Something Borrowed, Something 90% Dark

September 21, 2023

Something Borrowed, Something 90% Dark

Something Borrowed, Something 90% Dark
(A Bean to Bar Mystery)
by Amber Royer

About Something Borrowed, Something 90% Dark

Something Borrowed, Something 90% Dark (A Bean to Bar Mystery)
Cozy Mystery
6th in Series
Setting – Texas
Golden Tip Press (September 12, 2023)
Print length ‏ : ‎ 301 pages
Digital ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0C9YXTC78

Felicity Koerber’s bean to bar chocolate shop on Galveston’s historic Strand is hosting the friends and family coming into town for her best friend Autumn’s wedding. As matron of honor, Felicity has a ton of tasks to complete – including making chocolates for the gift bags. She doesn’t have time to solve another murder. But when one of the bridesmaids becomes a prime suspect in the death of a visiting real estate agent, Felicity has to put her detecting skills to use again to keep the wedding plans from getting derailed.

She’s already nervous about the impeding deadline she’s given herself to finally choose between her two love interests – and figuring where life goes once she makes her choice. But add in a missing pigmy goat and a new coffee shop that wants to partner with her, and she’s frazzled.

She begins to discover that not everything is as it seems among the wedding guests. Can she handle the wedding preparations, pull off turning her shop into a concert venue, and unmask the killer – before anyone else dies?

About Amber Royer

Amber Royer writes the CHOCOVERSE comic telenovela-style foodie-inspired space opera series, and the BEAN TO BAR MYSTERIES. She is also the author of STORY LIKE A JOURNALIST: A WORKBOOK FOR NOVELISTS, which boils down her writing knowledge into an actionable plan involving over 100 worksheets to build a comprehensive story plan for your novel. She blogs about creative writing techniques and all things chocolate at www.amberroyer.com. She also teaches creative writing and is an author coach. If you are very nice to her, she might make you cupcakes. Chocolate cupcakes, of course.

Q&A With the Author:

What did you enjoy most about writing this book?

I always love getting in the minds and hearts of my characters, and one of the most fun things about writing a series is that in each different mystery, different characters in my protagonist’s friend circle and community can come to the fore. In this one, Tiff, one of Felicity’s quieter friends is forced to talk about her past when she’s a suspect in the murder that kicks off Something Borrowed, Something 90% Dark. Felicity didn’t meet Tiff until Tiff moved to Galveston, so left most of the backstory as a blank swathe to fill in. Making the murder victim be Tiff’s friend from before the move (admittedly one she has had a falling out with) adds another dimension to the story.

I also love writing the different animals that show up in the series. Felicity gets to hang out with a different one in each book. She’s a craft chocolate maker, and I got a chance to sample a goat milk chocolate bar, so I knew that had to wind up in one of the books. Therefore, it was only fitting that she winds up looking for a missing pigmy goat, and once she finds little Princess Buttercup, winds up with her in tow for a big chunk of the book

Do you have any other books you are working on that you can tell us about?

Of course! I am working on the next book in the Bean to Bar Mysteries series. There were some big shakeups to Felicity’s social life in Something Borrowed, Something 90% Dark, and I can’t wait to explore the fallout. I haven’t settled on a title yet, but tentatively right now it is called A Chocolate is Announced, and will have a murder mystery party as a backdrop for a couple of the big scenes. You can expect that one in March.

Can you tell us about what you have planned for the future?

I’m planning for several more Bean to Bar Mysteries, as I still have a lot to say about these characters and ideas for complicating their lives.

I’ve also been researching a new project involving a woman who inherits a coffee roastery and stumbles onto a murder, but that’s still in the planning stages. Let me just say that the research has been delicious.

How long have you been writing?

I decided I wanted to be a writer in the fourth grade, and joined my first serious writer’s group in high school. (There was another teen there, and we were able to sit in on instruction and activities just like anyone else.) It took me another decade and a half, though, (and a number of trunk novels/personal projects) before I was ready for publication.

Anything more you would like to say to your readers and fans?

Thank you for following along with Felicity’s adventures! I love it when reader reach out to tell me about their favorite elements, or to express how excited they are for the next book. I love it when readers tell me they’ve connected with Felicity’s journey over the course of the series out of grief, moving fully into this next chapter of her life, of that they’ve connected with Ash’s feelings about being adopted (as am I). Y’all are the reason the series is so emotionally rich.