Grand Openings Can Be Murder by Amber Royer

 Grand Openings Can Be Murder is a book set on an island about a girl named Felicity. We look at the start-up of Felicity's business, Greetings and Felicitations, which she started in memory of her deceased husband. The story starts at the first grand opening where one of Felicity's employees mysteriously falls down and dies in the middle of the grand opening. At first, Felicity is the Prime Suspect in this murder but she is quick to take the case into her own hands and investigate who it was who killed her employee. After Felicity is nearly killed the first time, she gets a bodyguard who not only protects felicity but also helps her with her investigations. It is not long until Felicity gets the idea that her employee was accidentally killed and it was herself who the murderer wanted to kill.

This book is centrally themed on chocolate, which is what Felicity's business is about and it offers the reader some pleasure when thinking about the tastes described in the book. This book would be a good book for a chocolate lover and the chocolate theme is what makes this book unique. I have never read a book which has been centrally themed on Chocolate. When you add the murder mystery aspect to the book, this again heightens the enjoyment of reading the book and in a way takes you on two adventures at the same time. You have everything a murder mystery novel would give you as well as the pleasure of unique tastes of chocolate. Blogging is also a theme in the novel which plays a minor yet important role in the story.

I like this book how to start with it takes us on a tour of Felicity's life but then also follows her on the investigations of the murder case. Throughout the book, there are moments when you the reader along with the characters in the book think you know who the murderer is, however, the writer soon kicks in some plot twists which makes you change your mind. When reading this book, I as the reader along with the characters could never guess who the murderer was until the end of the book and it was the last person anyone could expect. The plot twists made this book very gripping which is fantastic and kept making me think who the murderer could be. I also like how the writer could combine something with such pleasant connotations, the chocolate, with something with such unpleasant connotations, murder, and so it was an interesting mix. Finally, I also liked how the book was written in the first person as if it was Felicity writing an account of the events.

Although there are not many dislikes to the novel, I did indeed dislike the first chapter or two of the books which although was important providing us background knowledge on the main character Felicity, was a bit dull at times. This dullness however really did not last very long and we were very soon in the more enjoyable parts of the story which really got the plot going.

I rate this book 3 out of 5 stars meaning this was a good book. The chocolate element was great and the murder mystery element was also fantastic and really kept me interested as the reader. How could a writer throw in so many plot twists? The writer also thought-out very well who the murderer was and it heightened the suspense and fear of the readers and the characters which is very good. I look forward to reading the next book featuring Felicity's life.