Rating: 
Summary: good but....
Review: I like this seiries of books but was not real happy with this particular one. The recipes, as always, are terrific, but the dynamics between Arch and Goldy makes me want to point somebody in the direction of family counseling.The plot of the story is that it appears that Goldy's abusive exhusband has murdered his current girlfriend. Arch, her son, gets angry because he feeld Goldy and Tom don't want to help the "Jerk". This seems a bit difficult to swallow because I would have thought Arch would have seen the after effects of Goldy's abuse - the broken thumb, the black eyes, the bruises. You can't hide something like that from a child, they can tell something is going on. So that the "Jerk" would ba a good non-abusive father yet a horrible abusive husband doesn't seem to work for me. Nor does Arch's anger at his mother for what her perceives as her failure to try to clear his father's name. If you're working thru the complete seiries (as I am), you will have to make this stop. I don't think you'll enjoy it as much as the other books, but the recipes may make up for it.
Rating: 
Summary: Diane Mott Davidson keeps the reader on the edge of her seat
Review: I loved the book. She makes you feel like you are one of her best friends. The recipes are wonderfully mouth-watering and easy to make. Can't wait until her next book is out.
Rating:
Summary: Great book!
Review: I thought the story line was wonderful. I'm glad to see that the JERK got a little taste of his own medicine. Definitely one of my favorites in the Goldy series!
Rating:
Summary: Hottest Item on the Menu, I can't get enough!!!
Review: I was introduced to Diane Mott Davidson's seasons a couple of years ago, by my step-mother. She recommended it because of its culinary delights and tantilizing mysterious edge. Now I just can't get enough, I wait deligently while Diane Mott Davidson cooks another mystery. She is a wonderful mystery author and excellent at who-dunnits. I have yet to figure out in any of her previous novels who did it before it was revealed . This is such a wonderful series because you can start at any part in the series. However I would definately recommend a full course meal, including all of the literary entrees including Chocolate for dessert. Enjoy - Michelle Caddell
Rating: 
Summary: Mediocre.
Review: I was very disappointed in Goldie's new adventure. No woman in her right mind would agree to help an abusive ex-spouse. Just because they had a whiney, immature kid together doesn't mean that she had to debase herself into helping such an ungrateful jerk. I'm not quite finished listening - I'm on the first side of the last tape so I don't know who killed Suz, but if good Ole John Richard didn't really do it, don't think I'll read anymore of Mott Davidson's books. Women have had to literally crawl up and out of the mire of a legal system that let abusive husbands get away with any and everything, so in my escapism reading I don't want to read about a woman who backs down in face of The Jerk she finally had the courage to get rid of once. Arch needs a good spell of life as it really is. If an ex-husband came around and thumped me a few good ones, my four kids would pick him up and dump him in the dumpster where he be! longed. Goldie had more umph in earlier books, sorry she's changed. Life's too short to waste your time on books that you don't like or that send out the wrong message. I'll have to hear that MD has changed Goldie's attitude before I'll read another.
Rating: 
Summary: DMD Needs an editor.
Review: I'm a cook, and an editor, and I found fault with this book on both counts. There were a number of nagging discrepncies in the text, i.e. Goldy starts to bake an orange-poppy seed bread with the only two oranges she finds in the fridge. The Jerk appears, leaps (!) halfway through the kitchen window and roughs Goldy up before she konks him with a ham. Having broken the bowl full of batter, she begins again--where'd she get the oranges? She bakes one panful of tarts for an enormous box luncheon, gives eight of them away, and still has enough for the affair? This sort of thing happened throughout the book. I tried the orange chicken breast recipe, and although the marinade was tasty, the sauce was horribly sweet, so I didn't even serve it. I found the abused-wife flashbacks and Arch disappointing.
Rating:
Summary: OK but not her best
Review: I've come late to this series and I'm trying to read them in order. On the whole I've enjoyed them and the characters, but I think Arch needs an attitude adjustment and Golda needs to get some backbone...I have never been abused so maybe the victim mentality continues forever but Arch seems to be turning into a manipulator who knows all the right buttons to push. This is probably too harsh a criticism for a book that is over all a good read.
Rating:
Summary: OK but not her best
Review: I've come late to this series and I'm trying to read them in order. On the whole I've enjoyed them and the characters, but I think Arch needs an attitude adjustment and Golda needs to get some backbone...I have never been abused so maybe the victim mentality continues forever but Arch seems to be turning into a manipulator who knows all the right buttons to push. This is probably too harsh a criticism for a book that is over all a good read.
Rating:
Summary: Light bite, not very filling...
Review: In Diane Mott Davidson's The Grilling Season, caterer and amateur sleuth Goldy Schulz once again finds herself in the soup. Goldy discovers the body of Suz Craig, lying in a ditch by the side of the road. Craig was a vice president of a local HMO, and also the girlfriend of Goldy's ex-husband, Dr. John Richard Korman. When her body is found, Dr. Korman (prominent ob/gyn) is arrested for her murder. Korman has a history of brutal physical and verbal abuse toward women, although most people in small Aspen Meadows know little about this violent side.
Goldy is a key witness in the case and is told not to interfere in any way with the investigation. But when she can't stand the whining of her 14 year old son, she agrees to snoop around. She quickly discovers that Suz Craig is not very well liked (personally or professionally) and that there are plenty of individuals with a good motive for the killing. Throughout her snooping, Goldy continually cooks and prepares for catering affairs. The book is sprinkled with a number of recipes for foods mentioned in The Grilling Season.
This is my third book of this series, and I'm not really that impressed. The plots are simple and many of the characters are truly annoying. Also, for someone who likes to cook, I find the recipes are not even tempting. This book was a little better than the last book I read, but I'd much rather read Grafton or Evanovich. There are too many other good mystery series out there. But at least it's a light, fluffy and very fast read.
Rating: 
Summary: Enough of the JERK! Enough of the series.
Review: It was all I could do to listen to all of this book. As far as I am concerned Ms. Davidson goes over the top in this book in her treatment of the JERK and his rampages. He could show up far less often in this book to far better effect. So intensly mean and abusive is he that I had to turn off the tape and take a break from his tirades. For those who have not read it I will not say weather we see the last of him here. But in more recent books the adolescent Arch seems to take more and more after him. It is for that reason I will read no futher in the series.
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