Blog Tour & Giveaway: Once Upon A Grind by Cleo Coyle

A NOTE FROM CLEO

Thanks to Books-n-Kisses for hosting us today, and happy holiday greetings to everyone! Marc and I are delighted to tell you more about Once Upon a Grind, which merges classic fairy tales with a modern murder mystery.

Like any good fairy tale, our book takes you through secret doors; plays with your sense of reality; introduces you to an array of colorful characters; and while the ending is happy, not everyone survives.

Once Upon a Grind is also a culinary mystery. Our amateur sleuth, coffeehouse manager Clare Cosi, samples fascinating New York foods as she tries to solve the crime against “Sleeping Beauty,” and she cooks up some tasty goodies, as well.

For a look at the recipe section, click here.

We hope you’ll join us for more stops on our Coffeehouse Escape Blog Tour. We’ll give you more insights to reading Once Upon a Grind, and we’ll share holiday goodies like this one:

Holiday Cookie Swap! Today we’re sharing one of the most popular recipes on our blog, Oatmeal Cookie Brittle (no flour, no butter, no gluten, no kidding)! To get our recipe, which was featured by New Jersey Family magazine in its 12 Days of Cookies, click here.

To read a special excerpt from ONCE UPON A GRIND, click here.

SECRET CODE: The 6th of the 9 words in Cleo’s Secret Code Contest is DESTINY (Learn how to enter Cleo’s Secret Code giveaway here.)

May your holidays be bright!

~ Alice and Marc (Cleo Coyle)

About the Author:

CLEO COYLE is the pseudonym for Alice Alfonsi, writing in collaboration with her husband, Marc Cerasini.  CLEO COYLE grew up in a small town near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. After earning scholarships to study 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 New York Times bestselling media tie-in writer, Cleo lives and works in New York City, where she collaborates with her husband (also a bestselling author) to pen the Coffeehouse Mysteries for Penguin. Together Cleo and her husband also write the Haunted Bookshop Mysteries under the name Alice Kimberly. When not haunting coffeehouses, hunting ghosts, or rescuing stray cats, Cleo and Marc are bestselling media tie-in writers who have penned properties for NBC, Lucasfilm, Disney, Fox, Imagine, and MGM. In their spare time they cook like crazy and drink a lot of java. You can learn more about Cleo, her husband, and the books they write by visiting www.CoffeehouseMystery.com.

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When coffeehouse manager turned amateur sleuth Clare Cosi roasts “magic” beans for a Fairy Tale Fall event, she brews up a vision that leads to a sleeping beauty in Central Park; a big, bad wolf of Wall Street; and an East Side enclave with storybook secrets…

Fairy tale fever has descended on New York City. Broadway fans are flocking to Red Riding Hood: The Musical; museums are exhibiting art inspired by the Brothers Grimm; and Clare Cosi and her merry band of baristas give their coffee truck a “Jack and the Beanstalk” makeover for a Central Park festival. Clare’s coffee hunter ex-husband contributes a bag of African beans with alleged magical properties. His octogenarian mother entertains customers with readings of the grinds, but Clare remains skeptical–until she receives a vision that helps her find a young model’s body in the park’s woods.

The police dismiss “sleeping beauty” as the victim of a drug overdose. Then Clare uncovers evidence that points to a list of suspects–from a New York Giant to quite a few wicked witches–and a cold case murder that reaches back to the Cold War. Now Clare is really in the woods with a dangerous predator on her heels and an investigation that leads from a secret Prince Charming Club right back to her own NYPD detective boyfriend. If she doesn’t solve this mystery, those magic beans predict an unhappy ending.

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Cleo Coyle’s Coffeehouse Escape Tour Giveaway – Prize Package Includes…

* An autographed copy of Cleo’s brand new book, ONCE UPON A GRIND, in its beautiful first-edition hardcover format

* A complete set of all 13 Coffeehouse Mysteries published to date, each one personally inscribed by Cleo to the winner

* A durable, custom-designed Coffeehouse Mystery Tote Bag

* A freshly-roasted package of Billionaire’s Blend, a hand-crafted coffee created by One Good Woman Fine Coffees and Teas as a tribute to Cleo’s recent bestseller BILLIONAIRE BLEND.

* A Coffeehouse Mystery cup, featuring a favorite saying of Madame’s, the octogenarian owner of The Village Blend: “Survive everything. And do it with style.”

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Jennifer’s Review of Once Upon A Grind

Review (5 Stars): This is one of my all-time favorite mystery series and Once Upon A Grind is a fabulous addition to this deliciously entertaining series. In this story, we find Clare Cosi and her employees are currently working in Storybook Kingdom, a week-long festival celebrating everything fairy tale related in Central Park. At the festival, Clare and her ex-husband, Matt, find a young woman from the festival who appears to be the victim of an overdose and Matt is arrested because he was seen with the woman earlier that day.  Clare decides to investigate to clear Matt’s name and finds herself with a long list of suspects and a killer that wouldn’t hesitate to add to their list of victims.

This is the 14th book in the Coffeehouse Mystery series and I am always amazed at how each book is more delightful than the last.  Once Upon A Grind is a smart, fun and exciting mystery that will not disappoint fans of the series.  I have always enjoyed Clare as a heroine because she is very intelligent, articulate and is never a damsel in distress.  She never backs down from a situation and is one of the best female characters out  there today.  I enjoyed the fairy tale aspect of this mystery and there were several plot twists and turns that will keep everyone guessing until the end.  This is an amazing series by two talented authors and I hope it continues for many years to come.

Giveaway

I’m excited to give away a copy of Once Upon A Grind. This giveaway is for US Residents only.  To be entered in the drawing by December 20th, answer me this question in the comments:

What is your favorite holiday recipe?