Soft Serve Sleighing (Coffee & Cream Café Mysteries)
by Lena Gregory
About Soft Serve Sleighing:
Soft Serve Sleighing (Coffee & Cream Café Mysteries)
Cozy Mystery
5th in Series
Setting: Long Island, NY
Publisher: Gemma Halliday Publishing (January 28, 2025)
Number of Pages: 226
Kindle ASIN: B0DLHPWDNT

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...
My Review:
Soft Serve Sleighing is the fifth book in the Coffee & Cream Café Mysteries series.
There is a blizzard in Long Island, all the shops in town are closed, including the café, and Dani, Eli, and Gwen are getting bundled up to go to outside and play. There's a knock on the door and Brynleigh, a highly popular business reviewing YouTuber, and her crew are scouting the town trying to find somewhere to eat. Dani offers to let them in and feed them but her kindness isn't reciprocated when Brynleigh tries to extort money from her. Dani is happy to see them leave her establishment.
The next day, after the storm clears, Dani, Elie, and Gwen meet Megan at the sledding hill. As Dani loses control on her tube, she careens into some snow covered bushes, and right into the dead body of the extorting YouTuber. Between the issues with the woman yesterday and find her body today, Dani finds herself at the top of the suspect list. Knowing she didn't do it, and having an alibi to boot, Dani dons her sleuthing cap again, in hopes to clear her name, and not get caught in the murderer's crosshairs.
Lena Gregory has dished up another winner with Soft Serve Sleighing. A cleverly crafted mystery, delightful characters, and a fun small town with the infamous busybodies just gives this series such realism. I loved being back in this world.
The murder mystery was well-developed, and I was completely engaged in the group's search for the suspect. There are many twists and turns, and every time I thought I solved the murder, the arc shifted, and we were chasing down someone else. I was surprised at the various characters who were targeted as suspects and shocked at how the story actually ended. I didn't see part of the reveal coming.
I loved every single page of this book from the characters, the setting, the mystery, and the author's writing style. I found myself totally immersed in every facet of Soft Serve Sleighing. The pacing was perfect and once I started the book, I just couldn't put it down.
I was provided a copy of this book. This does not affect
my opinion of the book or the content of my review. The opinions I have
expressed are my own.
My Rating:
Another 5 star for one of my favorite authors!
About Lena Gregory:
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.
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