Savvy Summers runs a soul food cafe in the Southside of Chicago. When one of her more cantankerous clients drops dead in the cafe, rumors fly that he was killed by Savvy's sweet potato pie. Savvy and her assistant Penny start asking questions to try to clear Savvy's name - and bring back customers so she can keep the cafe open.

Her cafe is named after her great aunt Essie who raised Savvy and taught her how to cook. We learn more about Aunt Essie through Savvy's internal thoughts and memories. I loved that the cafe was Savvy's second career after being an educator. She has deep ties to the community and her ex-husband is a police officer which gives her access to information that the typical cozy mystery protagonist doesn't realistically have.

There is a great group of family and friends and those supporting characters have enough quirks to keep a series interesting for a long time. I really hope there is a second installment soon. Please keep Karen Chilton as the narrator. She was fantastic.

Thank you St. Martin's Press | Minotaur Books and NetGalley for the advance reader copy. Thank you MacMillan Audio for Minotaur and Libro.FM for the advance listener copy.

This book made my stomach grown and kept me hungry for more.

Super cozy vibes (though some cursing, which is a little unusual for a cozy, but didn't bother me at all).

I'm in LOVE with this book and Savvy Summers. Essie's Soul Food Cafe is giving me so many cravings while reading this book. I love Savvy's wit and wisdom. The mystery had a strong ending. Slight warning for a bit of cursing and more innuendo than your average cozy (although this didn't impact my enjoyment at all!).

Thank you to Net Galley for allowing me to read this ARC in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.

I will be recommending this book in future videos!

This was such a fun, cozy mystery with lots of heart. It’s quirky but not too over the top, and the food details made me so hungry while reading. I loved the narration! It kept the story lively and charming and definitely made the humor pop. I giggled at so many parts throughout the book.

I wanted so badly to love this book. The description reminded me of Glory Be and Ms. Marple, but the execution was lacking. The story was convoluted, difficult to believe, and difficult to get into. It was hard to care about Savvy and her overinvolved ex-husband. There were some funny moments, but overall, it didn't do much for me.

I really enjoyed this book (and the audiobook was great too -- the narrator was so smooth and comforting to listen to). It was the perfect cozy mystery. I didn't fully know going through who the perp was going to be until the reveal and it was great to go through it with our amateur sleuth Savvy. Definitely a good read for fall!

An interesting cozy mystery but too many characters to follow. I liked the restaurant part of the mystery and I liked the main character.

Savvy or Safflower is just a sweet widow, doing good for the community through food, love, and constant remembrance of Aunt Essie. People are dying left and right, while the community is not trusting Savvy's food, so she has to get to the bottom of it. This is an easy read that you don't want to put down. It's very entertaining as Savvy has missteps and bloopers along the way.

⭐⭐⭐.75 | 3.75 stars rounded up

This was a really engaging murder mystery. It took me a moment to get into the story as the start included SO many characters, but once I was familiar with everyone, I was sucked in. Savvy is witty, confident, determined, and kind while still being completely human. I loved the mystery aspect and found myself falling in love with Savvy's community. The twist isn't the *most* shocking of all time, but I still really enjoyed this. This novel sets up future Savvy Summers novels really well, so I hope more follow!

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin's Press | Minotaur Books for eARC in exchange for my honest thoughts and opinions.

The cozy mystery is my favorite genre. I like engaging mysteries and fascinating characters. I will read more books by this author.

Special thanks to the author & @minotaur_books for my gifted copy‼️

Essie's soul food café is serving up fresh sweet potato pie with a side of viagra on the South Side of Chicago . . . Why was this book so funny to me? It was giving cozy auntie murder mystery vibes lol I know that’s not a thing but it’s the best way to describe this book.

It’s messy, a little suspenseful, filled with action and hilarious banter you’d hear from an elder in your family. I loved both Savvy and Penny’s character especially Penny she was sassy, had a spending problem and didn’t care who she borrowed money from lol.

When Grandy Jaspers, the 75-year-old neighborhood womanizer and pimp daddy drops dead in the cafe the culprit is somehow Savvy’s delicious pie. To save her cafe’s reputation Savvy and Penny must get to the bottom of Grandy’s “accidental” death to find the real killer. Savvy said what you not gone do is lie on my food or mess with her money. The mystery becomes more intense and the plot thickens when another person dies under similar circumstances as Grandy.

Savvy’s investigation opened up more secrets than she cared to know. Infidelities left and right, secret babies, whose sleeping with who, sparks ignited with an old flame, sugar daddies who can’t give no real sugar, and a shady investor who can’t take no for an answer.

Overall, I enjoyed reading this one and all of Savvy’s Great-Aunt Essie's Epithets and recipes the author included at the end of the book. Every character was well-developed, it’s fast-paced and perfect for anyone who loves a cozy mystery that involves food. If you’re a fan of Valerie Burns “Baker Street Mystery” series or Olivia Matthews “Spice Isle Bakery Mysteries” series then you’ll enjoy this book!

