Fed Up [Hardcover]

Jessica Conant-Park (Author), Susan Conant (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 3, 2009

The latest in a series with "all the right ingredients-fresh characters, a dash of humor and a sizzling romance."(Elaine Viets)

Part-time student Chloe Carter is planning her best friend's wedding, working for her parents-and glued to her chef boyfriend, Josh, as he competes to star in a new TV series. The premise: Josh hijacks unsuspecting grocery shoppers and prepares them gourmet dinners. Everything's going great-until one shopper drops dead.

With the cameras on him from the beginning, Josh is obviously innocent, but Chloe wonders: Was it one of Josh's competitors? Or the deceased's husband? Or someone on the crew?

Sifting through suspects, Chloe deals with wedding chaos and Josh's erratic behavior. She'll have to balance her plate while trying to catch a food felon...

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In Conant-Park and Conant's cute fourth Gourmet Girl mystery to feature Chloe Carter (after 2008's Turn Up the Heat), Josh Driscoll, Chloe's chef boyfriend, unwittingly serves up some poisoned lamb on a Boston cable reality TV show, Chefly Yours. Both Josh and Chloe fall ill, but it's Francie, a randomly chosen shopper at the gourmet store Natural High, who eats too much of the digitalis-laced dish and doesn't recover. Was Francie the intended victim or just unlucky? Suspects range from Josh's fellow contestants competing for a new eight-part cooking show to some pranksters who may have taken a joke too far. Preparations for the wedding of Chloe's very pregnant best friend distract social work's answer to Nancy Drew from her sleuthing, but not for long. Recipes, some by pro chefs, round out this delectable chick lit cozy, which ends on an emotional cliffhanger for Chloe. (Feb.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Every chef’s worst nightmare is to have a diner drop dead after consuming his cuisine—it’s the ultimate negative review. In the latest mystery-with-recipes from the Conants, the authors find inspiration from popular television cooking shows. Chloe’s friend Josh competes on cable television in a series where a chef descends on some unsuspecting grocery shopper and accompanies the shopper home to “surprise” a significant other with a gourmet dinner. Voyeuristic thrills come from the stunned and startled eater’s reaction, and foodies get to watch professional chefs adapt to unfamiliar kitchens and improvised menus. To chef Josh’s chagrin, the unsuspecting shopper’s wife reacts to his fancy dinner with a speedy, televised demise. Chloe must find out just what killed the poor woman and who devised the foul deed. Recipes appended to this whodunit come from restaurants and stretch from simple salad to butter-poached lobster. --Mark Knoblauch

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Berkley Hardcover; 1st Printing edition (February 3, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0425225984
• ISBN-13: 978-0425225981
• Product Dimensions: 6 x 6.1 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,539,341 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars AMAZING, June 29, 2011

By 

BIGGSonbooks - See all my reviews

This review is from: Fed Up (Gourmet Girl Mystery) (Kindle Edition)

I absolutely loved this book! I read it in about two days... I was even reading it during class. I would recommend this book to anyone and everyone. It was unpredictable and riveting. I'm looking forward to reading a lot of other books by these authors.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A delectable treat, December 22, 2009

A Kid's Review

This review is from: Fed Up (Gourmet Girl Mystery) (Kindle Edition)

Chloe has a very busy summer during her break from school. Not only is she planning her best friends wedding (and showers), but she's also working for her parents and helping out her boyfriend Josh as he competes for a TV food show of his own. When one of the contestants drops dead (as well as Chloe, Josh and the film crew getting sick) everyone assumes it was food poisoning. Unfortunately it's never that easy when Chloe is around. When Chloe finds out that the woman was in fact murdered, she sets out to find out just who is responsible. While dealing with Josh's weird behavior, the bride's whacked out mother and a very hot carpenter Chloe is determined to find out what happened. The wedding of Owen & Ade is sweet, funny and surprising all at the same time. Naomi (her mentor from last semester) helps brings calm and reason when it's needed most. And the cliffhanger will leave you begging for the authors to write book 5 just as fast as they can! Another delectable treat you won't want to miss!!!!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars How she spent her summer vacation, April 11, 2009

By 

Story Circle Book Reviews - See all my reviews

This review is from: Fed Up (Hardcover)

If "how I spent my summer vacation" is an essay topic for soon-to-be second-year social work graduate student Chloe Carter, she's going to go right over the word limit. She has quite a summer to tell about.

In the fourth offering of the "Gourmet Girl Mysteries" by mother-daughter team Jessica Conant-Park and Susan Conant Fed Up, Chloe has lots of adventures--and problems on her hands. She planned to spend the summer selling environmentally-sound rain barrels in and around Boston for her somewhat zany parents' landscaping business. She expected to use her extra hours helping her best friend plan her wedding, and to enjoy her boyfriend Chef Josh's company and cooking. Plenty to fill a summer.

Then while Josh is the featured chef on a reality cooking show, the woman diner takes a bite of his scrumptious lamb chop and shrieks. She doesn't shriek for long. In a few minutes, she is dead--poisoned with digitalis. Chloe, who sees herself as a latter-day Nancy Drew, tackles the mystery and manages to solve it, but not without excitement and some rather comic scrapes.

While the story has a light-hearted approach and some interesting subplots about wedding planning and flowers; especially foxglove; there are also serious moments--especially those dealing with the relationships between mothers and daughters. This is a cozy series with lots of appeal. Who knows where and when Chloe will confront her next mystery? I'm sure she will.

I face a dilemma about what to do with the book now that I've read it. Do I slip it into the bookcase with my collection of mysteries? Or does it join the ranks of cookbooks on the kitchen shelf? It's hard to decide, for a bonus lies within its pages, a collection of great recipes. (Yes, even one for lamb.) I can't wait for pumpkin season to try the wedding reception highlight "Pumpkin Stew in a Pumpkin."

by Patricia Nordyke Pando
for Story Circle Book Reviews
reviewing books by, for, and about women