Cynthia Baxter

...their joking conversation was about to launch the most daring, most intriguing, most delicious prank of the Pratt twins' mischievous career.

Teenaged twin sisters Christine and Susan Pratt, both baffled by boys, relish the thought of figuring out what makes boys tick. So Susan proposes that Chris disguise herself as a boy for a week and do some investigating in the camp of the opposite sex in Marshmallow Masquerade by author Cynthia Blair.

And what do marshmallows have to do with this? show more Well, it makes sense when you read it.

This is the third Pratt Twins book I've read since my preteens. After reading the first two books in this series, I expected the relatively simplistic, corny style here.

In fact, this one may be the corniest I've read so far. So many exclamation points, an overuse of italics, and cheesy, dramatic declarations that would drive me to facepalms if not for my glasses being in the way. A macho guy with overdone chauvinism, a big buffoonish bully who wants to beef and brawl over nothing, and a good guy who's practically bursting with all of his, well, goodness.

I could go on, and possibly confuse you all as to why I've rated this book with five stars. But as is always the case with me, I don't have to think a book is perfect to find it amazing.

There's just something so downright fun about the Pratt sisters' adventures. Also, like the first book in the series, this tale ties in meaningful points worth thinking about. Biological vs. traditional (made-up) differences between guys and girls. Gender-based assumptions we make about people's likes and dislikes without knowing those people as individuals. The games guys and girls play with each other, sometimes without a second thought, and the emotional effects those games can have. I didn't even have to fully agree with all of Chris's and Sooz's conclusions for their sentiments to get my own wheels turning.

In a way, this particular story is more Chris's than Susan's. But it's yet another Pratt Twins tale I absolutely ate up. show less

Murder with a Cherry on Top by Cynthia Baxter is the first installment in A Lickety Splits Ice Cream Shoppe Mystery series. Katherine “Kate” McKay has opened Lickety Splits Ice Cream Shoppe in Wolfert’s Roost, New York. It is a dream come true for Kate and the start of a new chapter in her life. Then she notices Ashley Winthrop of Sweet Things Pastry Palace posting a sign in her window stating that they are now selling homemade ice cream. It seems Ashley is continuing the rivalry that show more began in kindergarten. After having a public argument with Ashley in front of the store, Kate heads out to Juniper Hill Organic Dairy where she encounters her old high school boyfriend, Jake Pratt. The sight of him still makes her heart skip a beat. The next day Kate is awakened to pounding on her door and Officer Pete Bonano on her doorstep. Ashley was killed in her bakery the night before, and Kate is at the top of the suspect list courtesy of her vocal disagreement with the victim. With gossip causing a decline in business, Kate sets out to find Ashley’s killer before her dream melts away.

I liked the premise for A Lickety Splits Ice Cream Shoppe Mystery series. Ice cream and mystery in one book (I love ice cream and have a bowl every day). The author created an adorable shop for Kate McKay to sell her homemade ice cream treats as well as a charming small town. Readers are entertained with delectable descriptions of ice cream throughout the book (the Tahitian Vanilla sounds scrumptious). Every ice cream that Kate sells to a customer is described in detail. The book is nicely written and has a steady pace. The author has an easy, breezy writing style. There are some quirky characters like Willow Baines, Kate’s best friend. I liked Grams and Kate’s niece, Emma. I fell in love with Gram’s beautiful Victorian home (I want it). The mystery, though, was lacking and it was not the primary focus of the book. The investigation consists of Kate asking questions and speculating on the identity of the guilty party (no action or suspense). Instead of Kate identifying the killer, she stumbles upon the solution. I wish the author had put as much effort into the mystery as she did into coming up with the ice cream flavors. Of course, there is are requisite cliché nasty detective (thankfully we do not see much of him). My rating for Murder with a Cherry on Top is 3 out of 5 stars. Murder with a Cherry on Top is a cute and entertaining cozy mystery that will have readers pulling their favorite frozen treat from their freezers. show less

Teenaged twin sisters Christine and Susan Pratt are spending Christmas in Vermont with their grandparents. The quaint, snowy, picturesque location has the girls all full of holiday spirit. But they find out the local children's hospital may be forced to shut down because someone has been embezzling the hospital's funds. It sounds like a case for the sisters to solve in The Candy Cane Caper by author Cynthia Blair.

This is the sixth book in the Pratt Twins series and the fourth one for me. I show more picked it up because 1) I've enjoyed the other books I've read in the series so far, 2) I stay on the lookout for wholesome YA fiction that isn't dark, since I wouldn't say it's the easiest to find, and 3) I stay on the lookout for Christmas reads that aren't romances, since holiday romances are easy enough for me to hear about without looking out for them.

Another fun read in the series, with the added bonus of being ultra Christmassy. Yes, as I expected, the style is old-fashioned (which I like) and pretty corny, with too many exclamation points and such. The mystery is a simple, obvious kind of case, and unlike the sisters' Banana Split, Hot Fudge, and Marshmallow schemes I've read before, the Candy Cane's "caper" doesn't begin until more than halfway through the book.

Still, it's one of the Pratt twins' more serious adventures. Plus, I appreciate how Chris and Sooz are consistently such proactive girls. They think, they plan, and they take action. They're not teenagers only dealing with what they're going through because something happens; they make stuff happen.

The going's been good, so I plan on reading at least one more book in this thirteen-book series. show less

Susan Pratt is shy, studious, and a plain dresser while her teenaged twin, Christine, is outgoing, trendy, and popular at school, especially with boys. Each sister believes her twin has the better life, so they decide to secretly switch identities for two weeks. Christine bets they can pull it off, Susan bets they can't, and the stakes of this bet is a banana split in The Banana Split Affair, a novel by author Cynthia Blair.

I absolutely ate up this book back when I was a preteen--loved it show more enough to remember it into my adulthood and to want to read it again. I finally took another jaunt with this book more than twenty years later, and I still love it.

Sure, it's corny, with all the italics and exclamation points you could ever want. It leans toward the simplistic and stating the obvious at times, and, yeah, there's some super-fast falling in like-love in the story.

But it's fun. And rather touching. Sooz and Chris not only get an eye-opening taste of what it's really like to walk in each other's shoes, but each girl learns more about herself in the process.

I didn't realize back then that this is the first of thirteen books or so about the Pratt twins. (Nah, the copy I first read didn't have a #1 printed on the front cover.) So now I may have to check out some other books in this series. show less