View from the Birdhouse: Feb 7, 2025

Friday, February 7, 2025

Book Review and Giveaway - Soft Serve Sleighing (Coffee & Cream Café Mysteries) by Lena Gregory

My Review

Dani Delaney is snowed in with her friends at her Long Island malt shop. When a Youtube influencer comes in to escape the storm and try her food, she also tries to extort Dani in exchange for a favorable online review. The unpleasant woman is found dead shortly after this, and Dani works with her friends to solve the mystery.

I wanted to read this book because I love cozy mysteries and have enjoyed the Coffee & Cream Cafe mystery series.

This was a fun read. I was so engrossed in the story that I read in all my spare time, wanting to know who did it. I suspected the murderer and enjoyed Dani's detecting.

Dani has gotten bolder as an amateur detective and found herself in a couple of dangerous situations in this book as a result. I really like the way she works with her best friends and sister to solve the mysteries - they make such a great team.

I also enjoyed Dani's evolving romance with police detective Jake! They make a great couple.

I recommend Soft Serve Sleighing - and this entire series - for fans of cozy mysteries. It's one of my favorite cozy series and I never miss a book.

Book Synopsis

From author Lena Gregory comes a delightfully delicious cozy mystery…

With most of Eastern Long Island closed down for a blizzard, Danika Delaney and her friends are holed up in her old fashioned malt shop, the Coffee & Cream Café, with ice cream and hot chocolate. However, their plans to wait out the storm in cozy company are interrupted when a popular YouTuber and her two companions show up at the door—they’ve been trapped by the storm, and Dani generously offers to serve them breakfast. But her generosity isn’t rewarded in kind, as the reviewer then tries to extort money from Dani in exchange for a good review! When the storm finally clears, Dani is happy to have seen the last of them.

Or so she thought.

Dani and her friends decide to go sleigh riding the morning after the storm clears, but instead of a winter wonderland, they find the extorting YouTuber…dead! To make matters worse, Dani suddenly finds herself accused of the woman’s murder. Intent on restoring her reputation, Dani sets out to prove she didn’t do it. This is one storm she’s not sure she can weather…

Author Bio

Lena Gregory is the author of the Bay Island Psychic Mysteries, which take place on a small island between the north and south forks of Long Island, New York, the All-Day Breakfast Café Mysteries, which are set on the outskirts of Florida’s Ocala National Forest, the Mini-Meadows Mysteries, set in a community of tiny homes in Central Florida, and the Coffee & Cream Café Mysteries, which take place in a small town on the south shore of eastern Long Island, New York.

Lena grew up in a small town on the south shore of eastern Long Island, but she recently traded in cold, damp, gray winters for the warmth and sunshine of central Florida, where she now lives with her husband, three kids, son-in-law, and four dogs. Her hobbies include spending time with family, reading, and walking. Her love for writing developed when her youngest son was born and didn’t sleep through the night. She works full-time as a writer and a freelance editor and is a member of Sisters in Crime.

Author Links