Book Review - The Christmas Tree Farm, A Christmas Novella by Melody Carlson

My Review

Madison McDowell comes home from teaching abroad to work on her family's Christmas tree farm in Oregon. She is part owner of the farm with her sister Addie.  She doesn't count on Addie wanting to sell the farm, or her first love, Gavin, being widowed and living next door with his youngest daughter.

I wanted to read The Christmas Tree Farm because I love Melody Carlson's Christmas novels.  I try to read them each year.

This novel was one of my favorite of Ms. Carlson's recent Christmas books.  I loved the setting of the Christmas tree farm and the old fashioned house there.  

I also really liked the cast of characters - especially Madison, who loves working outdoors and is determined to make the Christmas tree farm a community fixture again.  I also liked Gavin, who is sweet and a bit eccentric (he lives in a trailer by the lake while building a house).  His daughter Lily, an 11 year old dirt bike enthusiast, is delightful.  Part of the conflict early on is based on Gavin and Lily building a dirt bike track on their property - right next door to the Christmas tree farm.

I highly recommend The Christmas Tree Farm for fans of Christmas reads, picturesque holiday settings, and heartwarming storytelling!

Book Synopsis

Christmas is the perfect time for old memories, new beginnings, and second chances

When Madison McDowell returns from teaching overseas, she has high hopes of picking up where she left off at her family's Christmas tree farm in Oregon. But between damage from a recent wildfire and the neglect due to her sister Addie's unwillingness to invest, the farm is in sad shape. In fact, Addie is intent on selling the property. And to top it off, Madison's former high school flame, the now-widowed Gavin Thompson, has plans to break her heart again by turning his neighboring property into a dusty, noisy dirt bike track for his daughter.

With the odds stacked against her, Madison decides there's only one thing to do: double down on her dreams. It will require a ton of hard work--and some help from an unlikely ally--to save the farm she so dearly loves. But it may take a Christmas miracle to restore her relationship with her sister.

Author Bio

Melody Carlson is the award-winning author of more than 250 books with sales of more than 7.5 million, including many bestselling Christmas novellas, young adult titles, and contemporary romances. She received a Romantic Times Career Achievement Award, her novel All Summer Long has been made into a Hallmark movie, and the movie based on her novel The Happy Camper premiered on UPtv in 2023. She and her husband live in central Oregon. Learn more at MelodyCarlson.com.

Book Review - Meddling with Mistletoe A Red Door Inn Christmas Romance by Liz Johnson

My Review

Meddling With Mistletoe is the story of Whitney Garrett, who is baking homemade pies to fund her culinary school tuition.  When her oven breaks, she works out a deal with the owners of the local bed and breakfast to bake pies there in exchange for babysitting and cooking breakfasts daily.  While working at the inn she meets a guest named Daniel, who is in town to visit his aunt -- who is an eccentric antique shop owner determined to make a match between Daniel and Ruby, the woman buying his aunt's antique store.  Whitney is convinced, though, that Daniel and Ruby are not an ideal match . . . and she has an idea of a better match for him.

I wanted to read this novel because it sounded like a Hallmark movie in book form.  It is!   It is a delightful Christmas story, with lots of holiday atmosphere.

I liked Whitney as a protagonist and admire her determination to pursue her dream.  I also like Daniel and I thought from early on that they would be an interesting match.  Their story is very heartwarming with some light faith references.

I recommend Meddling for Mistletoe for readers who enjoy Christmas reads, heartwarming love stories, and cozy settings.

Book Synopsis

The recipe for romance is simple: sweets, treats, and mistletoe meets

Whitney Garrett is preparing to enter culinary school in the spring, but first she has to sell enough homemade pies at the local Christmas markets to pay her tuition. When her oven breaks, Whitney asks Marie Sloan, proprietor of the Red Door Inn, if she can use the inn's kitchen to keep up with her orders. Marie agrees, with a catch: Whitney has to watch the three Sloan children and cook breakfasts for the Red Door in return.

The inn is busy with holiday guests--including Aretha Franklin Sloan's perpetually single nephew Daniel and Ruby, a businesswoman in town to purchase Aretha's antiques store. Intent on making a Christmas match for the two, Aretha enlists Whitney's help in her schemes. But the deeper Whitney gets, the more she realizes that Ruby is not the right woman for Daniel--and the more she thinks that she just might be his perfect match.

Author Bio

Liz Johnson is the New York Times bestselling author of more than 20 novels, including Beyond the Tides, The Last Way Home, and Summer in the Spotlight, as well as the Georgia Coast Romance and Prince Edward Island Dreams series. She works in marketing, makes her home in Phoenix, Arizona, and daydreams of summer days on PEI's shores. Learn more at LizJohnsonBooks.com.

