Magical Cakes of Love: (The Yolanda’s Yummery Series, Book 2) – Plus Excerpt

By Lisa Maliga

Copyright 2014

In Magical Cakes of Love, there is romance and mystery as one of Yolanda’s regular customers has gone missing. For those of you who’ve read The Great Brownie Taste-off, you’ll know that Yolanda Carter always refers to her customers as appreciated guests. In the second book, appreciated guest Captain Angus, a homeless man who enjoys her brownies and cupcakes twice a day, mysteriously vanishes. As the story unfolds, the lead investigator thinks that either Yolanda or her best friend, Teagan Mishkin, might know more about the missing man’s whereabouts. Way more as they’re his suspects.

Here’s the official description:

With the successful launch of Yolanda’s Yummery in the trendy Los Angeles suburb of Brentwood, Yolanda Carter is on a roll. Her fame is starting to grow as news spreads about all her delicious desserts. An accompanying Beverage Bar will open in three weeks. She’s involved in a budding romance with sophisticated British tea baron, Nigel Garvey. Life is sweet.

Complications arise when Captain Angus, a regular homeless customer, disappears…and Yolanda becomes a suspect. 

Someone is framing Yolanda for the crime. Lead investigator Detective Churchill is certain that she murdered the captain. Best friend Teagan Mishkin is also a suspect and wants to clear both their names. Will Yolanda’s relationships be derailed by the daily disasters she’s encountering? Can those Magical Cakes of Love save her and the yummery?

This is a clean romance/cozy mystery, and not only was it fun to write, the cover was a joy to photograph. Yes, I had to go to the yummery to pick up one of those Decadent Chocolate Magical Cakes of Love and take almost 100 pictures of it. The day was warm and sunny with a high of 85 and even though I’m cold blooded I had to lower the temperature of the air conditioning unit from a comfortable 78 down to 70 degrees.

It was difficult to avoid sampling the cake, and I thought about cutting a slice and putting it on some fine china but I did that after I finished taking and previewing the pictures.

I’d like to stress that Yolanda doesn’t ordinarily make wedding cakes but in this book she makes an exception, as a favor to a good friend’s sister who’ll soon be tying the knot.  Here is part of that scene:

Excerpt from Chapter 2

Suddenly a shorter woman with dyed black hair pulled into a stubby ponytail walked in, looking around. She wore a shapeless mauve sundress paired with black sneakers. “So this is the yummery,” Rosemary said. “Kinda on the small side…” She walked over to the display case and saw only three Magical Cakes of Love and barely a dozen brownies. “Did we come at a bad time?” Rosemary asked, her forehead wrinkling.

“Rosemary! So nice to see the bride-to-be,” Yolanda said to the disgruntled woman. “Well, no, you came at the end of the day. I was just going to put everything in the fridge, but I made sure to save you a Decadent Chocolate and a Fancy Vanilla Buttercream Magical Cake of Love to test.” She gestured, moving towards the back of the store. “Let’s go back to my office and we’ll sample them.”

Thirty minutes later and they were still in Yolanda’s office with the two cakes cut into several slices, and the chocolate cake had fewer of them.

“Now I tried on 128 wedding dresses before I found the perfect one…” Rosemary commented, taking another bite of the chocolate cake slice on a paper plate. “It was a nightmare trying to get one in my petite size and style because I wanted the Sweetheart Serenade model. It’s ecru lace with puffed sleeves edged with rhinestones and pearls and a silk crinoline skirt with a detachable eighteen-foot lace train edged with pearls…oh you’d think I was looking for something unusual!” She sighed and rolled her big watery blue-gray eyes. Rosemary pulled out her iPhone and punched the screen a few times. “Here’s the winning dress…” She turned the phone’s screen so it faced Yolanda and a blurry shot of some off white creampuff meringue of a wedding dress was seen.

“That looks nice,” Yolanda stated diplomatically, glad when the phone was removed from her line of vision.

“Well it should. And let me tell you about the sixty-one punch recipes before the right one … and I think the florist is going to be changing again soon…” She enjoyed another bite of her cake, paused, and took another. She sighed loudly. “You’d think people could handle brides changing their minds occasionally.”

Amazon: Magical Cakes of Love

iTunes: Magical Cakes of Love

B&N NOOK: Magical Cakes of Love

Kobo: Magical Cakes of Love

Smashwords: Magical Cakes of Love

The Great Brownie Taste-off is FREE! 

Introducing…The Great Brownie Taste-off!

By Lisa Maliga

Copyright 2014

I've discovered something funny about writing romance books – I like 'em sweet. Literally. In my first, Sweet Dreams, the cover art shows an original photograph of brightly colored [and incredibly sweet and fruity] French macarons. These sandwich-type cookies are small and delicate but oh so worth it! Subtle hint: try one…or a few!

