Super fun tie with with the Golden Girls! Not the biggest mystery out there but it was like hanging out with some of my Grandma's old friends! Entertaining and fun - all I can ask for in a book!

I will admit right away that I've watched some Golden Girls episodes, enough to know who the characters are but have little of the in-depth knowledge. I thought it was intriguing that an author was chosen to write books based on a popular tv show. I'm a reader much, much more than a show watcher.
I received a copy of the book from the publisher through Net-Galley. It was a quick read for me. I could easily visualize the characters, 'hear their voices' and imagine facial expressions as I read the book. It was like a longer story that a one episode viewing. I liked that idea. The author had the characters down pat. She caught Sophias quips, Blanche's flirty ways, Dorothy's reaction to unexpected trouble and Rose's heart for St. Olaf. The cheesecake recipe was a sweet bonus.
The story itself was just ok. I think it needed a little more explanation as to why Gustave was being so contrary. The actual mystery, well, the wedding details did kind of push it into the background.
I am sure true fans will be happy! I give it a 3.5 rating.

The Golden Girls are the new Scooby-Doo gang with a lot more cheesecake and all the sass.

Picture it: Miami, 19.. something or other. There’s a wedding to plan, videotape dating, and a dead guy who ruined the cheesecake. The horror!

The beloved girls are back with a delightful little cozy mystery that satisfies our craving for a lighthearted read. The jokes were spot-on, making me laugh out loud at times. I was pleasantly surprised by how the author captured the humor, taking me back to memorable moments from seasons past.

The mystery wasn't really much of one. They threw a couple of things to throw you off the path of figuring out what really happened but you really had to think who this person even was. After all was revealed, I sat there with a confused look on my face because this character wasn't mentioned a whole lot. The girls being super sleuths was a lot of fun though.

Though 'Murder by Cheesecake' may not have been my favorite mystery in terms of the reveal and the murderer, it was an entertaining read that made me eager to see what comes next.

this book was okay! Its' synopsis made it sound more of a cute cozy mystery but it really wasnt. It was kind of trying a bit much to fit in those themes but it was just off. I didnt like it too much. it was unfortunate because the idea of the book was good!

Thank you to NetGalley, to the author, and to the publisher for this complimentary ARC in exchange for my honest review!!!

3.5/5

This was pretty cute and the GG details were charming for the first half of the book and then they started to get both repetitive and overlong. This felt like it would have been a very charming short story or novella but as a full length book, it became very plodding after the halfway mark and the ending wasn't particularly satisfying. It didn't do enough to make me want to read 3 more of these.

On the plus side, the Girls were true to their characters, they were written well and on-brand and the actual mystery itself made sense, it just went too long and too far. Overall, a charming and cute read but not a series I would read further.

🍰 Review: Murder by Cheesecake

🍪Rate: 5 Stars (I want to give 10 STARS!!!)

🧁Praise: I cannot believe I found a book that embodies all the things I love about life! Golden Girls, Cozy Mystery, Golden Girls, Golden Girls and my Girls!! (I'm so thankful to the author, Rachel, for taking the leap and writing this first book in the series!)

I immediately applied for this little comedic treasure and I was not disappointed! How can I be?! Rachel did a fabulous if not hands down perfected job of embodying the dialogue from the best TV series of all time!

It's as if Rue, Estelle, Betty, and Bea we're right there next to her inputting their dialogue from the great beyond! In each and every scene I looked forward to every witty outlook from the girls and every mysterious puzzle piece I could connect!

🎙️Characters: The characters were written so beautifully it was as if I was in a Golden Girls themed library surrounded by every aesthetic that was in the TV series! My emotions blended in with the characters emotions and I'm not looking back! I love the scenes especially with Sophia! Rachel the author embodied Sophia's dry sarcasm and her truthful demeanor lol! All hail Queen Blanche!

The sexy siren is always looking on the bright side! Dorothy, the ever loving leader of the group, decides to take a chance and date! This ends up in a dead body later on! (No spoilers!) And our childlike soul Rose is trying to make a beautiful wedding for her niece amidst all this drama if not more!

🍨Extra Details: All in all this mystery series has utterly grabbed my heart! I cannot wait for it to continue until book 1 million! That way in the future I could show my future family members not only the great TV series but the wonderful mystery series that followed and had the legacy live on!

The mystery in the book, without giving away any spoilers, was beyond perfected! I had no idea who it was until the end! And I sat there and shock! Delightful shock! Rachel, your books will always be on my reading list! I look forward to many many more and so should everyone else!

Bravo!! 🥞

This is a fun book for fans of the Golden Girls. I loved to see the ladies’ personalities come through the pages, and enjoyed the read.

Fans of the Golden Girls will appreciate how the book captures the humor and charm of the original series, blending sitcom-style banter with an engaging mystery plot. The story is filled with laugh-out-loud moments, delightful nods to the show’s lore, and some clever twists, making it a perfect read for both cozy mystery enthusiasts and nostalgic fans of the show.

A Golden Girls cozy murder mystery?! SIGN ME UP!

