This was my first Hannah Swensen mystery. The concept of having recipes embedded within the story made it interesting. However, there are flaws that were difficult to overlook. The writing has problems, for instance, repeating words within a paragraph and repeating thoughts within a page or two. Very distracting.

One of the most difficult things to accept in the story is how Hannah gives away so many of her cookies. Why would anyone buy them when all they have to do is wait around a while and be given a package of them? I did not find Hannah as irritating as another reviewer did, but she seems very two-dimensional. Except, of course, for her romances with Mike and Norman. Who will she choose? Choice not yet made.

This is a light and quick read that can be anyone's guilty pleasure. Readers who enjoy these mysteries might also enjoy Rita Mae Brown's Sneaky Pie mysteries.

This is the second entry into the Hannah Swenson amateur sleuth series.

Hannah is asked to be a judge in the first annual Hartland Flour Dessert Bake-off and she is happy to participate. Hannah believes that this will give her some free advertising for her own shop, The Cookie Jar.

After the first night of judging, Coach Boyd Watson, another of the judges is honest in his opinions about the entries. Hannah agrees with his critiscims but advises him to use some tact when offering his opinion. Later that night Boyd is found murdered in his own garage by his wife, Danielle, who calls Hannah before the police to come and help her.

Hannah doesn't believe that Danielle, the abused wife of Boyd, is the murderess despite the fact that the police think she did. She takes it upon herself to prove Danielle's innocence with the help of her sister Andrea.

As always, Hannah and Andrea have good instincts and uncover more than they bargained for.

I am so excited that I found this series! Joanne is a great writer and I have really enjoyed her wit and her recipes. The characters are and their interactions are believeable and enjoyable. I wish we could take a weekend jaunt to Lake Eden. This book was just as good as the first one!
As a teacher, I know my peers will enjoy sampling the recipes listed in her books.

This is such a cute and fun mystery series and the recipes sound really yummy as well. This is the second book in the Hannah Swenson series following Chocolate Chip Cookie Murder which was also a wonderful read.

In the second book of the Hannah Swensen Mystery series, a company called Hartland Flour chooses to host their first annual bake-off in Lake Eden. Lots of people come to Lake Eden to compete in the contest and hone their culinary skills. Because of the increase in Lake Eden's population, the local businesses are booming, including Hannah's bakery. Everything seems to be going great until Boyd Watson, the basketball coach of Jordan High, is murdered.

What I liked about 'Strawberry Shortcake Murder':
I liked all the recipes that were included in the book. I also liked the fact that there is somewhat of a romance going on between Hannah and Norman and also Hannah and Mike but it's not overdone. Joanne Fluke did a good job of including the romance without having it override the mystery plot of the book.

What I didn't like:
As I read through the book, I almost felt like I was re-reading 'Chocolate Chip Cookie Murder'. The storyline was very, very similar. First you have the murder victim, second, there's the authority figure telling Hannah not to get involved in the investigation but Hannah of course doesn't pay attention and gets involved anyway. Then there's the breaking and entering into a possible suspects house who just happens to be out of town at the time. After the breaking and entering is done Hannah and Andrea continue to investigate this possible suspect but later on in the book, the possible suspect's car is found in their garage and their dead body is found not too far away and they die from a gunshot to the head. The possible suspect then just becomes a second murder victim. Finally, within the last 10-15 pages of the book, it's made clear who the murderer is and the murderer then threatens Hannah with a gun and describes how they plan on killing her. Hannah then thinks of a way to save herself and someone comes to her rescue.

I just felt that the second book was too similar to the first book. The events of both the first and second books were alike and sequenced in pretty much the same order. The murder victims died in the same way (the only difference is that Boyd was hit over the head with a hammer) and the second murder victims in both books were in similar situations (expected to leave town but found murdered before they got the chance to leave).

I understand that this series is a murder mystery series but it seems like Joanne Fluke followed some sort of 'recipe' (pun intended) for a mystery book where the events that are to occur in the book are arranged in a template and sequenced in a specific order and she fills in the blanks with the names of different characters for each book. Joanne Fluke could have changed the order of events or made the situations different from the first book.
She could have maybe changed the way some of the murders were carried out. Instead of someone being killed by being shot in the head, maybe they could be decapitated instead? Something!
I'm not saying that the books should be overly gory but I think the shot-to-the-head murder scene gets a little boring and there needs to be more variety.

The characters also need more variety! I still feel like all of the characters have somewhat of the same kind of personality, everyone is very polite and friendly. There's no one different. Lucy was the only character that was different and she was only in the book for a short period of time.

I have only read the first two books so maybe the series gets better. I really do hope the next book is different/better than the first two books.