Adding to the brewing trouble, Candy, Max’s friend, is acting suspicious… Secrets from her past are fermenting under the surface, and Max must uncover the truth to prove her friend’s innocence. To make matters worse, Jake’s snooty ex-fiancée shows up in town for an art gallery opening, and she’ll be nothing but a barrel of trouble for Max.
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MY REVIEW
Being of Swiss-German extraction, I appreciate both the authors (and Max's) attention to detail about Oktoberfest. Seeing it spelled 'Octoberfest' in another local brewpub must have seemed like fingernails on a blackboard to Max!
But Max is tough. Her first cook was found murdered in the brewing area a day or two before the official grand opening (in a previous book). That would have made many an entrepreneur think twice about starting a business at that time. But Max, being the quintessential 'woman in a man's job' knows that 'good girls do become brewmeisters'!
When Max goes with her besties to preview the oompah band the weekend before the pub's Oktoberfest celebration, one of the band members thinks he recognizes Candy, who is adamant that they have never met ... and she cannot wait to get out of there. Hmmm...curious indeed.
then Max receives a call to meet from another band member, which she assumes is to smooth the way between Max's friend and his own. When they (Max, Jake and tag-along Candy) get to the meeting place, the band member is dead...and not from natural causes.
As it turns out, Candy has a 'professional' past, and I'm not talking the world's oldest profession by any means, but one nearly as shocking for this grandmotherly baker.
To top it all off, Jake's ex-fiancee is in town buying a painting at the gallery just across the street from Max's pub! (Wouldn't you just know it.) She's wealthy (she has to be to be buying this particular painting), a model and snooty as all get out. She 'congratulates Max on opening her 'little pub', but declines a drink because she only drinks champagne.
I'd say Joyce Tremel crafts her stories as carefully as Max O'Hara crafts her beers! The color (of the beer and the historical city) look really good. The balance (of the taste of the beer and the elements of the story) is wonderful and Max shares her beer like Joyce shares her story - with everybody! And that's very good news for us!
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Her debut mystery, To Brew Or Not To Brew
was nominated for the 2015 Reviewers’ Choice award for Best Amateur Sleuth by RT Book Reviews. The second book in the series, Tangled Up In Brew
was released in October 2016 and chosen as a “Top Pick” by RT Book Reviews. It was the winner of the 2016 Reviewers’ Choice Award for Best Amateur Sleuth. It was also named one of the Best Books of 2016 by Kings River Life Magazine.
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GIVEAWAY!!!
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Click on the banner above to go to the tour page, where you will find links to more reviews of A Room with a Brew by Joyce Tremel, as well as guest posts by and interviews with the author! You can also find out how to become a blog host for future book tours while you are there!
(Disclosure: I received a copy of this book from the author and publishers via Great Escapes Virtual Book tours in exchange for my honest review.)
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