Review: The Cookie Crumbles by Tracy Badua and Alechia Dow

The Cookie Crumbles
by Tracy Badua and Alechia Dow

My Rating: 3 stars

Genre: Cozy Myster
Age Category: Middle Grade
Type of romance: m/f

Blurb:
The Great British Bake Off meets Knives Out in this fun and propulsive middle grade novel following two best friends who must solve the mystery behind a baking competition gone awry.

Laila gave Lucy a cupcake on the second day of kindergarten, and they’ve been inseparable ever since. But the summer before eighth grade, they find out that since they live on opposite sides of town, they’ll go to different high schools. Yuck!

Then Laila’s invited to compete at the Golden Cookie competition, which awards its winner admission and a full ride to the prestigious Sunderland boarding school, and it’s the perfect opportunity. Sunderland doesn’t just have an elite culinary program; it’s also home to an elite journalism track, if only newscaster-hopeful Lucy could build up a strong enough portfolio to impress the scholarship committee.

But when one of the celebrity judges collapses after sampling Laila’s showpiece, rumors of foul play swirl, with Laila rising to the top of the suspect list. Even worse, a major storm has effectively cut off all access to the outside world.

Can the girls find the real culprit and clear Laila’s name before it’s too late?

My Review

I received a free copy from the publisher through Netgalley and voluntarily reviewed it.

The Cookie Crumbles sounded so good and I was excited to read this one. I liked the set up with a cookie bake competition for kids to win a scholarship. Sadly I struggled a bit with this one, I did get into it more the further I got and I thought the ending was well done, but it never fully won me over. I liked the friendship between Laila and Lucy, especially once they get over the bit of conflict at the start. I also appreciated having a cozy mystery with middle grade characters.

The Cookie Crumbles starts with Laila and Lucy starting their journey to the school were the competition takes place and most of the book takes place there. I especially struggled with the start as there are journal entries written later in the book and it just pulled me out of the story with every journal entry. I didn’t like the vibe it gave of the chapters being written with the characters afterwards instead of just experiencing the story as it happened. Once the first day is over the journal entries stopped and it was easier for me to stay in the story.

I also just wasn’t as invested in the story for some reason and wasn’t as hooked as I had hoped. I thought Laila and Lucy were interesting characters and I liked their friendship and how they were there for each other. I didn’t like the drama and conflict between them at the start and Lucy sometimes seemed to go a bit too far in her quest for answers. I liked the cookie baking competition idea and reading about the cookies they made, I almost wish there was more about the competition as I liked those parts and the mystery overshadowed it a bit.

It also bothered me how characters acted sometimes. There is the conflict between Laila and Lucy, which I didn’t like, even though it luckily got resolved without too much drama when they have a moment to talk things through. Then there’s a guy whose pretty rude to Laila, it makes more sense later and I liked how that added to this character, but it bothered me when he kept being rude and accusing her at first. There’s also the victim who gets almost murdered, who was just so over the top mean to everyone. It just wasn’t very interesting to read about, but it did make it easy for everyone to have a motive. And then later the way so many people jump on suspecting Laila, again that makes a bit more sense later, but I still didn’t like it and thought it was a bit much.

The mystery was pretty solid. I didn’t really care for it at first as the victim who got almost murdered was one of those characters that everyone disliked and everyone has a motive. It felt a bit too much how everyone had a motive, but it made for some interesting reveals along the way as things come to light about why the characters are acting suspicious. Some of them I guessed, but others were interesting surprises. The further I got in the book the more I liked the characters as there is more I knew about them and their personalities. Some clues for the mystery felt pretty obvious, but I still liked seeing it all play out and there are some interesting reveals along the way.

To summarize: I really liked the idea and set up for this book, but it failed to fully hook me and keep my attention. I liked reading about Laila and Lucy and their friendship, especially once the piece of drama/ conflict between them gets resolved. There are some characters who act in ways I didn’t like. There are journal entries in the first part of the book which got me out of the story and I am glad when those stopped so I could get into the story more. The mystery didn’t fully grab me at first, but I felt like it got more interesting later on with some interesting reveals about the characters. The wrap up made sense and was well done. All in all this is a solid middle grade cozy mystery read and I am sad I didn’t get as into the story as I had hoped.

Links:
– Goodreads
– Bookbub
– Amazon
– B&N
– Kobo

You can also read my review on Goodreads and Bookbub.