Showing results by author "Winnie Archer" in All Categories

Struggling photographer Ivy Culpepper has lots of soul-searching to do since returning to seaside Santa Sofia, California - that is, until the 36-year-old enters a bread-making class at Yeast of Eden, the Mexican bread shop in town. Whether it’s the aroma of fresh conchas in the oven or her instant connection with owner Olaya Solis, Ivy just knows the missing ingredients in her life are hidden among the secrets of Olaya’s bakery.

A holiday costume party in the sleepy coastal town of Santa Sofia could be just the boost Ivy needs for her fledgling photography business. At the party, Ivy enters a Victorian fantasy come to life, all courtesy of the fabulous Ms. Eliza Fox. Ivy gets to play shutterbug while hanging with Scrooge, Marley, the Cratchits, and other classic Dickens characters.

Photographer Ivy Culpepper is soon to make a home with her husband-to-be in the California beach town of Santa Sofia—but the Yeast of Eden bakery remains her second home. A regular who used Yeast of Eden as a workspace, Josh Prentiss always turned heads with his startlingly good looks and thousand-watt smile. But Ivy can’t help noticing one morning that he seems off his game. Later, during a visit to the park where she and Miguel plan to hold their engagement party—with plenty of baked goods on the menu—her pug Agatha sniffs out Josh lying in a bed of poppies…scone cold dead.

Vincent van Dough focaccia is being touted on Instagram as the best thing since sliced bread. By strategically placing chives, olives, and yellow peppers to look like poppies and sunflowers, bakers create a mouthwatering masterpiece in the style of the great postimpressionist painter. At Yeast of Eden, where bread making has always been an art, they're baking their own version for the school district's Spring Fling. But one person won't be tasting the Mexican bakery's latest specialty. Ambitious school-board president Nessa Renchrik has been murdered.

People come to the beach town of Santa Sofia as much for the healing properties of Yeast of Eden’s breads as for a vacation getaway. And now a cable food channel has selected the bakery as a featured culinary delight for a new show. Baking apprentice Ivy Culpepper is excited as the crew arrives, ready to capture all the ins and outs of the renowned bread shop. But instead they capture something much harder to stomach: the attempted murder of the show’s cameraman just outside Yeast of Eden....

Just as Ivy’s brother Billy is about to get engaged to his beloved, a tragedy interrupts the happy moment. The body of longtime Santa Sofia resident Marisol Ruiz washes up on the beach - and it’s even more heartbreaking since Marisol’s father also recently died. But Marisol was a strong competitive swimmer. It seems unlikely there’s even a grain of truth to the theory that she accidentally drowned.

Apprentice baker Ivy Culpepper sees art cars everywhere she turns. Besides helping prepare the bread and pastry for Santa Sofia’s annual spring event, she’s the official photographer, documenting the elaborate cars, outspoken artists, and riotous celebrations. Her brother Billy has been runner-up in the competition several times. Then Billy’s rival, Max Litman, is found dead, positioned as a prop in his own art car. The whole town knows there’s no love lost between the two men, and Billy is the prime suspect.

For once, Ivy Culpepper feels fulfilled. An apprenticeship at Yeast of Eden has opened her world to time-honored baking techniques under owner Olaya Solis’s guidance - as well as the freshest small-town gossip, courtesy of chatty regulars known as the Blackbird Ladies. Ivy even begins accepting that she and restaurateur Miguel Baptista may never again rekindle their romance - despite the undeniable tension between them. But she’s tied to Miguel again when his trusted produce supplier goes missing.