No Roast for the Weary (A Coffeehouse Mystery)
by Cleo Coyle
About No Roast for the Weary
No Roast for the Weary (A Coffeehouse Mystery)
Cozy Mystery
21st in Series
Setting – New York
Publisher : Berkley (April 1, 2025)
Hardcover : 368 pages
ISBN-10 : 0593642287
ISBN-13 : 978-0593642283
Digital ASIN : B0D8KDMP6S
When the Village Blend opens a Writer’s Block Lounge, a cold case crime turns up the heat on Clare and her crew in this gripping new entry in the beloved Coffeehouse Mystery series from New York Times bestselling author Cleo Coyle.
As much as master roaster Clare Cosi adores coffee, the landmark shop she manages won’t survive if she doesn’t sell enough of it. So when the Village Blend’s customer traffic grinds to a halt, she turns to her staff for creative ideas, and the Writer’s Block Lounge is born.
Madame, the eccentric octogenarian owner of the shop, is upset by this news. Years ago, a group of accomplished writers used the shop’s second-floor lounge to inspire each other, but the group disbanded when something dark occurred. Though that history is shrouded in mystery, Clare presses forward…
Soon the Village Blend tables are filled with aspiring novelists, playwrights, and poets, all happy to be coaxed, cajoled, and caffeinated by her coffeehouse crew. Clare admires the stamina of these scribes, many of them toiling at night jobs—driving taxis, tending bar, ushering for Broadway—while penning projects during the day.
Then one of their fictions turns fatal when a shocking secret leads to a deadly end. Unless Clare can untangle this mystery, uncover the truth, and stop a desperate killer, she fears more of these weary writers may be marked for eternal rest. ~ Includes a knockout menu of recipes.
Cleo Coyle, you continue to hold my heart with your Coffeehouse Mysteries! This is #21 in the series. You’d think the magic might start to fade. Not so. I love every single book, and No Roast for the Weary continues the trend in fine fashion.
Claire has a lot on her mind. Times are lean for the Village Blend. Customers aren’t coming in like they used to. When she asks her staff for thoughts on how they can get folks in the door, they hit on the idea of rejuvenating something the Blend sponsored many years ago – the Writer’s Block Lounge. But instead of sharing Claire’s excitement about bringing back a piece of Blend history, Madame is upset. A dark deed was associated with the previous Writer’s Block, and Madame thinks it’s best to let sleeping dogs lie, so to speak. Claire presses forward, though, and it isn’t long before she’s in a historical whodunit up to her eyeballs. And if she can’t unravel this one, well, soon the sign on the door may not say “Village Blend” anymore.
Esther has a special connection with one of the Writer’s Block patrons who was there back in the day, so she takes it especially hard when he’s hurt. She finds his notebook and takes on a new animal companion when they find the key to his apartment and a note about Wacker. Who’s Wacker? Read and find out.
And what is Claire’s ex Matt up to? She sees him meeting up with subpar coffee peddler Cody “Drifter” Wood, but when she tries to get hold of him to ask why, Matt keeps ghosting her. Does Cody have designs on the Blend? And is Matt seriously considering a deal?
A coded notebook, an unsolved crime from decades past, a shadowy figure who keeps turning up, people who are not what they seem – I found plenty to keep the pages turning. And of course, there are recipes at the end. Y’all know I’m a sucker for good recipes.
I don’t know that I’ll ever get tired of this series. I feel like I’m getting together with friends when I open the pages of each new book, and it makes me smile. You can read this as a stand-alone, but I recommend starting at the beginning of the series and getting the whole story!
Scroll on down to enter the giveaway! Then stop by the other blogs on the tour to see what they thought.
Disclaimer: I received an advance copy from Great Escapes Book Tours. I was not required to leave a review. All opinions here are mine, and I don’t say nice things about books I don’t actually like.
