Earthly Delights: Corinna Chapman Mystery (Corinna Chapman Mysteries), Kerry Greenwood; Poisoned Pen Press

“Corinna Chapman was once a high profile accountant and banker. Now she is a baker working in her own business, Earthly Delights, in Flinders Lane, Melbourne, Australia. Corinna is living in an eccentric building on the Roman model called Insula. She is quite content with her cat, Horatio, and her shop until a junkie falls half dead on her grate, a gorgeous sabra stalks along her alley and tells her that she is beautiful, and she starts receiving threatening letters accusing her of being a scarlet woman. Life for Corinna has suddenly become interesting. And she still needs to get her bread out in time for the morning rush….”

Liz’s Notes: Entertaining characters, a terrific sense of place and mouthwatering descriptions of food make this Australian mystery absolutely delightful.

Hot, Sour, Salty, Sweet, Sherri L. Smith; Delacorte Books For Young Readers

“Disaster strikes when Ana Shen is about to deliver the salutatorian speech at her junior high school graduation, but an even greater crisis looms when her best friend invites a crowd to Ana’s house for dinner, and Ana’s multicultural grandparents must find a way to share a kitchen.”
Robin’s Note:This title is Sherri Smith’s most recent, and features delectable food mixed with family drama, but all of her titles are different and inviting stand alone novels with strong, intelligent teen girls at the core.  I’d very much recommend Lucy the Giant for a different take on needing to be the adult in a family, and the excellent historical novel Flygirl, about a young woman who decides to pass as white in order to become a Women’s Air Service Pilot (or a WASP) during World War II.