70% Dark Intentions

Loved reading this book and series. Amber Royer is a great writer. If you haven't read this series yet I highly recommend it.

Who doesn't love everything chocolate? The bean to bar mystery has great characters. It takes place in Galveston's historic strand which is a favorite place to visit for me since I grew up an hour away from it. Felicity, a recent widow, is struggling to move on. This time she finds a body right outside her shop. This puts Logan, whom she is interested in and her together to solve the mystery. Well plotted and moves along smoothly. Thanks #netgalley and #BooksGoSocial for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Felicity Koerber is a thirty-six year old widow and a bean-to-bar chocolate maker. She recently opened Greetings and Felicitations along the Strand in sunny Galveston, Texas. By chance, she’s had to add amateur sleuth to her skills, and if you ask me, she’s a natural at investigating.

This cozy mystery touches on the seedier side of life, and struggles with drugs, smuggling, animal poaching, and, of course, murder. All of which make headline news every week. Author Royer really knows how to tweek a plot into an intriguing cozy mystery.

For readers who enjoy pets, there’s Felicity’s sweet bunny, Knightly; Clive, the walking octopus; a close encounter with a young tiger; and some baby sea turtles! Logan, the pilot, becomes closer to Felicity, which I was hoping for. #TeamLogan. The author drops some cool clues as brain teasers for readers to ponder who the culprits really are. The story is full of great surprises! Y’all enjoy!

I honestly reviewed a digital arc provided by NetGalley and BookGoSocial (Golden Tip Press). All opinions are my own. Thank you.

Through NetGalley, I received a free copy of 70% DARK INTENTIONS (Book 2 of the Bean to Bar mysteries) by Amber Royer in exchange for an honest review. Felicity Koerber is happy her bean to bar chocolate shop is doing well. However, Felicity wishes it wasn’t due, in large part, to gruesome gawkers. Though Felicity is coping a bit better with the changes in her life, she doesn’t think she’s quite ready to enter a new relationship. When there’s another murder on the premises and when one of her employees disappears at the same time, Felicity finds herself, once again, in frequent contact with her high school crush, who is her contact with the murder investigation, and with her new potential love interest, who volunteers to help her find and exonerate her missing employee. In order to discover what’s going on, Felicity will have to enter the worlds of animal poaching and marine activism as well as the pop-up restaurant food scene. Meanwhile, Felicity is learning how to tend her missing employee’s clever little octopus and how to be a supportive matron of honor.

I liked both this book and the first in the series. I recommend both books to fans of cozy mysteries featuring murder, small business, chocolate, employee drama, coping with grief and change, and island life.

#70DarkIntentions #NetGalley

Craft chocolate maker Felicity Koerber gets involved in another mystery when when of her employees goes missing. Was he kidnapped? Or did he murder the man found on Felicity's shop's doorstep?
Not having read Felicity's first adventure, I had no problem following the storyline and who the main characters were. I will go back and read the first book for the fun of it. I loved the feel of the plot with it's small town feel, the descriptiveness of the characters and their surroundings.
Totally recommend for lovers of cozies. Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher and the author for the digital ARC of this book. All opinions are my own. This review can also be found on my Goodreads page.

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70% Dark Intentions is a great book written by Amber Royer which is the second in the series following Felicity on her adventures. In the second book of the series, there are more murders and so Felicity and Logan both investigate the case together once again as well as becoming a partnership with Greetings and Felicitations. The plot is full of twists and turns which will just make you continue reading for hours. This has been one of the best murder mystery romance novels I have read this year and I really felt like I could relate to the romance part of this book.

I love this book for many reasons. Firstly, there is clearly Felicity and her business. It is great hearing how Felicities business is continually growing and becoming more popular and it was also exciting to see her and logan enter a partnership. It was also good seeing Felicity starting to overcome her grief from her husband's death and now considering entering a new relationship. Secondly, I also loved the murder mystery aspect of the book as it was full of surprises and always led to dead ends, which added to the book's excitement. The murder mystery element of this text has really been well thought out. Also, the combination of dramatic devices, cliffhangers, and hooks has been a great feature of this book, keeping me awake late at night reading this excellent book.

There is not really anything I have disliked in this book which is good. If anything, I prefer this book to the last book as the writer gets to the story quicker and it seems much less pointless dialogue. It really has been a pleasure and so exciting to be part of this story once again. I love the characters and the plot; everything seems to be so well thought out. I just really look forward to the next book of the series where I really hope Felicity and Logan enter a relationship.

Altogether, I have to give this book 5 stars as it is an outstanding book with a very well thought out plot and great well thought out characters. What makes this book so good is not just the creativity of the plot and characters but also how the book has been structured to interest the reader through a variety of linguistic devices. I must give both NetGalley and BooksGoSocial an extremely enormous thank you for providing me with an advanced reader copy of the second book in the series in return for an honest book review. I have not regretted reading this book and really do look forward to the next book, thank you!

