Brewed Awakening
When coffeehouse manager Clare Cosi awakens on a bench in Washington Square Park, she has no idea she’s been missing for days, or that her friends and family have been frantic with worry. Now that she’s back, everyone is overjoyed, including a handsome NYPD detective who claims to be her fiancé. But to Mike Quinn’s crushing distress, Clare doesn’t remember him, or much of anything about the last fifteen years of her life.
Clare’s missing memory is tied to a crime she witnessed. An acquaintance of Clare’s elegant employer–and fellow member of an exclusive Gotham circle known as “The Ladies Who Brunch”–invited Clare to her posh hotel to sample gourmet wedding cakes. After their indulgent tasting, they headed to the parking garage, where a camera captured a masked figure with a gun confronting the hotel heiress with Clare looking on. Did the kidnapper take Clare, too? The camera went dark, just like Clare’s memory. Soon authorities grow suspicious. Is Clare really a victim? Or merely acting like one? Evidence is mounting that she set the woman up.
To clear her name, Clare must find a way to reclaim her memories and rescue the heiress before this high-stakes crime ends in tragedy. Otherwise, instead of walking down the aisle, Clare may find herself perp-walking to prison as an accomplice to kidnapping and murder.
Series: A Coffeehouse Mystery – Book #18
Author: Cleo Coyle
Genre: Cozy Mystery/Coffee
Publisher: Berkley Publishing
Page Count: 362
Rating: 
The latest in the “A Coffeehouse Mystery” cozy series from Berkley Publishing written by Cleo Coyle, Brewed Awakening is now available. This book is a pleasant and gripping read filled with captivating characters in a charming setting.
This is a long-running cozy series. Readers have come to love the characters, many times finding themselves anxious for the next installment. However, a series of this nature also tend to become stale. Thankfully, that is not the case with this 18th book in this series. Clare losing her memory is a great way to keep this series fresh and allows readers to reminisce about her past exploits.
Readers are taken on an emotional roller coaster as they travel with Clare on her adventure to recover her memory. She finds herself in peril at every turn, gets involved in a murder, and wonders if she will ever remember her fiancé. No one seems to be who they claim to be and everyone seems to have a motive to commit a crime. Like with other books in this cozy series, Clare eventually finds the killer and her life.
This cozy series and Brewed Awakening, in particular, are easy to read, easy to follow, and keeps readers questioning and invested. I am happy to recommend the series and this book to cozy mystery lovers.
Other cozy series readers will want to read Lynn Cahoon’s “A Tourist Trap Mystery” and Alex Erickson’s series “A Bookstore Café Mystery”.
About the Author:
Cleo Coyle is the pseudonym for Alice Alfonsi, collaborating with her husband, Marc Cerasini.
Alice Alfonsi grew up in a small town near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. After earning scholarships to study creative and professional writing at Carnegie Mellon and American Universities, she began her career as a cub reporter for The New York Times. Now an author of popular fiction and bestselling media tie-in writer (who even served as the ghostwriter for an Entertainment Weekly media tie-in Best Book of the Year), Alice lives and works in New York City, where she first met her husband, Marc Cerasini.
Marc was also born and raised in the Pittsburgh area and is a graduate of Ohio University. He is a New York Times bestselling author of adult and children’s fiction and non-fiction.
When not haunting coffeehouses, hunting ghosts, or rescuing stray cats, they cook like crazy and drink a lot of java.
Contact Cleo: CoffeehouseMystery@gmail.com
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