After her Manhattan restaurant fails, Sophie Taylor retreats to Gracious Grove, located in the Finger Lakes region of New York. Growing up, Sophie spent her school vacations and summers in Gracious Grove with her grandmother, and it is truly the one place where she feels at home. Sophie's grandmother owns and runs a teahouse, Auntie Rose's Victorian Tea House. Sophie soon finds herself helping out in the tearoom. She learns one of her childhood friends, Cissy Peterson, is soon to marry Francis Whittaker and would like to have a bridal tea shower at Auntie Rose's.

The fact that Cissy wants to have her shower at Auntie Rose's does not sit well with Cissy's grandmother, irascible Thelma Mae Earnshaw. Thelma Mae owns Belle Époque, an inn and tearoom next door to Auntie Rose's, and has held a long grudge against Rose Freemont, Sophie's grandmother. To placate her grandmother, Cissy agrees to have a family tea engagement party at Belle Époque. The day of the party, Sophie hears a scream next door and arrives to find Vivienne Whittaker, Francis's mother, dying on the tearoom floor.

It is not long before Sophie learns that Vivienne Whittaker was poisoned by cyanide she ate in a cupcake. Suspicions fall on Thelma Mae Earnshaw, but as ornery as the woman is, Sophie does not believe she had anything to do with Vivienne Whittaker's death. As Sophie begins to look into the death, she finds many people who disliked Vivienne Whittaker and unearths a dodgy development deal between Francis's architecture firm, the development company, and the town mayor. There are whispers of bribery, not to mention Francis's sudden promotion above senior members in his company.

I enjoyed reading this book although I found some of the characters from the architecture and development companies hard to tell apart. I read the third book in this series first, so I was somewhat familiar with the main characters in this story already. It was a fun cozy read and made me wish I had a tearoom like Auntie Rose's Victorian Tea House near me! ( )

Sophie Taylor's Manhattan restaurant, In Fashion, has failed, so she returns to Gracious Grove in upstate NY where her grandmother runs Auntie Rose's Victorian Tea House to get a little respite and rethink her future goals. Sophie's nana is getting up in age and can use her help running the much beloved teahouse. Sophie's glad to be of help even as one of the upcoming venues includes a wedding shower tea for her longtime friend Cissy Peterson. The problem is Cissy's own grandmother, Thelma Mae Earnshaw, owns a competing tearoom nearby, La Belle Époque, and Thelma Mae, former friend of Rose Freemont, has been holding a grudge against her for over 60 years for supposedly stealing Thelma Mae's beau when they were just teenagers. How can Cissy do that to her own grandmother? Well, only the best for Cissy Peterson, and that means Auntie Rose's wins out over the vastly inferior La Belle Époque. Even so, to appease Thelma Mae and assuage her own guilty conscience, Cissy commissions her grandmother to host an engagement tea for her at La Belle Époque. Who knew that Vivienne Whittaker, Cissy's soon to be mother-in-law, would meet her demise at the engagement tea to the horror of everyone present. Who could possibly want Vivienne Whitakker dead? Perhaps a lot of people? Or was the intended victim someone other than Vivienne and did she just happen to get in the way?

I enjoyed this cozy....particularly the setting and cast of characters which ranged from crooked politicians to sweet old grandmothers to embittered relatives to jilted lovers. I had a fun time watching Sophie as amateur sleuth snooping around and asking markedly pointed questions to find out once and for all who killed Vivienne Whittaker. This was a first in the series, and although I found that in order to keep the list of characters straight in my head I had to read this one at a slightly slower pace, that was just fine since it was worth the extra time spent on it. I found that I really liked Thelma Mae Earnshaw's character, Cissy's crotchety old grandmother who I found hilarious. One of my favorite lines from her when being questioned by the detective regarding the murder went like this....

DETECTIVE: "Mrs. Earnshaw, can you tell me in your own words what happened?"

THELMA MAE: "Well, now, who else's' words would I use? Stupidest thing I ever heard."

LOL!! I thought that was too funny and it gave me a glimpse at what I could expect from the likes of Thelma Mae Earnshaw.

In conclusion, I thought this cozy could be classified along with the best of them and I recommend it to those who love to savor a good cozy mystery. ( )

Tempest In A Teapot is the first book in A Teapot Collector Mystery series.

Sophie Taylor, after closing her upscale restaurant in NYC has returned to Gracious Grove, where she spent many summers, to help her grandmother in her tea shop, Aunt Rose's Victorian Tea House.