The second book in a series set in Galveston and focusing on a recent widow who has opened a chocolate shop. She seems to become involved in the investigation of murders, while trying to avoid falling for the ex-cop/pilot who acts as her protector. The continuing characters are unique, though sometimes the main character's friends seem to be interchangeable and hard to keep track of. I liked the addition of the Kemp's Ridley sea turtle story, as it lends authenticity to the locale. The plot seemed to meander a bit too much and could have been tightened up a bit. Too many characters made it difficult to follow at times.

Felicity Koerber returns in the second title of the bean to bar mystery series, and you’re in for a treat!
Felicity is a widow and tries hard to make a success for her shop Greetings and Felicitations which deals in all things chocolate. The problem is she has a penchant for finding dead bodies and amateur sleuthing which leads to various escapades outside of her chocolate business.
In this instalment Felicity finds a dead body outside her shop, and a member of staff is missing and he is also the chief suspect of the murder,
Amber Royer writes in a straightforward way leading you to read page after page when you should really be doing something else! The subject matter involves two of my favourite subjects chocolate and murder mystery so the book is a definite winner for me.
The characters are all amiable in their own way and have foibles and quirks just like all of us do , they are well rounded and have depth and all gel together well.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book and it was an effortless read , and I’m looking forward to the next in the series .
Highly recommended!

I very much enjoyed this book, though it left me craving chocolate!

Felicity Koerber is happy things are returning to normal after a murder in her chocolate shop, Greetings and Felicitations. She is excited because she has a new sorting machine that will cut down on time spent processing her beans. Unfortunately, after the machine arrives and she returns to her shop, there is a dead man sitting in front of it and he has clearly been murdered. Feeling a sense of deja vu, not to mention that her new clerk is now missing, Felicity once again must solve the murder and find her missing assistant.

This book has a great cast of characters. Felicity, the protagonist, is a take no prisoners, no BS kind of gal who really, truly just wants to make high quality chocolate bars and share them with the world. Logan, her bodyguard from the previous novel, makes a charming romantic interest. I appreciate there is no stupid love triangle in this book like some other cozies (I hate those). Felicity's friends and colleagues are also fun to discover.

I was very pleased to see the author is already working on a third installment. Sign me up for a copy. This is an interesting standout in terms of the culinary cozies and who doesn't enjoy reading about chocolate?

Chocolate maker Felicity Koerber is hoping that business at Greetings and Felicitations, her bean-to bar shop located on Galveston’s historic Strand will get back to normal. After she solved the murder of one of her assistants, Felicity now has a new assistant, Mateo, who gets along with the shop’s barista turned pastry chef Carmen. Then Felicity finds another body outside her shop and Mateo has vanished. With the help of ex-cop turned pilot Logan, Felicity is determined to find what happened to Mateo, throw a last-minute engagement party for her BFF and fill a huge chocolate order with sabotaged equipment.

This was a fun story with motives linked to animal smuggling, baby sea turtles, and black diamonds hidden within Felicity's sack of Peruvian coffee beans. There's also some animal hijinks involving Clive, Mateo's houdini octopus, an alligator intruder in her aunt's hotel and an endangered tiger. And widow Felicity has to decide whether her broken heart is ready to take a romantic next step with Logan or Patsy's visiting brother Wallace.

I received a digital ARC from Netgalley and BooksGoSocial (Golden Tip Press) with no requirements for a review. I voluntarily read this book and provided this review.

This is the second book in the series but my first. I was able to enjoy the book as a standalone mystery. The characters are quirky and fun. The mystery has many layers and surprises. I will go back and read the first book and future books in the series.

All thoughts and opinions are my own, and in no way have I been influenced by anyone.

I found this to be a superb read, which kept me guessing and which kept me on the edge of my seat throughout. Very good novelist.

I enjoyed the second installment in this series as it's fast paced and compelling.
I was glad to catch up with the characters, enjoyed the descriptions of the shop and the chocolate.
The mystery is full of twists and turns, it kept me guessing.
Even if it can be read as a stand alone it's better to read the series in order
Recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine

A sweet, but only 30%, cozy mystery. :) Lots of characters to pull together and yet the author did a great job of not getting us confused. This is the second in a series and did refer to a couple of people from the previous book but not enough to confuse you with this particular mystery. The main character owns a chocolate shop so it was fun to learn a little about the processing while trying to figure out the who-dun-it.

I appreciate the publisher allowing me to read this book. I really enjoyed reading it the plot was interesting and the characters made me want to know more about them. I highly recommend.