But how do I go from macarons to the classic and better known dessert of brownies? Well, I didn't plan it. In fact, I thought I was writing the first book of the romance series, which is about cakes, not brownies. Even though I was following a detailed outline, the brownie angle took over and so I went with it. The first book of the Yolanda's Yummery series establishes how this yummery [bakery] came into existence.

Here's what The Great Brownie Taste-off is about…

Yolanda Carter comes from a family of artisans and lives in her deceased grandparent's cottage in Sherman Oaks, California. She works at a small cat shelter but dreams of owning a bakery. Her friend from high school, Teagan Mishkin, knows that Yolanda needs money and suggests better paying work as a cocktail waitress. The interview takes an unexpected turn and she stumbles across a scheme to close down the cat shelter.

The plan Yolanda concocts may be the only way to save the shelter. Helped by her parents, coworkers and friends, a rising young blogger also takes an interest in her plight. Will she bake the best brownies of her life?

BONUS ~ Includes the winning brownie recipe!

FREE at B&N Nook: The Great Brownie Taste-off
FREE at Smashwords: The Great Brownie Taste-off
FREE at Kobo: The Great Brownie Taste-off
More links to sites and reviews: The Great Brownie Taste-off

This book is now available in paperback format at Amazon: The Great Brownie Taste-off

Sweet Dreams ~ A Contemporary Romance eBook

By Lisa Maliga

Hello! I'm back and want to let you know that there is finally some news about Notes from Nadir and Leaving Nadir. Later this month, I'll be revealing brand new covers, and an excerpt or two. By November, I hope to have paperback editions. But for now, I'd like to inform those of you who like "sweet" romances with elements of humor and suspense--there's a new eBook you might like to check out.

SWEET DREAMS

Former bakery employee Brenda Nevins is now a successful romance author of the Yolanda’s Yummery book series. Best friend and agent, Samantha Ho, has gotten her a movie deal and a reality TV show about her forthcoming bakery, named after her bestselling series. The frosting on Brenda’s cake is her engagement to handsome and sexy Warren Stillman, a Beverly Hills attorney.

Complications arise whenever any communication she sends or receives turns into snippets of a cheesy science fiction story. Her agent, fiancé, movie producer and anyone else on the receiving end thinks she’s playing a stupid joke. Who is responsible for hijacking her career, her finances, and even her fiancé?

For Brenda, finding the culprit is necessary to make sure that her dreams aren’t derailed. In the process, she wonders if her aspirations are as dreamy as she’s imagined?

This novella is approximately 30,000 words/95 pages. Only 0.99!

Smashwords: Sweet Dreams
Amazon: Sweet DreamsKobo: Sweet Dreams
Barnes & Noble NOOK BOOK: Sweet Dreams

Win a FREE copy [until Oct. 5] and check out the review of Sweet Dreams at Cheryl’s Book Nook

Out of the Blue ~ A Coming of Age Book

Out of the Blue is the second novel I ever wrote and finished. I was in the midst of working on Leaving Nadir, when the Olympics distracted me. So what does that have to do with writing? Seeing so much about the U.K. reminded me of the manuscript I'd been working on since the 1990s. It went from being on DOS to making the transition to Word for Windows to a 98,000-word contemporary romance in 2002 and to further revisions and a new title in 2008. So it was sitting on my hard drive as a future book file, which I'd work on whenever. Only whenever happened to be the summer of 2012.

What's it about? As you can see it has a tagline: A story of two drifters who have no clue about what they are searching for... and it takes place during the 1980s and mostly in a small, scenic village in the U.K. You'll find no mention of cell phones, Prince Harry, i-anything, 9-11…back then people actually smoked in pubs and ashtrays were even provided.

OK, without any more of an intro, here's the blurb:

Sylvia Gardner is a naïve cashier who lives with her psychologically abusive mother in Richport, Illinois. Vivian Gardner repeatedly tells her daughter not to trust men because they only want to use her. Upset with being dumped by her first boyfriend; Sylvia later falls in love with an English actor after watching him on a PBS drama. For two years, she researches Alexander Thorpe's life and career, saving her money to travel to his Cotswolds village, intent on meeting him. Staying in the village's only inn, she gets room and board in exchange for working at the Windrush Arms Hotel.

Alexander is going through a personal career crisis, as he wants to continue making art films. He still hasn’t embraced the notion of “going Hollywood.” Additionally, the walls of loneliness and booze are closing in due to a long stint between acting gigs.

Complications ensue when the drunken hotelier, Harry Livingstone, takes a fancy to Sylvia. As in her fantasies, Sylvia and Alexander get together—but with unexpected results. 

OUT OF THE BLUE is available on Amazon, B&N Nook, Smashwords and Kobo.

On December 4th, Out of the Blue will be available as a paperback!