“I get a wicked wedding dress to call my own?”
“No, it means you get a wicked wedding night to call our own.”
“I like that much better,” I say as he scoops me into his arms and a laugh bubbles from me. “Guess what? Ophelia’s dress wasn’t cursed after all. Her fiancé dumped her for a bridesmaid, and the two of them were killed on the way to their honeymoon.”
He inches back. “This doesn’t sound like a good story.”
“It wasn’t for him, but Ophelia found her happily ever after, so I think Emmie’s in the clear, too. Not a single thing has gone wrong tonight.”
A wild jag of lightning explodes overhead, followed by earsplitting thunder as buckets of water pour down onto the cove all at once.
The guests run in twelve different directions, and Jasper charges us away from the cove, away from the inn, and straight to our cottage as Sherlock, Fish, Snuggles, and Bingo race along with us.
Jasper and I make it a wedding night to remember despite the storm raging outside our window.
We lie fast asleep in one another’s arms, only to be startled back to life when my phone pings from the nightstand.
I reach over and pull it between us. “It’s three in the morning,” I say, clicking onto the screen and a text pops up. “It’s from Emmie. No need to panic, we’re alive. We had a minor freak accident. Our car plunged off the bridge. Miraculously we were able to get ourselves and the dogs to shore. No injuries to any of us. The car is toast. Warm and safe at a nearby all-night café. Need a ride. Are you up for it?”
Jasper and I throw on our clothes and run out the door.
“You don’t think they left Ophelia’s dress at the inn, do you?” Jasper asks as we’re about to get into the car.
“Here’s hoping they didn’t.”
We glance back at the inn just as a shard of lightning lights up the sky and hits a window on the top floor, illuminating the inside as if it were noonday.
Standing in the window, we see a woman in white, her hair long and flowing, a shimmering aura glows around her and we know exactly where Ophelia’s dress is.
“I think I’ll make a few donations to a thrift store tomorrow,” I say.
“I’ll go with you. I’ve got bullets.”
“Something tells me they’ll need to be silver, and we might need holy water. And don’t worry. I’m attaching that note.”
“You might want to add an addendum to it.”
“Good thinking. Thank goodness we’re not cursed,” I say, pulling him close just as another jag of lightning strikes no less than ten feet from us.
We jump into the car, and Jasper takes a moment to land his lips right where they belong—over mine.
We do our best to outrun that curse all the way to that all-night café where our besties are waiting for us.
Leo and Emmie are worth going toe-to-toe with a curse or two.
Here’s hoping the future holds nothing but sunshine and rainbows from here on out—and not a trace of another homicide.
Somewhere out there the wild cry of a woman fills the sky as that ghost haunting Ophelia’s dress cackles into the night.
Something tells me that’s one woman who always has the last laugh.
***Thank you for reading!
Need more Cider Cove? Head back right now —> Death Takes a Holiday (Country Cottage Mysteries 18)
My name is Bizzy Baker, and I can read minds—not every mind, not every time but most of the time and believe me when I say it’s not all it’s cracked up to be.
The summer heat is pressing down on in Cider Cove as Bizzy’s relatives descend on the inn for a family reunion. But not everyone is thrilled to see one another. Bizzy’s mother, Ree, is forced to confront her estranged sisters and the man that came between them all those years ago. And when that man turns up dead, there are one too many suspects—and three of them happen to be sisters. Summer in Cider Cove is proving to be deadly.
Don’t miss out! Grab yours here —> Death Takes a Holiday (Country Cottage Mysteries 18)
Recipe
Country Cottage Café
Butterscotch Cookies
Hello, Bizzy here! Emmie has really done it this time. In fact, if I was stranded on a desert island, and could only take one cookie with me, it would be this one. These butterscotch cookies are the stuff that dreams are made of. And the best part? You can and should double the batch because these are going to disappear fast. So what are you waiting for? Get baking!
Ingredients
2 ½ Cups All Purpose Flour
Cup Packed Brown Sugar
½ Cup Granulated Sugar
Egg
1 Cup Butter, Softened
Teaspoon Baking Soda
1 ½ Teaspoon Vanilla Extract
1 Teaspoon Salt
¾ Teaspoon Ground Cinnamon
1 Package of Butterscotch Chips (11 ounces)
Directions
Preheat oven to 350° (after step 2 is complete)
In a large bowl (Emmie prefers her stand mixer) cream together butter, brown sugar, white sugar, and vanilla extract. (about 3 minutes) Add eggs and blend well.
In another large bowl mix together the rest of the dry ingredients—flour, cinnamon, salt, baking soda. Slowly add dry ingredients into the creamed butter mixture, and blend well. Incorporate butterscotch chips by folding them in. Cover bowl and refrigerate for 1 hour.
Scoop out walnut-size balls of dough onto a parchment lined cookie sheet, and bake for 10-12 minutes.
Enjoy!
