This is one of the books that I read a while ago and thought it would be a fun one to share! This was one of the first books that I read from the cozy mystery genre before I knew that was a thing! I remember being so excited to read a murder mystery without having to deal with all of the gory details about the murder! Little did I know at the time that there was an entire genre of books that would give me that happy balance. So let me tell you a little about one of the first cozies that I have read!
Tea never intended to raise her brother from the dead but when she did her entire life changed.
Rin Chupeco does a fantastic job creating this magical world with strong Asian influences. You have the magical Asha’s who are very reminiscent of Geisha’s. Even the Hua’s that the Asha wears brings to mind a kimono. She even goes so far as to fully describe one of the performances that took place during a very important part of the story. I will be honest, that was an interesting part of the story but it dragged on longer than it needed to. The story jumps between the present and the past seamlessly through Tea’s interactions with the Bard. He pleads for her to tell him her story and she agrees. This interaction allows you to see how she was trained as well as seeing her working her dark magic in present time (when she is 17). I am trying my best not to give away any spoilers because the interactions in present time are what made me really want to read the sequel.
Delightful and best of all there was a recipe in the back of the book!
Where do I begin? I really thought that this murder mystery book was just delightful! The book revolves around Faith Franklin, a young 20 something who has a love of baking. She has no direction in life until her grandmother asks her to come to Florida and run her café. Faith begins to remodel the café and change-up the menu in preparation for the remodel when suddenly the owner of a cupcake place finds out that Faith plans on having cupcakes at her location too. This might not seem like an issue but later on in the story all the vendors have a meeting and Joann the cupcake lady starts arguing with Faith telling her that she was not allowed to sell cupcakes.
Guaranteed to get you in the holiday spirit. A wonderful beginning to a new cozy mystery series!
I am doing my best to get in the spirit of the holidays and this book seriously helped! in this book we are transported to Mistletoe, Maine a quaint town with lovely people and a fun Christmas tree farm named Reindeer Games. Yes, I kid you not these are the names of the town and setting of most of this story. Annnnnd the main character’s name is Holly and there is a delightful character named Cookie too. Seriously, if this doesn’t scream Christmas I don’t know what does! Oh wait, did I mention that the tree farm also has 12 days of reindeer games which they hold every year and some of the games sound super fun? I am pretty sure that if this place was real I would be driving there right now!
The title of the book kind of eludes to the fact that a murder occurs in this quaint little town, but there weren’t 12 of them. Unfortunately, the victim was a crabby old lady from the historical association and one of the main suspects was Holly’s dad! So not only does Holly have to deal with coming home because her engagement was called off, but she has to deal with her family being suspected of murder! Then to put the icing on the cake, her family was not allowed to open their tree farm while the police were investigating! So, Holly takes it upon herself to try to prove her family’s innocence by finding the real killer.
What I loved the most was that even though there was a murder being solved it didn’t take away from the Christmas feeling. There was a ton of food, cheer, and fun Christmas themed games. Yes, Reindeer Games (the tree farm) lived up to it’s name. There were actually a couple of Christmas themed games that they played that I really want to play with my family! It just seemed like it would be so fun to live in this town during the holiday season. Of course everything wasn’t all happy and cozy….there was a murderer on the loose after all. The closer Holly got to the truth the more dangerous it became for her family and their business.
Overall, I really just enjoyed this book. The characters were fantastic and the pacing was great! It was a quick read and really just ticked all of the boxes for me. It had that holiday feel, Holly did great detective work, and the police were actually very useful. In some cozy mysteries the cops are always so far behind they are barely relevant, that was not the case here. I wanted a book that let me feel the holiday spirit but kept my interest and this was definitely the right choice! I think I will need to get the second book in the series 🙂 !
A time period murder mystery about a vicar, his wife, and a small town.
As you know, I am trying to stick with the Christmas themed all this month…but I love murder mysteries. So, all month I have been reading books that combined them both. This book is a little different than the others I have read because it is a time period piece, but don’t worry…there is murder and the mention of Christmas.
The Owl's Book Nest 