This is a charming debut mystery with a fun theme of a soul food restaurant. I enjoyed the references to the food , the interesting characters and the well crafted sleuth. The author has well established all the perfect cozy elements for a successful debut cozy. Foodies and non foodies alike will enjoy this new series. Well done to the author.
Thank you to Net Galley and the publisher for the opportunity. My review opinions are my own

Savvy Summers and the Sweet Potato Crimes is a delightful debut culinary cozy mystery by Sandra Jackson-Opoku. I was lucky enough to listen to this as an audiobook, and narrator Karen Chilton does a fabulous job bringing this sassy story and characters to life.

Savvy Summers is the proprietor of Essie’s soul food café on the south side of Chicago. Life is going relatively smoothly for Savvy until Grandy Jaspers, the 75-year-old neighborhood womanizer, drops dead in her cafe after eating her sweet potato pie.

While police deem Grandy’s death an accident, Savvy quickly finds herself and her beloved café in the middle of a lot of bad press. She also has an unscrupulous commercial realtor breathing down her neck, adding much unneeded stress.

Savvy is determined to clear her name and reveal the true murderer, so she and her hilarious assistant manager, Penny Lopés, dive into sleuthing. And then there’s Savvy’s somewhat charming police sergeant ex-husband suddenly back in the picture.

This is a wild ride of a story that I so enjoyed – I listened to it in one day! The story has such a strong, authentic voice that immediately captured my attention and dropped me right into Savvy’s cafe. The plot takes place at the start of late summer/early fall, and goes through Christmas and into a little later in the winter. I thought this was such a creative and unusual way for a cozy mystery to tell a story, and this choice added to the realness of the characters and story.

The characters are well developed and each unique. Savvy and Penny, while so different from each other, were my favorite. I love strong, independent female leads, and these both had great senses of humor.

I had a slight guess as to the true culprit, but I didn’t have any guesses as to how it would unfold. The ending is dramatic and page-turning.

I do hope we can travel through the pages of a book to Chicago soon and get more stories featuring Savvy and her friends. This was a lot of fun.

I really had to work to get into this novel. The beginning felt like a high fantasy info dump. I had a hard time grasping the collective cast of characters and all of the food terms on top of that made it feel heavy for no reason. That being said, the story progressed nicely and I liked how the mystery was eventually solved.

Thank you St Martin's Press for the e-ARC!

This was an intriguing story. I liked Savvy Summers as our main character. She's witty, and the humor in this book was fantastic. The cast of side characters was great, too. There was a nice mix pf personalities and backgrounds.
I really liked that we got character backstories. Learning more about Savvy's and Penny's (Savvy's partner in crime - well, sleuthing) pasts made me care about them more. I loved the imagery surrounding the food, too. It all sounded so good and Savvy deserved more business!
I didn't particularly love the subject matter of this cozy mystery. Death by viagra isn't exactly what I think of when I think "cozy mystery." The whodunit was sort of a letdown, too, since the character wasn't super prominent and came sort of out of nowhere.
I love amateur sleuth stories, but I feel like this one was a little far fetched for that trope. Savvy driving around the city enticing possible suspects to talk to her and tell her - this person they barely know - about their private lives didn't seem believable to me. But this is a work of fiction and was mildly entertaining, so it doesn't have to be 100% believable.
Overall, decent read. I liked the characters, not so much the crime. If you like ridiculous cozy mysteries, you may enjoy this one.

Jackson-Opoku writes from the heart. As an educator, she taught creative writing to people of all ages. Known for her deeply researched literary fiction, she has won many prizes, including a National Endowment for the Arts Fiction Fellowship. This cozy culinary mystery is the first book in a series set in Chicago. I admire the author's commitment to giving her characters an authentic voice. Using the vernacular and showing how the language "code switches" within a scene, the reader is immersed in a world grounded in reality. Jackson-Opoku is a second-generation part of the Great Migration that took place in the early 20th century. This book honors her family, especially her great aunt and grandmother, who inspired Essie and her epigrams. Essie's sayings and the mouth-watering recipes are included, with both the original sweet potato pie and a vegetarian alternative provided.

