My Cousin Wrote a Book!

Hey, look! My cousin wrote a book!


Baker's Dozen by Amey Ziegler is billed as a "cozy romantic suspense." I admit I had no idea what that meant. So here's what I found out.

Baker's Dozen is about Andy Baker, a small-town reporter. She often works undercover and exposes bad guys, but this time she gets pulled into a bigger case and who happens to be involved? Our handsome love interest, Hugh, of course!

According to Cozy Romance v. Romance Romance, "Cozies often revolve around themes or small towns or both." This one definitely revolves around a theme and a town, and the suspense and mystery, just as much as the romance. So I guess that's what makes it "cozy"!

I had fun reading Baker's Dozen, even though I don't typically read romances, because I could see my cousin and her family in it. As I was reading I would think "Oh, that is SO Amey." And when we came into Andy Baker's costume room -- one of the most fun scenes in the book -- I thought of Amey's older sister Merilee. When the descriptions of guns came up I thought of Uncle Milo, and there were some great desert survival tips that probably come from Amey's time living in Arizona.

But you probably don't know my cousins! Will you like the book anyway?

The book doesn't have a lot of bad language (I can't remember any at the moment) or detailed descriptions of intimate relations. It does have some vivid violence, though. And here's something I found distracting -- the copy editing in the book needed help. Authors have no control over that, it's all up to the publishing house, and in my opinion they let too many typos slip in.
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I'd say if you like romances, you'll like it. My book club has done a couple of romances, namely Garden Spells and The Magic of Ordinary Days. If you liked those, Baker's Dozen is along the same lines, but with more of an action movie feel. (That's the suspense coming in.)

If you mixed Miss Congeniality humor with Bourne Identity suspense, you'd have Baker's Dozen by Amey Ziegler.