Rating: 
Summary: Fun new series
Review: Lee McKinney has tired of her life as a trophy wife in Texas. So, the ex beauty queen chucks it all and moves to Michigan to help her Aunt Nettie in her gourmet chocolate factory shop. She takes an order for two thousand dollars worth of chocolate from a much hated local woman. She delivers the chocolate, and is hired to help serve drinks at the party that evening. The hostess pitches over a balcony shortly before the start of the event, evidently poisoned by one of the chocolates. It seems that everyone in town is a suspect, even Aunt Nettie and the local police chief.This is a really fun new series, the story line moves along quickly and the novel itself is short. A great beach book!
Rating: 
Summary: Debut in a Great New Series
Review: Lee McKinney is looking for a new start after her divorce. Her Aunt Nettie needs someone to help with the business side of TenHuis Chocolade, a gourmet chocolate business in Michigan that Lee worked at as a teen. But Lee's only been back in town for a week when famous defense lawyer Clementine Ripley is poisoned while eating one of their chocolates. Clementine had made a lot of enemies over the years in her cases and seems to have just as many in the small resort town of Warner Pier. Now Lee must sort through the suspects and motives to find the real killer before she and her aunt get framed for a murder they didn't commit. I've been looking forward to this book since I read the short story in AND THE DYING IS EASY that introduced these characters. And it didn't disappoint. The characters are well developed. Lee's way of mixing up words when she's upset or nervous is fun but not so overused that it becomes annoying and makes her more human. The story is tightly plotted and moves along at a brisk pace. The style invites the reader in and makes it very hard to put down. The only thing that seems odd is the chocolate trivia scattered throughout the book. It doesn't really add anything; it's just kind of there. I am definitely addicted to the Chocoholic Mysteries and look forward to many more. Pick up this book and enjoy a wonderful new series.
Rating:
Summary: terrific new cozy
Review: Lee McKinney was considered a trophy wife because she came from an impoverished background and married a very wealthy Texas bachelor. She left him when the marriage went sour and refused a financial settlement so she was more financially impoverished than before her marriage. Her aunt Nettie, who lives in the Michigan resort town of Warner Pier, hires her to manage her chocolate business.
Clementine Ripley, a world famous and widely detested defense attorney, orders a few thousand dollars in specialty chocolates for a party she is throwing. Lee delivers the candy to her and is a waitress at the party whose Clem dies from cyanide poison injected into one of the chocolate candies. With her and her aunt's reputation and freedom on the line, Lee decides to do some sleuthing and manages to become a hostage to the killer.
Do not eat THE CHOCOLATE CAT CAPER on empty stomach. The descriptions of the individual pieces of candy are so mouth-watering; one will gain weight just from reading about them. JoAnna Carl has created a delicious mystery starring a heroine who will endear herself to the audience. This is the beginning of what looks like a terrific new cozy series. Harriet Klausner
Rating: 
Summary: If you're into silliness....
Review: or the reader may find themselves running to 7-11 in the middle of the night for some. The Chocolate Cat Caper is all that a cozy mystery should be: Well plotted, enjoyable real-life-like characters, some devilishly tempting chocolate talk included and of course a who-done-it mystery. When cut-throat attorney Clemintine "the Ripper" Ripley is poisoned by chocolates from TenHuit Chocolade's it is up to newly arrived Lee McKinney to clear hers and herself Aunt Nettie (owner of TenHuit) of the crime. It doesn't help that Lee has a habit of saying the wrong word at the exact wrong time (thus causing some truly laugh out loud moments). But a second murder then makes it seem even more likely poor Lee, who just wants to get on with her life after a divorce and study for the CPA exam, will be able to do anything except that. I am planning to buy the next in the series and hope there are many more to follow.
Rating:
Summary: Read this with plenty of chocolate on hand...
Review: or the reader may find themselves running to 7-11 in the middle of the night for some. The Chocolate Cat Caper is all that a cozy mystery should be: Well plotted, enjoyable real-life-like characters, some devilishly tempting chocolate talk included and of course a who-done-it mystery. When cut-throat attorney Clemintine "the Ripper" Ripley is poisoned by chocolates from TenHuit Chocolade's it is up to newly arrived Lee McKinney to clear hers and herself Aunt Nettie (owner of TenHuit) of the crime. It doesn't help that Lee has a habit of saying the wrong word at the exact wrong time (thus causing some truly laugh out loud moments). But a second murder then makes it seem even more likely poor Lee, who just wants to get on with her life after a divorce and study for the CPA exam, will be able to do anything except that. I am planning to buy the next in the series and hope there are many more to follow.
Rating: 
Summary: Pre-teen fiction!
Review: Silly book, reminding me of my childhood favorite, Nancy Drew. As an adult reader, however, this book is childish, predictable driverish! A waste of time to read, unless you are 11 years old!
Rating:
Summary: A satisfying "chocoholic" mystery
Review: This enjoyable mystery introduces us to Lee McKinney, recently divorced and trying to start a new life in the Michigan resort town of Warner Pier. Lee returns to Warner Pier, where she spent summers during high school working in her aunt's gourmet chocolate shop. But when the town's most prominent part-time resident is murdered (apparently poisoned by a truffle from the chocolate shop), Lee becomes involved in solving the crime in order to prove her aunt's innocence. The author did a good job of developing the character of the heroine. Lee does have a habit of saying the wrong word in moments of stress, but the effect is often funny. Just like eating a chocolate bonbon, this first chocoholic mystery definitely left me wanting more!
Rating:
Summary: A satisfying "chocoholic" mystery
Review: This enjoyable mystery introduces us to Lee McKinney, recently divorced and trying to start a new life in the Michigan resort town of Warner Pier. Lee returns to Warner Pier, where she spent summers during high school working in her aunt's gourmet chocolate shop. But when the town's most prominent part-time resident is murdered (apparently poisoned by a truffle from the chocolate shop), Lee becomes involved in solving the crime in order to prove her aunt's innocence. The author did a good job of developing the character of the heroine. Lee does have a habit of saying the wrong word in moments of stress, but the effect is often funny. Just like eating a chocolate bonbon, this first chocoholic mystery definitely left me wanting more!
Rating: 
Summary: Okay, but not extraordinary
Review: This is a pretty good series. I like Aunt Nettie and the chocolate store (makes me hungry though!). Lee is an okay character, but her habit of using the wrong word in tight situations is just plain aggravating, not endearing or funny. It was fine when she was 16 in the very first story, but she's an adult and knows she has a problem, so she needs to get over it. I'll continue reading the books, but the word habit makes me want to thrown the book at the wall.
Rating:
Summary: If you're into silliness....
Review: This mystery started out pretty good but quickly degenerated into so much silliness I had to check and make sure I wasn't reading a juvenile Trixie Belden book. For someone with a college education, the main character is incredibly immature and the misspoken words get old after the first occurrance. Writers like this author and Tamar Meyers are good on idea and bad on writing. What a shame, this book had potential.
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