written in the rest of the book. A character is literally throwing herself at someone to use him to further her career. This is clearly stated. Then all of a sudden she’s been groomed and is being mistreated by this man she’s in love with. I’m sorry, what? Another character is a journalist who decides to write an expose with literally zero proof that what she thinks is happening is accurate. Thankfully, because of plot armor, everyone’s behavior magically changes to make that happen.

Motivations are murky at best, never fully explained or explored, and frequently changeable. For most of the book nothing happens, and it reads more like a collection of ideas with a desire to throw in random social politics than a cohesive, thought out novel.

This book also does something that, in my opinion, is inexcusable, both in life and in literature. Someone is allowed to take the wrap for something done by someone else, and it REEKS of ageism. It also seems to make fun of mental health problems held by men, while validating all the despicable, conniving, straight up spoiled brat behavior of the female characters.

In short, this books isn’t what it claims to be and it’s not a good example of what it actually is.

I received this as an e-ARC from Netgalley in exchange for an open and honest review.

3.5 Rounded Up

As a huge fan of The Great British Bake Off and mysteries, I had been looking forward to reading this book and I was not disappointed. I found this to be overall an entertaining tale.

Six contestants are vying for the coveted Golden Spoon, the trophy awarded at the end of the Bake Week contest run by Betsy Martin at her estate for many years. In order to give the show a fresh appeal, the producers have included a co-host this season with Archie Morris. Once the contest is underway, mysterious things start occurring. Is it sabotage? And who is the identity of the dead body discovered in the prologue?

Could we have been given more time with each character? Certainly, they could have been better developed. Most of the characters were not fully fleshed-out or developed, and so they ended up being more caricatures of people rather than real people. I did love the character bios at the beginning, I laughed out loud at how accurately they capture the types of contestants featured on these cooking shows.

Could the mystery have been a bit more mysterious? Of course, but it was overall satisfying and I was intrigued enough to keep reading. There were some surprises and twists that I didn't see coming.

The other thing I wanted was recipes! You can't write a book that describes so many amazingly described baked goods and then not give me at least one recipe!

If you like cozy-type mystery books featuring food and baking, then The Golden Spoon will satisfy your cravings.

This was one of my most anticipated reads this year and it most definitely did NOT disappoint!! Grab a cup of coffee and your favorite pastry, and get ready to be entangled with the amazing characters of this amazing book! It is the perfect blend of Clue, The Great British Bake Off, with hints of Only Murders in the Building. While it took me a while to easily identify which characters’ POV I was reading, once I was able to discern them, I adored the set up. Getting to read the story from every single contestant’s POV, along with Betsy’s, felt like I was being given pieces of a puzzle that I had to try to fit together to formulate my own theory. I LOVED it!! Each character is very well developed for a book of this length, and the setting is equal parts enchanting and creepy. You never know what will be found around a corner, or down a dimly lit hallway. There are plenty of spooky moments, and twists to keep you on the edge of your seat!

http://ivoryowlreviews.blogspot.com/2023/02/the-golden-spoon.htmlI read this book in the days before Christmas and in the midst of my Southwest travel fiasco. It was the perfect mix of snarky, suspenseful, and fun--just what I needed at the time to keep my mind occupied so I didn't go absolutely insane. I love any gothic mansion/secluded manor setting and this one didn't disappoint. If you love cooking competition shows, you're sure to love this one.

The Golden Spoon was a fun, fast well written mystery that is perfect for fans of the genre as well as food fans.

I feel that Jessa Maxwell’s strength is character with each being well written and fleshed out and not feeling the same as others. My favorite was Lottie who I thought had the best arc and Archie being a fun “villain” or obstacle to the other characters.

I felt that the story was slow in some parts but the ending was good and the resolution for the hanging mystery was good!

𝐓𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡𝐭𝐬💭:
Being that this book is The Great British Bake Off meets Only Murders In The Building, it definitely piqued my interest. Thank you to Atria Books for my ARC!

𝐁𝐥𝐮𝐫𝐛📝:
Betsy Martin is a celebrity chef and host to a hit tv baking competition Bake Week that takes place in her gothic estate. Six contestants were invited to prove their culinary excellence. But things go awry, and somebody ends up dead.

𝐑𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5. This book started off really strong. The prologue had me so intrigued! But it definitely felt more of a mystery than a thriller. Some say it would be a cozy mystery, which isn’t a problem for some. I guess I just expected more thrill since there’s a dead body involved. I’m not the most fluent in baking, so alot of the baking methods took over and got a little too much for me at times. But i really liked how the author developed the characters well given that there were multiple POVs, and i felt like I was literally watching a baking competition. This would definitely translate into a good show, which i found out was already in the works by Hulu! It concluded nicely and i liked how it all wrapped up. Give this a go if you like cozy mysteries!

𝙍𝙚𝙖𝙙 𝙞𝙛 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙡𝙞𝙠𝙚: 𝘍𝘰𝘰𝘥 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘱𝘦𝘵𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴, 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘎𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘵 𝘉𝘳𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘴𝘩 𝘉𝘢𝘬𝘦 𝘖𝘧𝘧, 𝘖𝘯𝘭𝘺 𝘔𝘶𝘳𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘐𝘯 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘉𝘶𝘪𝘭𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨, 𝘣𝘢𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨, 𝘤𝘰𝘻𝘺 𝘮𝘺𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘴

Six contestants gather at Grafton Manor for a once in lifetime opportunity to participate in the 10th season of Bake Week. Unfortunately sabotage and murder is a afoot. Jessa Maxwell combines the joys of televised baking shows with elements of Agatha Christie and Clue for this cozy mystery. The story is told from 7 points of view: the 6 contestants and the host Betsy Martin. When things start happening on set which eventually leads to one of the contestants speared on the top of the tent, tensions rise and suddenly everyone is a suspect.

I adored the story concept. I really liked how Maxwell included a sort of dossier of each contestant at the beginning. This helps introduce readers to the cast of characters, especially with the rotation in point of view. As someone who struggles with alternating POVs, this helped me quite a bit in keeping everyone straight. I also enjoyed the writing. The Golden Spoon is a short, quick read and solidly fits in the cozy mystery genre. It's a fun little jaunt with a full cast of characters. Unfortunately, there isn't a lot of interaction between the characters until about halfway through the book. I would have liked if the plot started at a later point of the story so that we saw the characters in relation to each other.

Overall, a pretty solid read. This is definitely a book I believe my cozy mystery readers will enjoy.

This book gave me a little "Great British Baking Show" vibes with a lot of thrillery goodness. There are quite a few characters to keep track of but you can definitely get acquainted. Super loved this book!

I love The Great British Bake Off, it's a soothing show full of delicious baked treats and friendly competition. This book is a twist on that, taking place in America and showing the darker side behind the scenes. The story rotates points of view among the contestants and the longtime host as they discover sabotage, illicit affairs, and maybe a murder.

The story was interesting and I enjoyed learning the secrets each person had. The food also sounded good and made me hungry for a nice slice of cake. Having multiple main characters helped the pacing keep moving and it was a quick read.

I had hoped there might be a bit more suspense in this, but it's more a mystery than a thriller. The ending was pretty nice and I liked getting the closure of the epilogue.

I voluntarily read and reviewed this book. All opinions are my own. Thank you to Atria Books and NetGalley for the copy