Jules Capshaw, owner of Ashland’s bakery, Torte, has found herself involved in yet another murder. As the Shakespeare Festival gets ready to open with Antony and Cleopatra, Lance finds himself at odds with the show’s lead. Before the first show even has a chance to begin, murder takes the lead and Lance is the prime suspect. With friendship on the line, Jules takes it into her own hands to question everything.
In a series that is full of interesting and likable characters, Lance still manages to stand out. He is absolutely one of the best parts of each book and to have a book that is centered on him? It’s an automatic winner. All of Ellie Alexander’s books are fun and engaging, but this one is my favorite so far. From the beginning of the story, I cared about what was going to happen. I love the way that these books build the world and characters. The work of each book before that helped me to have such a strong reaction to this one. It is difficult to watch such a pivotal and loveable character become vilified. Reading as Lance became more paranoid with each chapter until it reached the murder was difficult because it lead to a doubt about everything that the reader had learned about him previously. I won’t spoil it for you, but watching Lance be tested (whether he did it or not) is what made this book such a wild ride.
Lance had a great deal of character development in this story and I still find myself wondering about him. It is a testament to a well written series that I know I will continue learning more about every character. It warmed my heart to watch Jules realize how much Lance meant to her and how it strengthened their relationship. The lesser amount of time focused on Jules’ romantic entanglements and more on her friendships was a welcome change of pace.
Finally, Jules properly reacting to everything that Stephanie was going through was a welcome sight. Seeing her try to take care of her employees gave her even more dimension. In many of the previous novels, Jules seems to have so many answers (except where Carlos is involved) that it is nice to see her struggle and become a little more human. Rather than having a solution ready, she had to go through real effort to fix her friend’s problems.
I cannot wait to see what else is planned for the wedding in the next novel!
5/5 stars
The Novel Llama 