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Paranormal Women’s Fiction
Hot Flash Homicides
Midlife in Glimmerspell
Wicked in Glimmerspell
Cozy Mysteries
Meow for Murder
An Awful Cat-titude
A Dreadful Meow-ment
A Claw-some Affair
A Haunted Hallow-whiskers
A Candy Cane Cat-astrophe
A Purr-fect Storm
A Fur-miliar Fatality
Country Cottage Mysteries
Kittyzen’s Arrest
Dog Days of Murder
Santa Claws Calamity
Bow Wow Big House
Murder Bites
Felines and Fatalities
A Killer Tail
Cat Scratch Cleaver
Just Buried
Butchered After Bark
A Frightening Fangs-giving
A Christmas to Dismember
Sealed with a Hiss
A Winter Tail of Woe
Lock, Stock, and Feral
Itching for Justice
Raining Cats and Killers
Death Takes a Holiday
Copycat Killer Thriller
Country Cottage Boxed Set 1
Country Cottage Boxed Set 2
Country Cottage Boxed Set 3
Murder in the Mix Mysteries
Cutie Pies and Deadly Lies
Bobbing for Bodies
Pumpkin Spice Sacrifice
Gingerbread & Deadly Dread
Seven-Layer Slayer
Red Velvet Vengeance
Bloodbaths and Banana Cake
New York Cheesecake Chaos
Lethal Lemon Bars
Macaron Massacre
Wedding Cake Carnage
Donut Disaster
Toxic Apple Turnovers
Killer Cupcakes
Pumpkin Pie Parting
Yule Log Eulogy
Pancake Panic
Sugar Cookie Slaughter
Devil’s Food Cake Doom
Snickerdoodle Secrets
Strawberry Shortcake Sins
Cake Pop Casualties
Flag Cake Felonies
Peach Cobbler Confessions
Poison Apple Crisp
Spooky Spice Cake Curse
Pecan Pie Predicament
Eggnog Trifle Trouble
Waffles at the Wake
Raspberry Tart Terror
Baby Bundt Cake Confusion
Chocolate Chip Cookie Conundrum
Wicked Whoopie Pies
Key Lime Pie Perjury
Red, White, and Blueberry Muffin Murder
Honey Buns Homicide
Apple Fritter Fright
Christmas Fudge Fatality
Murder in the Mix Boxed Sets
Murder in the Mix (Books 1-3)
Murder in the Mix (Books 4-6)
Murder in the Mix (Books 7-9)
Murder in the Mix (Books 10-12)
Murder in the Mix (Books 13-15)
Murder in the Mix (Books 16-18)
Murder in the Mix (Books 19-21)
Mystery
Little Girl Lost
Never Say Sorry
The First Wife’s Secret
Romance
Just Add Mistletoe
3:AM Kisses
3:AM Kisses
Winter Kisses
Sugar Kisses
Whiskey Kisses
Rock Candy Kisses
Velvet Kisses
Wild Kisses
Country Kisses
Forbidden Kisses
Dirty Kisses
Stolen Kisses
Lucky Kisses
Tender Kisses
Revenge Kisses
Red Hot Kisses
Reckless Kisses
Hot Honey Kisses
Shameless Kisses
The Social Experiment
The Social Experiment
Bitter Exes
Chemical Attraction
3:AM Kisses, Hollow Brook
Feisty Kisses
Ex-Boyfriend Kisses
Secret Kisses
Naughty By Nature
Escape to Breakers Beach
Breakers Beach
Breakers Cove
Breakers Beach Nights
Escape to Lake Loveless
Beautiful Oblivion
Beautiful Illusions
Beautiful Elixir
Beautiful Deception
A Good Year for Heartbreak
Someone to Love
Someone to Love
Someone Like You
Someone For Me
A Totally ‘80s Romance Series
Melt With You (A Totally ’80s Romance 1)
Tainted Love (A Totally ’80s Romance 2)
Hold Me Now (A Totally ’80s Romance 3)
Paranormal Romance
(Celestra Book World in Order)
Ethereal
Tremble
Burn
Wicked
Vex
Expel
Toxic Part One
Toxic Part Two
Elysian
Ephemeral Academy
Ephemeral
Evanescent
Entropy
Ethereal Knights (Celestra Knights)
Season of the Witch (A Celestra Companion)
Celestra Forever After
Celestra Forever After
The Dragon and the Rose
The Serpentine Butterfly
Crown of Ashes
Throne of Fire
All Hail the King
Roar of the Lion
Acknowledgments
Thank YOU, the reader, for joining us on this adventure to Cider Cove. We hope you’re enjoying the Country Cottage Mysteries as much as we are. Don’t miss Death Takes a Holiday coming up next. It’s summertime in Cider Cove! Ree’s family reunion heads to the inn and so does murder. Thank you so much from the bottom of our hearts for taking this journey with us. We cannot wait to take you back to Cider Cove!
Special thank you to the following people for taking care of this book—Kaila Eileen Turingan-Ramos, Jodie Tarleton, Margaret Lapointe, Amy Barber, and Lisa Markson. And a very big shout out to Lou Harper of Cover Affairs for designing the world’s best covers.
A heartfelt thank you to Paige Maroney Smith for being so amazing in every single way.
And last, but never least, thank you to Him who sits on the throne. Worthy is the Lamb! Glory and honor and power are yours. We owe you everything, Jesus.
About the Authors
Addison Moore is a New York Times, USA TODAY, and Wall Street Journal bestselling author. Her work has been featured in Cosmopolitan Magazine. Previously she worked as a therapist on a locked psychiatric unit for nearly a decade. She resides on the West Coast with her husband, four wonderful children, and two dogs where she eats too much chocolate and stays up way too late. When she's not writing, she's reading. Addison’s Celestra Series has been optioned for film by 20th Century Fox.
Bellamy Bloom is a USA TODAY bestselling author who writes cozy mysteries filled with humor, intrigue and a touch of the supernatural. When she's not writing up a murderous storm she's snuggled by the fire with her two precious pooches, chewing down her to-be-read pile and drinking copious amounts of coffee.
For up to the minute pre-order and new release alerts:
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Raining Cats and Killers: Cozy Mystery (Country Cottage Mysteries Book 17) Page 18
