The Golden Spoon by Jessa Maxwell
⭐ 4/5 STARS: The Golden Spoon by Jessa Maxwell — Cozy, Clever, and Deliciously Devious 🍰🔪
📖 Buy The Golden Spoon on Amazon (affiliate link)
⚠️ Trigger Warnings
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Sexual harassment and assault (off-page but discussed)
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Murder and violence
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Infidelity and family secrets
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Mental health issues (panic attacks, trauma)
💬 My Reading Experience
Okay, let’s start with the obvious: a murder mystery set during a Great British Bake Off-style competition? YES PLEASE. 👩🍳
I absolutely loved the premise of The Golden Spoon. Six bakers competing for glory under a big white tent at a Vermont estate — what could go wrong? (Answer: everything. Everything can go wrong. 😂)
The vibes are cozy, the pacing is steady, and the mystery bakes slowly but evenly. This one’s not about heart-pounding suspense — it’s about letting the drama simmer while you get to know the bakers, the judges, and the people who definitely have something to hide.
Also: I love that the author pokes fun at reality TV. Because really, if no one behind the camera is stirring the pot (or in this case, sabotaging the soufflés), are we even watching a real competition?
🧁 Overview
The Golden Spoon (2023) by Jessa Maxwell is a cozy murder mystery with a dash of satire and a heaping spoonful of charm.
The story follows the 10th (and final) season of Bake Week, a wildly popular TV baking competition filmed at the beautiful Grafton Manor — home to host and judge Betsy Martin.
But this year’s Bake Week has two major twists:
1️⃣ There’s a new co-host, celebrity chef Archie Morris.
2️⃣ Someone turns up dead.
🚨 Spoiler Warning: Full Plot Summary Below! 🚨
🎬 Plot Summary (Full With Ending)
The book opens with Betsy discovering a dead body in the baking tent during a thunderstorm. We don’t know who it is — yet.
Then we rewind two weeks earlier to meet the six contestants:
🍞 Stella Velasquez – a former journalist seeking a fresh start
🥧 Hannah Severson – a confident small-town diner baker
🍰 Gerald Baptiste – a math teacher with a flair for perfection
🍪 Pradyumna Das – a bored, recently retired CEO
🧁 Lottie Byrne – a retired nurse with mysterious ties to Grafton Manor
🥖 Peter Gellar – a family man in construction
And of course, there’s Betsy, the polished, controlling matriarch of Bake Week — and her new co-host, Archie, whose charm hides plenty of sleaze.
🏡 Setting the Stage
Filming begins at Grafton Manor, Betsy’s ancestral home, which gives the show its quaint, high-society vibe. But right away, weird things start happening:
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Salt and sugar containers get swapped.
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A burner mysteriously turns itself up.
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Someone replaces orange essence with gasoline. 😳
Clearly, there’s a saboteur among them — but who would want to ruin Bake Week?
🎥 Behind the Camera (and the Chaos)
While the contestants struggle to stay focused on their bakes, personal dramas simmer:
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Lottie tries to uncover the truth about her long-lost mother, who once worked at Grafton Manor.
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Hannah finds herself pulled into Archie’s manipulative orbit.
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Stella starts to suspect Archie of abusing his power over contestants.
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Betsy, meanwhile, is battling her own fading fame and jealousy over Archie’s rising popularity.
Meanwhile, Pradyumna and Lottie discover a secret staircase and hidden rooms in the East Wing — a literal skeletons-in-the-closet situation.
🔪 Murder, Secrets, and Scandal
As the competition continues, tensions boil over.
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Betsy and Lottie realize they share a connection — they played together as children at the manor.
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Lottie learns her mother’s recipes (the ones Betsy built her empire on) were stolen.
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Archie continues his predatory behavior — until, suddenly, he’s found dead in the tent.
The police are called, but Grafton Manor is stormed in by rain and darkness, so everyone’s trapped there together. Classic cozy mystery moment.
☕ The Big Reveal
Turns out, Bake Week’s sabotage wasn’t caused by jealous contestants at all — it was the camera crew! 🎥
Melanie, the show’s lead coordinator, and her cameraman accomplice, Graham, were the ones tampering with ingredients to manufacture drama for TV. (Because of course they were — what’s reality TV without chaos?)
Meanwhile, the truth about Betsy unravels fast:
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Lottie discovers she’s actually Betsy’s half-sister.
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Betsy finally confesses that she murdered Lottie’s mother, Agnes, decades earlier, after learning Agnes had an affair with Betsy’s father.
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Betsy is arrested for murder.
As for Archie? His death wasn’t premeditated murder — it was the result of a struggle between him and Stella and Hanna, who he tried to harm.
🌷 One Year Later
A year later, Grafton Manor now belongs to Lottie, who’s restored both the house and her mother’s legacy.
The remaining contestants reunite for a documentary about the fateful Bake Week.
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Stella is back to journalism, writing about Archie’s abusive behavior on his old show.
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Hannah has become a successful YouTube baker.
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Pradyumna and Lottie are restoring the manor (and maybe each other’s hearts 💕).
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Gerald finally exposes Graham — the sneaky cameraman — as one of the saboteurs.
In a final scene, Betsy — ever the narcissist — is in prison, still plotting her “comeback.”
💬 My Thoughts
This book is such a fun ride. ☕
It’s a little slower to reveal its mystery, but that actually worked for me — I enjoyed the cozy rhythm of the competition and the character dynamics. It’s like The Great British Bake Off meets Only Murders in the Building with a dash of Knives Out energy.
The contestants are charming and distinct, and I loved how the book let us peek into their insecurities and ambitions. And that twist — the camera crew sabotage — was perfection. Realistic, clever, and meta. Because honestly, who wouldn’t suspect the production team on a reality show?
If you’re looking for a breezy, bingeable mystery that’s more cinnamon roll than corpse, this is your book.
🧩 Verdict
⭐ 4 out of 5 stars.
Cozy, clever, and creative — a perfect mix of baking, banter, and bodies.
🔎 If You Liked This, Try:
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The Maid by Nita Prose
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Finlay Donovan Is Killing It by Elle Cosimano
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Arsenic and Adobo by Mia P. Manansala
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Death in the Dark Valley by Annamaria Alfieri
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The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman
💭 Final Thoughts
The Golden Spoon is the literary equivalent of a warm cup of tea and a plate of pastries — with just enough poison in the mix to keep things interesting. ☕💀
Highly recommend for anyone who loves cozy mysteries, ensemble casts, and reality TV shenanigans.
🍰📺🔎
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