Cozy Mystery Blog Tour: Author Guest Post, Review & Giveaway: Billionaire Blend (Coffeehouse Mystery Series #13) by Cleo Coyle

Landmark coffeehouse manager Clare Cosi has served her share of New York’s rich and famous, but even she is surprised by her explosive introduction to a mysterious Internet billionaire…

When a car bomb nearly kills tech whiz Eric Thorner, Clare comes to his aid and receives a priceless thank you. Not only does the billionaire buy her a barista’s dream espresso machine, he hires her for an extraordinary project: creating the world’s most expensive coffee blend.

The police quickly arrest Eric’s alleged attacker, yet death continues to surround the unlucky mogul, leading Clare to question whether a fatal fall and another lethal mishap are premeditated murders or merely freak accidents. Clare’s boyfriend, NYPD detective Mike Quinn, has a theory of his own—one Clare refuses to believe.

Meanwhile, Eric jets Clare around the world on a head-spinning search for the very best coffee, and Clare gets to know his world—a mesmerizing circle of money with rivalries that could easily have turned deadly. But is this charming young CEO truly marked for termination? Or is he the one making a killing?

Includes a wealth of delicious recipes!

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BREWING UP MURDER 
by Cleo Coyle

"Pluck" is a word I usually associate with chickens.  On the other hand, Booklist was kind enough to describe my amateur sleuth as having pluck, a valid observation because Clare Cosi may be many things, but she is no chicken. 

A divorced, single mom in her forties, Clare is like many of the women I grew up admiring in my big Italian-American family.  Smart and determined with a sturdy backbone, Clare also has a generous spirit and enough ingenuity to cook mouth-watering feasts (and raise a daughter) on a shoestring budget. 

By day, Clare manages a charming landmark coffeehouse in New York's Greenwich Village.  By night, she is a relentless snoop, who displays quite a bit of pluck in BILLIONAIRE BLEND, the latest entry in my Coffeehouse Mystery series.  

When a car bomb goes off outside Clare's charming shop, she comes to the aid of an anonymous customer, an intense young man who turns out to be billionaire tech whiz Eric Thorner.  Eric is so grateful to Clare for saving his life that he hires her to create the most expensive coffee blend on the planet.  But as Clare is pulled deeper into Eric's world of cutting-edge luxuries and cutthroat rivalries, she begins to wonder: Is this brilliant CEO marked for termination?  Or is he the one making a killing? 

To solve this case, Clare will have to bribe an NYPD bomb squad lieutenant; conjure up a menu for a "billionaire's potluck"; fix her daughter's love life; stop a Slayer while working with one; and stay alive while doing it.  

By the end of BILLIONAIRE BLEND, you'll have taken a trip with Clare to an exclusive millionaire's club, flown with her to a bohemian Paris neighborhood, visited some of the most intriguing coffee growing regions of the world - an uncovered the dark motives behind several murders.  

Because this is a "culinary" mystery, you will also have over 20 fantastic recipes to try in your own kitchen, including a list of Clare's secret off-the-menu coffeehouse drinks, as well as tasty foods enjoyed by the characters in the book, namely: 

Clare's Billionaire Bars
Baileys Irish Cream and Caramel Nut Fudge
Perfect Pumpkin Spice Muffins
Chocolate-Bottom Banana Bars
French Apple Cake Squares
Italian Beignets
Copycat Twinkie Cupcakes
Make your own Kahlua
Skillet Lasagna
"Coffee Hunter" Ugandan Stew
Crunchy Almond Biscotti (easy food processor method) 
Quesa Fundido (Mexican Hot Cheese Dip) and more... 

One last note for new readers: Although BILLIONAIRE BLEND is the 13th book in my Coffeehouse Mystery series - now celebrating ten years in print - you can read it as a stand-alone novel.  If you enjoy the characters, you can read more about them in the previous books.  

To download a free checklist of all 13 Coffeehouse Mysteries, in order, including brief story summaries, click here.  

And please feel free to friend me on Facebook at www.Facebook.com/CleoCoyle or sign up for my newsletter by writing an email that says "sign me up" and sending it to CoffeehouseMystery(at)gmail(dot)com. 

May you read with joy! 

~Cleo 

CLEO COYLE is a pseudonym for Alice Alfonsi, writing in collaboration with her husband, Marc Cerasini.  Their latest mystery, BILLIONAIRE BLEND, earned a starred review from Kirkus, a "Top Pick" honor from RT Book Reviews, and this month Berkley is releasing the book in mass market paperback.  When not haunting coffeehouses, hunting ghosts, or rescuing stray cats, Alice and Marc are New York Times bestselling media tie-in writers who have penned properties for NBC, Lucasfilm, Disney, Fox, Imagine, Marvel, and MGM.  They live and work in New York City, where they not only write the bestselling Coffeehouse Mysteries but also the popular Haunted Bookshop Mysteries.  To learn more, and sign up for Cleo's newsletter, visit her website: www.CoffeehouseMystery.com.  

This is one of my absolute favorite cozy series!  I LOVE Clare and the Coffeehouse Mysteries, and Billionaire Blend was a wonderful treat.  It had all of the charm of a cozy with the excitement of a well plotted thriller.  It kept me on the edge of my seat the entire time I was reading, and I simply could not put the book down. 

I love that Cleo writes her characters to be real people that could easily be someone you interact with on a regular basis.  It makes the stories so much more believable and enjoyable.  

If you're late to the Coffeehouse Mystery series, or you're looking for a new series to start, download the helpful checklist in Cleo's guest post, and get started reading.  You'll thank me (and her!) later.  

Rating: 5 stars

I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.  All conclusions reached are my own.  

Thanks to the awesome ladies at Penguin, I have 1 paperback copy of Billionaire Blend by Cleo Coyle to give away to one of my lucky readers!  Just enter the Rafflecopter below for your chance to win, and be sure to keep checking back for more awesome giveaways!

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