Rating: Good
Source: Publisher
Description: It's the week before Thanksgiving, and Merry Wilkinson, owner of Mrs. Claus's Treasures, is preparing for a weekend reunion of her mother's college friends. But when the group of women comes into Merry's shop, Merry is met with frosty attitudes and cold hearts.
The women argue amongst themselves constantly, and the bickering only intensifies after one of the friends is poisoned. With her father's role as Santa in danger due to his proximity to the crime, Merry will need to use all of her investigative gifts to wrap this mystery up and save Santa and her favorite holiday.
Genre: Mystery - Cozy
Why I Picked This Book: I've enjoyed other books by this author and have been wanting to try this series.
My Impression: This was a lot of fun! I loved that this was a Christmas-y cozy that took place around Thanksgiving so it was a bit like two holidays for the price of one. And oh what a holiday it is! There's nothing to be particularly thankful for when this group of college friends gets together. The level of sniping, underhanded digs, and flat out blatant verbal attacks means the get together is straight impressive and even the host, Merry's mother Aline, is left wondering if they really were friends all those years ago. Merry is trying to help her mother keep the peace one evening when things go horribly horribly wrong.
I love the year round Christmas thing and I think the St. Bernard is a vastly underappreciated dog breed so I was thrilled to see Merry's sidekick Matty. I also really loved Merry's relationship with her parents. It wasn't perfect but it was positive and felt pretty realistic. The mystery was entertaining with lots of past secrets and long held grudges. I really enjoyed it all the way to the end and even though I might have had an idea of just who the killer was it was really fun to see it unravel. This was the first book in the series that I've read and I'm so glad I have the previous three already on my shelf to keep me company while I wait for book #5!
Would I Read More of this Series/Author? Absolutely! I'm really looking forward to digging into the first three books in the series.
Would I Recommend this Book? If you enjoy cozy mysteries this is a fun series and you can jump in right here.
* I received this book in exchange for an honest review. As always my opinions and impressions are completely my own. *
This does sound fun. I am glad you enjoyed it!
ReplyDeleteI love the whole period between Thanksgiving and Christmas every year, and it sounds like this captures that a little. Sounds fun! :)
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