SPOILER-FREE SYNOPSIS:
When Rose volunteers to help her younger cousin plan her wedding in Miami featuring every rambunctious wedding tradition from Rose's hometown of St. Olaf, Dorothy realizes she needs a date for the wedding. Dorothy meets a handsome conversationalist through a VHS dating service, but the date doesn't quite work out in her favor. As Dorothy, Blanche, and Sophia pitch in to help Rose set up the tea-and-fish-themed kickoff wedding event, they discover Dorothy's date in the hotel freezer - face-planted in one of Rose's handmade cheesecakes!! With a murder to investigate and a whole list of wedding events to perfectly plan and execute, the Golden Girls have their plates full!

If you love the Golden Girls, you will absolutely eat this up!!! I felt like I was reading the script of a Golden Girls episode with the added excitement of reading their thoughts (mostly Rose's and Dorothy's) and imagining the Girls out in Miami! The comedic dialogue and the St. Olaf traditions had me giggling constantly and left me with a permanent smile on my face, and the murder mystery component kept me turning the page to find out who the perpetrator was so that Dorothy could clear her name! This was such a fun and silly read, and I can't recommend it enough!

ALSO - including the actual St. Olaf's Kiss Cheesecake recipe at the very end?! CHEF'S KISS 🤌 I definitely have to make it one day! lol

Thank you to @netgalley + @hyperionavebooks for the ARC!

Review: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Genre: cozy murder mystery, cozy mystery, comedy mystery

Yeah, you read that right. At long last, nearly forty human years after the fact, the Golden Girls has its own book series. It's a cozy mystery series of course, with murder and cheesecake all at once. In this first book, Rose has to put together the perfect wedding for her "niece" from St. Olaf, impressing the town elders and the future in-laws at the same time. In the meantime, Dorothy's endless quest for a decent date has led her to a Tom Selleck look-alike and a frozen corpse. Of course, they have to find the killer before they can celebrate with a wedding, and before Dorothy takes the fall for the crime.

Listen: I am overjoyed by this absolute gem of a book. The plot is cute, the vibe is 80's, and the dialog is both hilarious and spot-on. In the first few pages, I worried that there were far too many adjectives and descriptions in this book, but I soon began to appreciate how they made it feel as though I were watching an episode of The Golden Girls. I heard every line as though it were spoken by the cast, and saw every piece of wicker as it was described. I would read a dozen more of these, and I'm going to recommend them to everyone I know.

A note to the publisher, who graciously allowed me an early copy: the ARC I read has a lot of typos. Like, so many. Obviously I'm not judging the finished product on this, but I do hope this isn't it.

Thank you NetGalley for the advanced reader copy of Murder by Cheesecake by Rachel Ekstrom Courage..

Reading this book felt like I was watching an episode of The Golden Girls. I could hear their voices in my head and it made me laugh out loud a bunch of times. I cannot wait to read the second book!

ARC review • pub date 04.15.25

If you know me at all, then you know I am utterly obsessed with the golden girls. They are my comfort and my happy place. If I’m awake, they’re playing on my tv. They have been a part of my life as long as I can remember!

I also have a huge love for mystery books, so when I saw that my two favorite things were put together, I couldn’t request it fast enough! And it absolutely delivered 👏🏻

Dorothy tries out a new video dating service, and ends up connecting with a guy named Henry who seems absolutely perfect for her. At the same time, Rose is planning a St Olafian wedding for her niece at the family’s hotel in Miami. While touring the hotel, they stumble upon a frozen corpse in the freezer- right next to the cheesecake for wedding festivities. But it isn’t just any corpse, it’s Henry! Now the girls are on a race to solve the murder as Dorothy is the #1 suspect.

This book was just what I needed and I loved it so much! I hope there are more books to go along with it in the future!

Thanks so much to NetGalley, Hyperion Avenue / Disney Books for my ARC!

While I haven't watched all of The Golden Girls episodes, I've seen enough to know the characters and I do adore them.
Thank you to NetGalley for letting me read an advanced copy for review.

I'm guessing the plot in this book is not based on an episode, but it certainly reads like a long episode minus a laugh track. I can hear the characters vices as I read their lines and visualize their home with little prompts with making for smooth reading.

I'm not good at solving the " who done it" types of mysteries. I can't spot a real clue from a misdirect unless it's right on the nose. I just wait for the big reveal at the end, for the " bad guy" to explain or characters to fit it all together with the clues were important and for the wrong things I thought were clueless to be ignored. 😅

This books is sweet and focused on love. Love for Rose's love for family, and traditions, as well as new young love and Dorothy trying to find a new love and not letting age get in her way. And of course Blanche always needing to be adored, and Sophia's love for her daughter and friends and not holding back on her quick remarks we love her for.

I recommend this book for people who love the show.

ARC REVIEW
Thank you netgalley for the chance to read this.

As a life long Golden Girls fan i was so excited to read this. It was cute but but it, unfortunately, fell short. Some part read like AI wrote it. Multiple spelling, grammar and format issues made some parts hard to read. The murder seemed like a semi forgotten sub plot in places. It's based more on Rose and honestly, after a while all of the St. Olaf traditions got annoying.

I was so excited to see this title appear as I’m an avid Holden Girls fan and it did not disappoint!