Rating: 3.75/5⭐️

Savvy Summers and the Sweet Potato Crimes by Sandra Jackson-Opoku is a lively and flavorful debut mystery set in the heart of Chicago’s South Side. When beloved neighborhood flirt Grandy Jaspers drops dead at table two in Essie’s soul food café, owner Savvy Summers finds herself at the center of a scandal that threatens her business and reputation. With the police brushing off the death as accidental, Savvy alongside her sharp-tongued assistant Penny Lopés launches her own investigation, uncovering secrets, grudges, and a city’s worth of drama baked into every slice of her infamous sweet potato pie. Jackson-Opoku blends cozy mystery charm with rich cultural texture, crafting a heroine who’s as resourceful as she is relatable. The novel’s strength lies in its vibrant setting, witty dialogue, and the dynamic between Savvy and her community. It’s a deliciously entertaining read that balances humor, heart, and suspense, perfect for fans of culinary mysteries with a soulful twist. This was my first but not my last read by this author.

I love a culinary cozy mystery. I liked Savvy, but it the book maybe had too many characters and too many details about everyone's lives.

This was a nice cozy mystery. I thought this would be more like Finlay Donovan. They are similar just Finlay Donovan has more dark humor. Savvy Summers does have humor but more good natured. This is a good read for a cold rainy day.

Savvy Summers and the Sweet Potato Crimes is as sassy and hilarious as the title suggests! So glad to have another great book to add to my cozy mystery library!

There is a special place in my heart for cozy mysteries, and throw in some great food and recipes....I am sold from the beginning to the end. But this book wasn't just great because of the foo, the mystery was highly enjoyable and the antics even more so! This is the best book I have read in the genre this year!

I loved Savvy and all of the characters in this novel. As a reader if you can get pulled into a story just by the antics of the characters, you know you not only have a good book, but a good start to a series that will keep you entertained for years. This is what I found in this story. I just loved everything about it and will be recommending it on high! Can not wait to see if there is a second book!

Savy opens up a soul food cafe in Chicago with sweet potato pie when a costumer drop dead eating her pie.
Acozy mystery with good characters, suspense, fun .
Can Savy solve the murder before she loses her restaurant.
Voluntarily reviewed

Savvy is the owner/chef of a Chicago soul food restaurant. After being accused of killing one of her patrons with a sweet potato pie, she musters up the tenacity to become her own detective and will not stop poking around until she uncovers the culprit. This is funny, adorable, and a great addition to the "female civilian solves the crime" literature. My thanks to the author and NetGalley for a complimentary copy of the book.

4.5 stars

Savvy Summers is the spirited proprietress of her late aunt's soul food cafe, located in Chicago's South Side neighbourhood. She loves most of her clientele dearly although there are a few bad apples that can sometimes test her patience. When one of her long-time regulars drops dead in her cafe mere hours after his wedding anniversary party went off the rails, Savvy has her amateur detective work cut out for her - she needs to get to the bottom of this case before the aspersions cast on her cafe ruin her business', and her famous sweet potato pie's, reputation. A smarmy local politician, a shifty former band manager, a shady real estate investor, a long-suffering wife and a hot young girlfriend are getting all up in Savvy's business in a big way. She soon realises it's going to be up to her, along with her no-nonsense assistant manager and her cop ex-husband, to convince the police that this was no accident but rather a targeted murder, in order to save Savvy's reputation once and for all and bring a killer to justice.

I thought this was a super fun and delightful read; it was well written, story pacing felt steady overall, and the plot immediately drew me in. I really only have a passing familiarity with Ebonics, so I must admit that some of the slang and jargon went a bit over my head, but it was an engaging book nonetheless and I feel like I learned a good bit about Black culture, food, and values, quite specific to the Chicagoland area. I found Savvy and her cohorts to be very appealing characters and I'm looking forward to the possibility of a Savvy Summers mystery series. After all, what better place for cozy mysteries than the setting of a cozy, soul food cafe?

Thanks to NetGalley, author Sandra Jackson-Opoku, and St. Martin's Press for granting me access to a free digital ARC of this book to read and review. All opinions are my own and are provided here voluntarily.

This novel is deeply set in the south Chicago culture of the Black community. The dialogue was hard for me to follow. Savvy is a good amateur sleuth as she pursues the deaths and tries to keep her restaurant alive. There are a number of quirky characters, many of them unlikable. I did not like the sometimes crude and vulgar language. The book is set in a very different culture than I am used to in a cozy mystery.

The plot is a bit different. The police do not think the deaths murder so Savvy is sort of on her own. It was a little difficult to get engaged in the story but the second half of the book moved better than the first half. This novel is just not one I enjoyed but others may.

I received a complimentary egalley of this book from the publisher. Mine is an independent review.

I am a lover of amateur sleuth stories. This year thus far, Savvy Summer and the Sweet Potato Crimes was one of the best that I have read this year.
As I began to read, I was able to envision the character Savvy Summer, the owner of the cafe-- Essie's soul food café. I became wrapped up in her personality, and loving on others with her food.
Penny Lopes was more than Savvy's assistant manager, she was the person that was going to help her solve the case of Grandy's murder, and repair the cafe's reputation. Of course no one, including her detective ex-husband, did not want their help, they did not care. They were determined to

This was definitely and enjoyable read. This was my first time reading Sandra Jackson-Opoku's work; I look forward to reading more. Thank you to the author and NetGalley blessing me with a copy of Savvy Summers and the Sweet Potato Crimes.