Told from the perspective of Savvy Summers, the owner of Essie's Soul Food Cafe, we first meet Savvy as she is catering a 50th-anniversary party. This event introduces the cast of characters, including the soon-to-be victim. When customers start to avoid her business after the victim dies at the cafe, Savvy takes charge to find the perpetrator. Savvy and her assistant manager, Penny Lopez, are occasionally blocked by Savvy's ex-husband, Fanon Franklin, a police sergeant. His backstory of working to end racial discrimination within the police department helps the reader better understand the lives of Black community in a city that still has a reputation for racial unrest and significant racial disparities.

This thoughtful mystery, in which the author plays fair with the reader, offers a fast-paced story highlighted by the banter among many of the characters. I enjoy reading about strong female figures, and Jackson-Opoku gives us many to choose from. Book 2 is already being created, and I look forward to reading more about Savvy and her crew. Recommended for book clubs and for young adults to all adults who enjoy a good recipe and a good mystery.

Full disclosure: I received this ARC from netgalley and Minotaur books in exchange for an unbiased review.

I don't typically read cozy mysteries, but this was really cute. Might have a new genre to look into. I was transported back to my childhood with all of the saying from her aunt Essie. I did figure it out early but I felt like the intention was the journey not the solution. I would definitely read another book by this author.

It took me a little while to get through this book. Some of it was the language, but it was mostly because of the main character speaking directly t o the reader. Almost as if the reader wasn't cleaver enough to pick up on what the main character was saying. Over all, it was a decent book.

Thank you for a copy of this ARC!

This was such a cozy mystery that I loved. This author did such a great job and I highly recommend for the fall. Excited to see what else they come out with in the future.

This was a fun little cozy mystery. Savvy Summers is not just the town’s best chef, she is also a part-time PI in this cozy mystery. When one man ends up dead, Savvy is on the case. This is for those who like a little mystery in a lighter tone. I love the themes that have been interwoven in the story and even did side research on a few things mentioned. It didn’t go too in depth on the characters, which I normally prefer, but it was an enjoyable read nonetheless. Overall, I enjoyed the story and would recommend.

The premise and the author drew me to Asylum Hotel. I loved Juliet Blackwell’s paranormal cozy mysteries, so I had high hopes for Asylum Hotel. I liked the abandoned hotel with its fascinating history along with the rumors that it is haunted by a ghost and there is a curse. The author did a wonderful job at creating the spooky atmosphere (I wanted to start with the positive). The paranormal aspect was a letdown. There is speculation as well as innuendo, but that is it. I wanted a scary ghost or two wreaking havoc at the hotel. We got a detailed history of the hotel along with the people who stayed there (a little too much detail). The characters lacked depth. In addition, there were so many characters that it was a challenge to keep track of them (a spreadsheet would have been helpful). I did not understand why Aubrey felt the need to investigate the death of her one-night stand (she knew the man less than twelve hours). The reveal came out of the blue (Sherlock Holmes would have been baffled by this one). The pacing was slow and there were too many distracting subplots. There were items that had vague mentions and then they were never brought up again (they were totally unnecessary). Asylum Hotel is a messy story which is not what I expected from Juliet Blackwell.

Savvy Summers’ soul food cafe has always done great business, that is, until a customer drops dead shortly after eating a slice of her sweet potato pie. The cause is declared to be an accident but Savvy’s not so sure. With business pretty much non-existent now thanks to rumours about her pies, and the police seemingly uninterested in pursuing it further, she and Penny, her employee, best friend and sidekick, decide to do a little sleuthing of their own with a little help from Fanon, Savvy’s ex-husband and police sargeant. So what could go wrong? Well, as it turns out, plenty.