About Cleo Coyle
CLEO COYLE is a pseudonym for Alice Alfonsi, writing in collaboration with her husband, Marc Cerasini. Both are New York Times bestselling authors of the long-running Coffeehouse Mysteries and Haunted Bookshop Mysteries, now celebrating more than 20 years in print. With more than one million books sold, their works have been translated into Spanish, Japanese, and Czech; received multiple Best of Year selection honors from reviewers; and have been recommended by Booklist as among the best culinary mysteries for core library mystery collections. Alice and Marc are also bestselling media tie-in writers who have penned properties for Lucasfilm, NBC, Fox, Disney, Imagine, Toho, and MGM. They live and work in New York City, where they write independently and together, wrangle their rescue cats, drink a lot of java, and cook like crazy. Connect with Cleo at CoffeehouseMystery.com
Author Links
Webpage: https://www.coffeehousemystery.com/
Free Newsletter: https://mailchi.mp/cleocoylerecipes/newsletter
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CleoCoyle/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/CleoCoyle
BookBub: https://www.bookbub.com/profile/cleo-coyle
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/51488.Cleo_Coyle
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cleocoyle_author/
Purchase Links:
Amazon Barnes & Noble Kobo Google Play Bookshop.org
TOUR PARTICIPANTS
April 3 – Read Your Writes Book Reviews – SPOTLIGHT
April 3 – Elizabeth McKenna – Author – SPOTLIGHT
April 4 – Jody’s Bookish Haven – SPOTLIGHT
April 4 – View from the Birdhouse – REVIEW
April 5 – The Plain-Spoken Pen – REVIEW
April 5 – The Mystery of Writing – SPOTLIGHT
April 6 – The Editing Pen – AUTHOR GUEST POST
April 7 – Books, Ramblings, and Tea – SPOTLIGHT
April 8 – Escape With Dollycas Into A Good Book – REVIEW
April 9 – Christy’s Cozy Corners – AUTHOR GUEST POST
April 9 – Novels Alive – REVIEW
April 10 – Socrates Book Reviews – SPOTLIGHT
April 11 – Cozy Up With Kathy – REVIEW
April 12 – Maureen’s Musings – SPOTLIGHT
April 12 – FUONLYKNEW – SPOTLIGHT
April 13 – Sapphyria’s Book Reviews – SPOTLIGHT
April 14 – Diane Reviews Books – REVIEW
April 15 – Boys’ Mom Reads! – SPOTLIGHT
April 16 – Frugal Freelancer – SPOTLIGHT
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What an AWESOME review. You truly made our day! Thank you so much for your very kind words about our new (hard to believe 21st!) Coffeehouse Mystery. I have to tell you that Marc and I had a great time writing this one, especially because the mystery involves a community of quirky writers. We’re pretty quirky ourselves, and we’ve been working writers for a few decades now, so we had fun playing with all of that in No Roast for the Weary. 🙂 Thank you again! We’re thrilled to know that you enjoyed your return visit to our beloved Village Blend, and (may we say) we hope you continue to enjoy your visits for years to come. xoxo
With love from NYC,
Cleo
Cleo, thank you for stopping by my blog! I’m glad to know my review made y’all’s day. Y’all keep writing, and I’ll keep reading! And I’m pretty sure I’ll love the series for as long as it lasts.
Me again. Holy cannoli, that’s a big smiley face! I promise you, all I did was type a colon and an open paren (for a smiley emoji). It was the ‘bots that turned into the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man from Ghostbusters. (Yep, now I’m channeling Esther!)
Great review, Lisa. This is a series that I look at all the time, but with 21 books in, it is tough to start it now. So glad you are still enjoying it so much.
Hi, Carla — Cleo Coyle here to reply to your comment and help new readers understand our approach to writing a long series. The Coffeehouse Mysteries have stood the test of time (and 21 entries) for a few good reasons, one of which is that Marc and I always write our books as standalone stories.
Many new readers have told us that they are not lost when they read one of our later books because we take the time to introduce our characters and their back stories. That’s why we encourage all new readers to pick up any one of our 21 Coffeehouse Mystery titles and dive in. If you enjoy it, you can go back and see where it all started with book number one, ON WHAT GROUNDS, now celebrating more than two decades in print. Cheers for stopping by and thanks again to the Plain-Spoken Pen for the wonderful review and her continued support of our work. We appreciate it!
With love from NYC,
Cleo
Carla, what Cleo said! This is a series where sure, you can start at the beginning and read all the way through. But you can pick up any of the books and get enough of a feel for the backstory that you won’t feel lost. I think I actually started around #8 or 9, and then went back to the beginning and read the entire series. Jump on in! 🙂
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