Take chocolate candy, add a family business at war with itself, and stir with an outsider’s perspective. This is the recipe for True Confections, the irresistible new novel by Katharine Weber, a writer whose work has won accolades from Iris Murdoch, Madeleine L’Engle, Wally Lamb, and Kate Atkinson, to name a few. Alice Tatnall Ziplinsky’s marriage into the Ziplinsky family has not been unanimously celebrated. Her greatest ambition is to belong, to feel truly entitled to the heritage she has tried so hard to earn. Which is why Zip’s Candies is much more to her than just a candy factory, where she has worked for most of her life. In True Confections, Alice has her reasons for telling the multigenerational saga of the family-owned-and-operated candy company, now in crisis. Nobody is more devoted than Alice to delving into the truth of Zip’s history, starting with the rags-to-riches story of how Hungarian immigrant Eli Czaplinsky developed his famous candy lines, and how each of his candies, from Little Sammies to Mumbo Jumbos, was inspired by an element in a stolen library copy of Little Black Sambo, from which he taught himself English. Within Alice’s vivid and persuasive account (is her unreliability a tactic or a condition?) are the stories of a runaway slave from the cacao plantations of Côte d’Ivoire and the Third Reich’s failed plan to establish a colony on Madagascar for European Jews. Richly informed, deeply moving, and spiked with Weber’s trademark wit, True Confections is, at its heart, a timeless and universal story of love, betrayal, and chocolate.

The first book in this USA Today Bestselling series. When her husband of thirty years runs off with a college student named Cherri, Jane Delight returns to Pennsylvania to work in her Amish sister's cupcake store. Having lost everything in the divorce, Jane now finds herself sharing an apartment with two feisty octogenarians and their quirky cat. Mr. Crumbles. But there is no time to despair. A man is murdered in the cupcake store, and now Jane is the prime suspect. Enter brooding detective Damon McCloud, a Scot with a tragic past and a desire for justice. Can Jane solve the murder, wrangle her new roommates, and stop herself from falling for the detective? Or will she never get her new life on track? Book 1 in a delightful cozy mystery series from USA Today Bestselling author, Ruth Hartzler.

Chocolates & Confections, 2e offers a complete and thorough explanation of the ingredients, theories, techniques, and formulas needed to create every kind of chocolate and confection.Ê It is beautifully illustrated with 250 full-color photographs of ingredients, step-by-step techniques, and finished chocolates and confections.Ê From truffles, hard candies, brittles, toffee, caramels, and taffy to butter ganache confections, fondants, fudges, gummies, candied fruit, marshmallows, divinity, nougat, marzipan, gianduja, and rochers, Chocolates & Confections 2e offers the tools and techniques for professional mastery.

Features over one hundred color photographs, techniques, and recipes of chocolates and confections that can be made at home.

"She's beautiful," writes Irish-American art historian Patricia Dolan in the first of the journal entries that form The Music Lesson. "I look at my face in the mirror and it seems far away, less real than hers." The woman she describes is the subject of the stolen Vermeer of the novel's title. Patricia is alone with this exquisite painting in a remote Irish cottage by the sea. How she arrived in such an unlikely circumstance is one part of the story Patricia tells us: about her father, a policeman who raised her to believe deeply in the cause of a united Ireland; the art history career that has sustained her since the numbing loss of her daughter; and the arrival of Mickey O'Driscoll, her dangerously charming, young Irish cousin, which has led to her involvement in this high-stakes crime. How her sublime vigil becomes a tale of loss, regret, and transformation is the rest of her story. The silent woman in the priceless painting becomes, for Patricia, a tabula rasa, a presence that at different moments seems to judge, to approve, or to offer wisdom. As Patricia immerses herself in the turbulent passions of her Irish heritage and ponders her aesthetic fidelity to the serene and understated pleasures of Dutch art, she discovers, in her silent communion, a growing awareness of all that has been hidden beneath the surface of her own life. And she discovers that she possesses the knowledge of what she must do to preserve the things she values most.

With her mousy hair and plain, humble clothes, Jane is a woman not many people notice. Not many people besides the dashing Detective Damon McCloud, that is. But when Damon's visit to Scotland takes a dramatic turn and he disappears, Jane is on the next flight to Edinburgh. And she's not alone. She finds herself in accommodation with surprising guests. Jane isn't going to desert Damon in his hour of need. Her new friends might have seen batter days in the eyes of the world, but that's not going to stop them from craving the sweet taste of success. They will navigate the Scottish highlands, creep through a castle's secret passages, investigate Damon's disappearance, and do their best to stay safe while the body count rises. Will Jane and her unlikely allies uncover the truth behind Damon's vanishing act, or will they become the next victims? As danger lurks throughout the misty Scottish landscape, Jane must tap into her hidden strengths and prove that even the most unassuming heroine can rise to the challenge. In this thrilling tale of mystery, friendship, and unexpected courage, Jane discovers that true bravery comes in all shapes and sizes – and that sometimes, the most extraordinary adventures begin with what others see as the most ordinary of people.A Scottish Confection is Book 7 in the USA Today Best-selling series, Amish Cupcake Cozy Mystery.