Savvy Summers and the Sweet Potato Crimes is a charming and thoroughly enjoyable cozy debut mystery by Sandra Jackson-Opoku and much of that is down to the character of Savvy, smart, sassy, resilient, and always with an appropriate quote from her Aunt Essie for every occasion. The mystery is also very interesting with plenty of suspects, twists and turns and red herrings to satisfy any cozies reader. And, for the cooks out there, many of the recipes from Savvy’s cafe are included. I’m not sure if this is the start of a new series but I really hope so because I look forward to more mysteries for Savvy and friends to solve in the future.

I received an eARC of this book from Netgalley and St. Martin’s Press in exchange for an honest review

I enjoyed going to visit Savvy Summers and Essie's Soul Food Cafe. I appreciated the fact that the characters were closer to my age, it made the entire story feel more relevant to me. I get tired of reading about 20 somethings solving crimes.

I loved Savvy's dogged determination to find out what and who actually killed the characters, her friend Penny made me chuckle. I found myself thinking about the story when I wasn't reading it and that, to me, is the sign of a good story.

I would like to thank Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for the opportunity to read and give my unbiased review of this story.

Thank you NetGalley for this arc!!

Savvy Summers and the Sweet Potato Crimes by Sandra Jackson Opoku is a delightful and witty mystery brimming with charm. Savvy is a smart, engaging heroine, and the story blends humor, heart, and intrigue perfectly. With its vibrant setting and mouthwatering food references, this cozy mystery is as satisfying as a slice of sweet potato pie.

In a little family owned restaurant owned by Savvy Summers on the south side of Chicago, a celebration is taking place for a 50th anniversary. The celebrants are Grandy and Matilda and all their friends and family are enjoying the party filled with laughter and Savvy's sweet potato pie. But then, there is a revelation by Matilda who storms out of the restaurant leaving the party goers in shock and Grandy with no place to go. When he shows up the following morning and takes his regular seat at booth #2, he's not well and Savvy is concerned. And just like that, he lands face down in his sweet potato pie, DEAD!One thing leads to another and the police rule it a natural death... end of story, except Savvy and her co-worker don't believe it's that simple. Grandy was a known womanizer and even at aged 75, he was mixed up in a relationship with a 20-something woman who easily could have been his granddaughter! Could Matilda or any one of their children done something to stop his lifetime of cheating? And for a minute, Savvy is a person of interest because the last thing he was doing was eating her sweet potato pie. Was he poisoned? This is what leads to Savvy's usually busy shop being close to dead too! When another of Savvy's regulars drops dead after being around her pies, this is the last straw and she wants answers! While the police drag their feet, she and Penny start nosing around and find out way more than they ever thought they would. The two men were killed with an overdose of Viagra! Now it's getting interesting.
There are some other interesting threads that continue throughout the book-- her ex-husband starts coming back around, a sleazy real estate broker is sniffing around trying to get her to sell her shop, Grandy's latest mistress is pregnant. All the while, Savvy is "listening" to her late Aunt Essie, the original shop owner, for her wisdom to help answer all of these mysteries.
This is a very fun story though it did take me a bit to get invested into this book. It wasn't exactly a slow beginning, but it didn't grab me right away. I did like the characters, and there are a lot of them. The colloquial Black English was user friendly and there were quite a few references to old tv shows, movies, music and screen stars. It was clever inclusion. Penny is a trip. I'd say she was my favorite character of the bunch. While it takes a bit for the mystery to get solved, there are a lot of red herrings along the way as the team rules out suspects, but after all this is Savvy's reputation and her sweet potato pie on the line! The author shares many of Aunt Essie's fun philosophical sayings throughout the story and lists them all in the back of the book along with some recipes.
Thank you to Netgalley, the author and publisher for the privilege of reviewing a pre-publishing ARC! All opinions are my own.

