FINDING COMFORT
Comfort and Joy Trilogy, Book 2
by
Kimberly Fish
Women’s Fiction / Contemporary / Cozy Mystery
Publisher: Fish Tales Publishing
Date of Publication: September 1, 2023
Number of Pages: 312 pages
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Even with all her experience, Gloria Bachman, retired banker and candy entrepreneur, didn’t see this coming.
Sweeties, the beloved Comfort chocolate shop, was ready for its cameo in advertising extraordinaire Jazzy Mezcal’s famous travel and food show! Comfort town folks had worked hard all summer to get their shops Hallmark-movie ready. On the eve of the TV crews overtaking the town, Gloria’s Chamber of Commerce welcome party gets drenched in a wicked rainstorm. Locals call it a “blue norther,” and a dreaded agent of change. Flooding seems like the worst of their problems until the celebrity TV host turns up dead.
In shock, Gloria’s friends turn to her to figure out who could be responsible for such a disaster. With the TV crew and guests in town for the 8th Street Market’s annual shopping event, suspects are endless. Reluctant to get involved, Gloria would much rather focus on the delicious romance with Mason Lassiter. And she would if a frenemy from Kerrville didn’t haunt her every step. Now as Gardner Rogers treads on her turf, everything feels suspicious.
With all eyes on Gloria to find the truth behind Jazzy Mezcal’s untimely death, she indulges her curiosity for problem solving while trying to disguise how unsure she is about the future with her boyfriend. Disruption in Mason’s world, mayhem in Comfort, and one epic chocolate disaster rouse Gloria to action and make her decide what’s worth fighting for. All she can say for sure, is that no one is finding any comfort in Comfort.
In
Sweet Comfort, Gloria Bachman tied herself in knots to avoid owning up to her feelings for Mason Lassiter. (In case you’re wondering,
I loved that book.) In
Finding Comfort, will we see her finally admit how she feels?
I am so glad to be back in Comfort with Gloria, Kali, Lacy, the Bunco ladies, and the Knitters! Here we see Comfort going all out. They’ve got a gen-you-wine celebrity coming to town in Jazzy Mescal, and the head of the Chamber of Commerce has everyone jumping through hoops to get things small-town photo op perfect. Gloria has taken on the task of planning a mixer for the townspeople and the TV folks, but a blue norther blowing in during the evening sends everyone running for cover. The next day, when the storm has passed, a new storm is unleashed as the town learns Jazzy Mescal is dead.
Kimberly Fish gives us a heck of a ride trying to sort out this puzzle! Is it suicide? Is it murder? Does Comfort have a killer lurking in its midst? Drue has eyes for Jazzy’s father, Cadillac “Cal” Wilson, and she implores Gloria to figure out what really happened. Despite Gloria’s insistence that she’s no detective, she finds herself smack dab in the thick of things, chasing clues and trying to find patterns in the facts.
We see a lot of different threads skillfully woven into the story in addition to the main thread of the mystery. Gardner, Gloria’s frenemy from her Kerrville days, is in town, and she keeps popping up like a bad penny. She claims to want to make amends, but Gloria is having none of it. A supposed food writer for Texas Monthly is sniffing around, on top of all the press drawn to town by Jazzy’s untimely demise, and he claims to want to write about the food scene in Comfort, starting with Sweeties. What’s his real story, and why is Gardner hanging out with him?
As always, Fish gives us many characters to love and some to boo heartily, and she fills the pages with small-town charm. In this book, the care and concern people have for their own is on full display. Gloria may have questioned whether she really fit in, but here, her friends and neighbors make it clear that she is very important to them. And Gloria, after wiffling and waffling and driving herself bonkers with what ifs, finally has to own up to her attraction to, and feelings for, Mason. What does their future hold? Let me just say that Fish throws some details in here that make me love both Gloria and Mason even more! I just want to reach into the pages and hug them both. And there’s also a perfect setup for the third book in the series, and now I gotta wait. Whine, whimper. Waiting is haaaaard.
I’ll admit, I didn’t see the big reveal coming. Something I thought was a fairly minor part of the story turned out to be much bigger than I anticipated, and it made for some fantastic “couldn’t put it down” reading! Even when I thought everything was resolved, there were a couple of reveals yet to come in Comfort. How long do I have to wait for the third book?! That’s too long!
The bonds of friendship, people pulling together to support their own, the charms of a small town I dearly want to visit now, chocolate (because duh, chocolate makes everything better), and that sweet, sweet, slow-burn, second-chance romance for people just about my age. That makes Finding Comfort a whole lot of fun to read for this old girl!
Keep on scrolling for the giveaway! Who doesn’t like surprises (and free ones, at that?!)
Kimberly Fish has been a professional writer in marketing and media for over thirty years, with regular contributions to area newspapers and magazines. As an accidental historian, she wrote two novels, The Big Inch and Harmon General, both based on factual events in Longview, Texas, that changed world history. Kimberly also offers a set of contemporary women’s fiction novels and novellas, based in the Texas Hill Country, that reveal her fascination with characters discovering their grit and sweet, second chances; all four of the novels have won distinguished awards. Finding Comfort is her latest novel, the second book in the Comfort and Joy Trilogy.
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Signed copy of FINDING COMFORT + surprise bonus gift!
(US only; ends midnight, CDT, 11/3/23)
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WOWZA! You are positively gushing over this story & series. One more reason I must carve out time to binge read in anticipation of the trilogy’s final installment coming…GAHH?! Can’t wait but will. Thanks for sharing your thoughts!
Happy to do it! I love running my mouth about really good books.
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Nice review. It’s easy to see why this book is so popular.