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Jenn McKinlay is a pen name of the famous author Lucy Lawrence. She is the New York Times bestselling author, who got name and fame through her mystery series ‘Cupcake Bakery Mysteries’. Jenn has written three of the most successful mystery series of all time along with some other stand-alone novels. She uses other names such as Lucy Lawrence and Josie Belle as well for writing novels. Thriller and mystery genre books and novels are her specialty. The other well known novel series’ written by Jenn include the ‘Library Lover’s Mystery’ and the ‘Hat Shop Mystery’. Apart from writing, Jenn is also very fond of making doodles and fun crafts along with her children. She took her first class of decoupage when she was around twelve years old. She has a local craft store to her name as well owned by the name Michael’s Craft Store. Jenn is married to musician Chris and has a couple of sons. She lives in Scottsdale, Arizona along with her husband, sons and number of pet animals comprising of a dog, two cats and a fish.
Jenn’s father was a glider pilot and because of that she has flown a lot with him. She has taken lessons for flying a glider aircraft from her father. She featured on the TV show called ‘Moloney’ as an extra along with actor Peter Strauss. Although she did not like to be part of the show, she worked for 18 hours and considers it to be the most boring 18 hours of her life. Another reason for which she hated acting was that the actors were not paid well at that time. Jenn is of the belief that daydreaming is the most underrated skill of life. When she was a kid, she wanted to become a jockey and was helped by her mother, who took her for riding lessons. She was very tall considering her age at that time and hence had to give up the training. Jenn attended the Southern Conn State University, where she studied Library Science and English Literature. After coming out of college, she worked at a bar named Toad’s Place and took a full time job in Cromwell, C.T as a librarian. Although she had decided to become a writer after watching the movie ‘Romancing the Stone’, she would not get time to write anything because of her job. So she moved to Arizona and began writing romantic novels. They did not prove to be any good to her so she decided to take up some part time jobs. She fell in love with Chris during this course and became the mother of a boy. After this, life took a strange turn when she received a call from Harlequin. She signed a contract with them and continued writing romantic stories, but was not gaining anything out of it.
Jenn decided to switch from romance to mystery novels. So, in 2008 she gave the best work of her life which was the Cupcake Mystery series. With this series, she began tasting some success and two of novel series’ were listed on the New York Times best sellers’ list. She still continues to write mostly in her kitchen as her apartment is always full of pets, kids and guitars. The Cupcake Mystery series written by Jenn McKinlay is a six novel series, The first novel of the series was titled ‘Sprinkle with murder’ and was published in March, 2010. The series on the whole was a turning point in the life of Jenn, which also helped her to establish herself as a highly acclaimed author. The first novel was a tender offering from Jenn which was full of likeable characters and a refreshing plot. It revolved around the life of two friends named Melanie Cooper and Angie DeLaura. The plot shows that they had just opened a cupcake bakery under the name of ‘Fairy Tale Cupcakes’. Their best friend Tate Harper had helped them financially to open the bakery. Even though it was a dream come true for them, they were always under threat from Christie Stevens, the fiancee of Tate Harper and a fashion designer by profession. She would always threaten them and place excessive demands before them, which they had to fulfil as they were under a debt of her fiancee.
One day, Christie is found dead holding a sample of wedding cupcake in her studio. As a result, Melanie and Angie are held as suspects for the murder of Christie Stevens. Melanie keeps faith in the police that they will be able to solve the case and find the true killer. She is also very much worried about the safety of Christie and Tat’s family and the motives of Angie’s DA brother Joe. So she steps out on her own to do the investigation and find the culprit. The novel was very well reviewed by the major reviewers and Jenn got much acclaim for her efforts. Other established authors described her debut mystery to be flowing as a smooth buttercream frosting mentioned in the bakery of Melanie Cooper. They have praised the characters of the novel to be pretty delicious and the romantic segment of the novel to be an icing on the cake. Sheila Connolly has appreciated it as sweet read. The sequel to the first novel was published in January 2011 and was titled ‘Buttercream Bump Off’. It was a continuation of the mysterious life of Melanie Cooper and Angie DeLaura who had somehow managed to get out clean from the murder trial of Christie Stevens in the first part.
In the second novel of the series, Melanie and Angie are shown to be busy preparing delicious cupcakes in their Fairy Tale Cupcakes bakery for the upcoming Valentine’s Day. But they again land into trouble when Melanie’s mother is held suspect for the murder of Baxter Malloy. Someone had poisoned Baxter on his first date with Melane’s mother and she got framed with the murder charges. Melanie and Angie gear up to do the investigations themselves and put the true culprit under trial in order to save Melanie’s mother. They manage their time selling cupcakes and studying the past life of Baxter to come up with some clue. With their hard work and determination, they become successful in getting their hands on the murderer and saving Melanie’s mother from the murder charges. This novel debuted as #31 on the New York Times best sellers’ list. It was well appreciated by the audience for its smooth narrations and mysterious plot. Author Cleo Coyle termed it as a ‘winning read’ and praised Jenn McKinlay for her writings.
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11 Responses to “Jenn McKinlay”
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I love your cupcake mysteries. The characters are so funny. I love marty. I loved each book they were not repetitive at all. Went thru all 15 in a matter of a couple of months. Hoping there will be more to come. Thank you for such fun reading
As a former school librarian I fell in love with the library series, then started reading both the hat series and the cup cake series. Love them all.
I would love some more Hat Shop Mysteries. I have also read nearly all of the Library Lover’s mysteries.
Love “A Happily Ever After romance” What about Sawyer? Isn’t there a story for him? Really couldn’t put the books down and would like the series to continue. Please.
I have read the Cupcake mysteries as well as the Library series. Want more!
I just love your cupcake mysteries. Does Detective Manny ever get a love interest besides Mel? I just love him, but I also love Mel and Joe.
Thanks,
Stephanie
Are you not continuing the Bluff Point series? So sad! I’ve read the Cupcake series 2x!!
Please continue to write. I began with the Hat series, then read the cupcake series and will start the library series. Took a break to read one of your stand alone. Keep up the good work. Keep writing.
Why haven’t you written any more Hat Shop mysteries. I love the Cupcake and Library series, but I miss the Hat Shop books.
I just love your library mystery series, I am a newcomer to your writing, and I will keep reading you!!
I love your books. I’ve read three series now and want more. They are delightful, clean language, and funny. Good work! More, more, more please!