Not for me. The opening scene was a disaster and not in a good way. In my opinion. Tons of characters tons happening, not quite sure what was happening, again not in a good way.
Of course, like any cozy, the premise seemed very cute, but maybe this writer needs to polish her work a little bit. Sorry 😞

Savvy Summers is the owner of Essie's Cafe where her specialty is sweet potato pie. It's in southern Chicago and well known and loved by all of the locals. Then 75 year old Grandy dies in the the cafe after having some pie. Savvy is first accused of killing him with the pie, but later she is cleared when the police deem that he died of a heart attack. The cafe is losing business though, and there is a proprietor who is trying to buy the property from Savvy.
This is the first "cozy mystery" that I have read, and although it was fun at times, it wasn't my cup of tea. There were a lot of characters to keep track of and I found it longer than it needed to be.
I would like to add that I enjoyed the way Sandra Jackson-Opoku described things. I could picture the places and taste the food!!
Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the ARC in return for my honest opinion.

I really enjoyed this fun cozy mystery! Savvy Summers is a sassy cafe owner turned amateur sleuth in Sandra Jackson-Opoku´s latest book. What a fun read this was with all the colorful characters and southern charm. This book was a great mix of mystery and comedy. Savvy´s side kicks Penny her assistant manager and Fannon her policemen ex-husband add even more humor. Savvy finds herself in the middle of a murder investigation when one of her customers ends up dying face down in her famous sweet potato pie. We follow Savvy as she figures out the cause of death and narrows down her list of suspects. The descriptions of these characters and all the colorful phrases Savvy uses really make this book come to life! I hope this is the first of many more Savvy mysteries to come. I also enjoyed all the recipes at the end because this book does make you crave all that Southern cooking!

3.5 stars.

Savvy opened Essie’s soul food café several years ago, never expecting her fan-favorite sweet potato pie to become the center of a murder investigation. When Grandy drops dead at table two, Savvy has more to worry about than her reputation for fine soul food. The police soon deem Grandy’s death an accident, but Savvy’s deep in the midst of bad press and desperate to clear her name and keep her café afloat, so she and her assistant manager, Penny, take up the case to find out who really killed Grandy.

SAVVY SUMMERS AND THE SWEET POTATO CRIMES is a debut cozy mystery set in the Chicago South Side. The central setting is within Essie’s soul food café and Savvy is the narrator of this novel. Savvy is bright, kind, and inquisitive. She makes the best soul food in this part of town and is proud of her café. There’s a lot of food preparation discussions that left my mouth watering. I enjoyed that the end of the audiobook contained recipes that were discussed throughout the novel – a lovely touch!

The plot is that of a murder mystery with lots of sleuthing on Savvy’s behalf with the help of her assistant manager, Penny. I enjoyed seeing how Savvy went about clearing her business’ name and getting to the bottom of the whodunnit. I was certainly surprised by the reveal, as was Savvy. There’s a lot of characters mentioned within these pages, leaving me to feel as though I couldn’t quite place who was who and how they connected to others. This may be due to lack of attentiveness or the simple downside of the audiobook format. Regardless, a great debut!

I would like to thank Netgalley and the publisher, Minotaur Books, for the opportunity to read this advanced digital copy in exchange for an honest review! All opinions expressed are my own.

Jackson-Opoku has introduced us to a wonderful new character in this debut mystery (teased as Savvy Summers #1). Savvy is the owner of a soul food cafe, Essie's, on the southside of Chicago. This cozy mystery all starts at Essie's when Grady Jasper falls over dead at table 2. Everything for Savvy and her cafe goes downhill from there. Savvy and her assistant, Penny, do their investigating to try to determine who killed Grady.

There are a lot of characters. At times I was a bit confused as to who they were and how they were connected. I almost needed to write down the names to keep track. It didn't really distract me from the story though.

Savvy is a fun new character. I look forward to reading more about her adventures at Essie's.

2.5 rounded up! Ugh, I feel bad saying this because I love cozy mysteries, but this was not for me. I felt like the plot was all over the place. I feel like cozy mysteries are simpler and they guide you to what happened, but this one had no real connections.

I did enjoy that the setting was the south side of Chicago and the food sounded delicious! Again, this is criminal while being pregnant. This might also have been a me problem and not a book problem.

Thank you to the publisher for the gifted copy (opinions are my own).