Murder by Cheesecake follows the girls through several capers at once. Rose is exhausting herself and het time in assisting her niece Nettie with her nuptials, all the while ensuring that she follows the strict St Olaf wedding traditions that the elders have stressed must be a part of the wedding. As such, this creates quite the laughs and mishaps as only Rose can have explaining her Norwegian roots. The story couldn’t be complete without cheesecake, so as Rose is preparing the decadent desserts for the wedding and housing them in the hotel’s freezer, she comes across something she will never forget! Dorothy, Sofia, and Blanche to the rescue to help sort everything out and get Rose and Dorothy out of a pickle.

Rachel Ekstrom Courage revived the girls from their respite from the television show, adding in anecdotes and pop culture from the eighties that throws you back into their world of Miami and the capers the girls always found themselves in. It was a wonderful escape that she created which stirred my inner nostalgia for the binging of the Golden Girls episodes. It’s a must read for Golden Girls fans! I look forward to more from the series!

Wow. I loved the Golden Girls, and now, combined with my love of murder mysteries while reading, I felt like I was watching the show. I could hear their voices and see their body language. It kept me hooked and wanting more. It made me feel like I was one of them. I would definitely recommend it! I cannot wait to read the next in the series.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with the ARC of this book.

As a fan of The Golden Girls, I wanted to love this book, but unfortunately, it fell flat. I've seen all of the episodes multiple times, including many when they aired (if I was allowed to stay up and watch).

Even though I could hear their voices as I read, all four women felt off from what they would have been had this happened in the Golden Girls universe. While I appreciate the nods to the 80s, it felt like something was missing. Without giving away too much of the plot, the continuous focus Rose had on sticking with St. Olaf traditions seemed far too forced, especially since in many of the episodes of the show, all four women were quite open to the changes in the world, with a nod to the past. I don't feel like Rose would've felt that following every tradition was so important. It also made the book feel like it didn't move as quickly as it could have because of her internal thoughts about how important these far-fetched (even for St. Olaf) traditions were.

I appreciate the opportunity to read this before its official release and the fact that it was a fun, easy read. It was an excellent palette cleanser between heavier books. This book wouldn't necessarily stop me from trying another Golden Girls-themed cozy mystery; it just wasn't exactly what I hoped for (more mystery, less filler, please).

What a treat to read this Golden Girls cozy mystery! Over the years, there have been numerous rumors circulating regarding a potential reboot of the show with a new cast and possibly new characters. As an avid fan of the TV series, I approached this novel with cautious optimism. However, I am pleased to report that this novel successfully captures the essence of the beloved show and where the ‘reboot’ should live on!

As RuPaul Charles would say…. bring back my girls.

Murder by Cheesecake is structured in a manner reminiscent of a two-part episode of The Golden Girls. Rose is planning a last-minute wedding for a family member, while Dorothy explores a new VHS-dating service. However, the plot takes a dramatic turn when a dead body is discovered at the wedding venue, leading the police to focus in on their prime suspect - Dorothy.

The novel skillfully combines the humor and charm of The Golden Girls with the suspense of an episode of Murder She Wrote. The dialogue is reminiscent of the actresses' performances, and the characters' actions and conversations feel authentic to the original series. I even found self reading the dialogue in the cast’s voices, sometimes even pausing for the audience to laugh! One minor inconsistency that I noticed was Sophia's use of a cane. While this may have been explained in the beginning of the book, I skimmed back through trying to find an explanation but was unable to discern the reasoning behind that choice for the character.

I can’t wait for the rest of the world to get their hands on this book and I eagerly anticipate the release of the remaining novels in this series, which truly captures the magic of our beloved Golden Girls!!

I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Net Galley and Hyperion Avenue for providing me with an advanced copy of this book.

When I saw this book advertised I was so excited, TheGolden Girls and cozy mystery.Two of my favorite things. Sadly much like putting skittles on pizza it just didn’t work for me.
The author did a great job capturing the unique tenor and tone of each character. At times I could each of the actresses’ voices while reading the dialogue. The cute and quirky things that made a 30min episode work just felt like too much for a 300+ page book. The mystery was lackluster and felt a like an afterthought in all the St Olaf chaos.
This book had some great moments but I just didn’t love it.

This book is exactly what you'd think it would be. I worried I might forget which Golden Girl was who, but the ladies came back to me pretty quickly as the writing nails the relationship dynamics and personality of each Golden Girl. Fans of cozy mysteries and the Golden Girls will enjoy this very much. I think this book would make for a good palette cleanser between more serious or heavy reads. Thanks to NetGalley for an early copy.

Special thanks to NetGalley for providing me with an eARC of this title.

Oh boy did I go in wanting to love this book. Cheesecake in hand (on plate?) I was delighted to dive back into the world of Dorothy, Blanche, Rose and Sophia. Unfortunately, Rachel Ekstrom Courage never seemed to peg the voices of the girls and while her writing was top notch, something was lost in the translation from award winning sitcom to cozy mystery. I'm sure this book will be absolutely delightful for Golden Girls fans, but it just didn't strike the right note for me. Please blame the reader and not the author.