Her Grandmother Rose's shop is right next to Rose's nemesis Thelma Rae Earnshaw, and her La Belle Epoque tea shop. Rose and Thelma Rae for some 60 years, over the fact that Rae supposedly took Thelma Rae's boyfriend away. When Cissy, whose is Thelma Rae's granddaughter, decides to have her bridal shower at Aunt Rose's. Needless to say this does not go over well, but Cissy does agree to have an engagement party at her grandmothers. When everyone has gathered and the food is being brought out, Cissy's future mother-in-law, VI, takes a bite of a cupcake and collapses to the floor. She is rushed to the hospital but was dead shortly after arriving.

Some of those in attendance thought that Thelma Rae had served tainted food as she is not that great a cook, and has a history of buying expired foods. An autopsy revealed that Vi actually died from an allergic reaction, so it was definitely a case of murder. Sophie wants to gibe Cissy some closure after this tragic event, so she begins to look into who might have wanted Vi dead and she discovers a wide choice. Vi's son should be considered, how did he get construction managers job with so little experience, Vi's sister-in-law had a big blowup at the country club. There's also, evidently, a little political corruption in the quiet little town, does this possibly contribute to killing of Vi?

This is a very enjoyable series with an interesting cast of believable characters. the series will definitely appeal to those who enjoy tea room mysteries and/or collecting tea pots. Recipe and tea brewing hint included.

Looking forward to the book and another visit to Gracious Grove. ( )

This book was a pleasant surprise to me. First in a new series. The characters are well-thought out and complex; as the story goes along I learned more about them. I particularly found the thought processes of Thelma Earnshaw to be spot on for her age and demeanor. As a senior I recognized a kinship with her mind jumping from place to place then wondering what she had been planning to think about before she interrupted her own thoughts. Not an easy thing to put into writing, but precisely the way this very unhappy and miserable person might think. Great descriptive writing.

Two elderly women, one with a deliberately long memory of losing who she alone considers the love of her life to the other, who married him and in her own words "saw him first." Everything is one-sided competition right down to both women operating tea rooms, with one-sided being the key, because Thelma firmly believes she has been a victim in all things, especially since Rose Freemont, so-called man stealer, whose shop is right across from Thelma's, runs a much more successful tea room than Thelma.

Sophie Rose Freemont Taylor, Rose's granddaughter, has just returned to the town she considers to be her home, back to Rose. She is licking her wounds at the loss of her own enterprise, chef and owner of her New York restaurant. As she is updated on her friends by Rose, she is surprised to learn her best friend, Cissy, Thelma's granddaughter, is about to marry another of their group of friends, Frankie, now known as Francis, a rich high-class architect. For some reason, Thelma is dead set against the marriage, which seems strange on several levels. What could be the cause of Thelma's spite and vinegar? There is a cause that we haven't uncovered yet.

The story builds nicely, as an engagement tea for Cissy is held at Thelma's tea shop, La Belle Epoque, when suddenly a medical emergency happens as one of the guests collapses. Accusations are wildly flung, and Sophie is bent on trying to solve whether a death is actually a murder or whether it was an accident, as she deftly seeks out enough information to have some idea as to what actually went down. Now the trick is to learn the real story. How best to go about it? How about gathering all the people that supposedly were friends of Francis' mother by throwing a fund-raising memorial tea?

I really enjoyed this cozy mystery. I thought I had it figured out early on, only to learn that what I thought I knew didn't even briefly come into play. So many people appear to have their own interests at heart that to make any sense of what has become a murder and why it happened, that Sophie believes if she can just get everyone in one place together, she can tease some information out that no one is prepared to talk about. Does it really boil down to money? Well, that's always a good place to start, as they say, Follow the money. Since the police chief is actually a relative to some of the people involved, it is only fitting that he should be at the memorial tea. With strategic placement of the people who are attending, will Sophie be able to get what she wants? Is conversation all it really takes to get someone to spill the beans?

I found the character of Sophie to be less invasive in trying to extract information than other amateur sleuths I've read, which I appreciated. A very interesting plot which thickens remarkably throughout the book. The first I've read by Amanda Cooper and certainly looking forward to reading more. ( )

A new cozy mystery series set in a small town tea shop, while I've read so many like this before I still really enjoyed the newest take on the idea here.

Things started off a little bit rough in the first few chapters when the main character and her family were being introduced, it felt a bit forced and a bit to glowing and gushing especially when describing the main character but once the story got going it found it's voice and really started to flow and quickly became a book I didn't want to put down.

I like how the mystery ended a bit differently than I had expected and while some of the decisions the main character made were frustrating at times, the way she ended up being involved in the mystery and working on solving it felt pretty natural almost believable...as believable as a cozy mystery ever really is.

I will definitely be reading the next book in the series as I really did enjoy the local and the characters and felt engaged with them. ( )