Book Review and Giveaway - Halloween Parade Peril: A British Cozy Murder Mystery with a Female Amateur Sleuth (A Dotty Sayers Antique Mystery) by Victoria Tait

My Review

Halloween Parade Peril is a cozy mystery featuring Dotty Sayers, an antique expert who often travels with her work.  She is in Dublin to attend a prestigious auction and purchase antiques for a castle that is being converted into a hotel.  When she witnesses a murder at a Halloween parade, she becomes involved in sleuthing, especially since she knows some of the suspects.

I wanted to read Halloween Parade Peril because I love this series of mysteries.  I find the antique details fascinating!  The Halloween theme and Dublin settings were also intriguing.

I read this novel over two days because I couldn't put it down.  If I had a spare moment, I was reading!   I loved the details of the auction (so many fascinating antique details in this mystery!) and the Irish folklore featured through the book.

There were several plausible suspects, and I didn't guess the real murderer until the case was solved.  Like the other books in this series, the mystery was well plotted and the short chapters make this a fast paced read.

I enthusiastically recommend Halloween Parade Peril for other fans of cozy mysteries, and especially for anyone interested in antiques.

Book Synopsis

A spooky spectacle turns deadly when a singer’s voice is silenced forever. Does an amateur sleuth have the ghost of a chance to unmask the killer before the jack-o’-lantern’s candle is snuffed out?

Emerging antiques expert, Dotty Sayers, is excited about traveling to Ireland for a prestigious auction. Alongside her friend, Sergeant Keya Varma, Dotty revels in Dublin’s iconic sights and finds herself spellbound by haunting melodies at the Bram Stoker Festival. But a Halloween parade turns tragic when a musician’s last melody leads to his final breath.With the police operating a skeleton crew, Keya expresses grave concerns while Dotty carves up excitement at the auction, bidding for a pumpkin full of Irish treasures. But when one of their friends ends up behind bars and another confesses to the crime, this duo of detectives realises the witching hour is near.

Can Dotty piece the eerie puzzle together and unveil the villain before the plot thickens like a witch’s potion?

Join Dotty and her friends in Dublin for the latest instalment of the Dotty Sayers Antique Mystery series. If a cauldron of quirky characters, bewitching puzzles, and enchanting Irish folklore is what you crave, then Victoria Tait’s spellbinding narrative will keep you captivated until the final page.

Make no bones about it – read Halloween Parade Peril today!

Author Bio

Victoria Tait was born and raised in Yorkshire, England, and never expected to travel the world. She’s drawn on her life’s experiences of following her military husband, and a love of Agatha Christie, Dorothy L. Sayers, and Murder She Wrote, to write British-based cozy mysteries.Her determined and hard-working female sleuths are joined by colourful but realistic teams of helpers, and her settings are vivid and evocative.  As you’re compelled to keep turning the pages, you’ll be irresistibly drawn into a world of intrigue, surprises, and humour, as well as a delectable helping of mystery, because tea and intrigue are a perfect blend.

Author Links

Website     Bookbub    Instagram    Pinterest    Goodreads 

Purchase Links

Amazon   Books2Read 

Giveaway

Book Review and Giveaway - French Quarter Fright Night (Vintage Cookbook) by Ellen Byron

My Review

Ricki James-Diaz is enjoying life in New Orleans, working in the little vintage cookbook shop she owns (located in the Bon Vee Culinary House Museum), and preparing for Halloween at the museum shop.  When an old acquaintance of her husband who is a famous actor comes to town and situates himself next door to the museum, things begin to go bad.  Blaine Taggart has an exceptionally difficult assistant named Miranda.  Miranda is found dead in a Halloween display, and Ricki is determined to find the killer.

I wanted to read French Quarter Fright Night because I enjoy Ellen Byron's cozy mysteries, and especially love the Vintage Cookbook series.  I collect vintage cookbooks and also sell them online, so I love the little vintage cookbook/cookware details in these books.  I also enjoy the New Orleans setting!

I think this is my favorite of the series so far.  The Halloween setting added a lot to the atmosphere.  The staff at Bon Vee has become a tight group of friends, as well as colleagues, at this point and they all want to have this murder solved.  It was fun watching their progress on the mystery along with the Halloween festivities at the museum.

There were a number of good suspects for this murder, and I enjoyed Ricki's sleuthing.  This is a fast paced mystery with some snappy dialogue and little touches of humor.  

Of course, I also loved details about Ricki's shop, like:

"After placing bids on a handful of cookbooks being sold via an online auction, Ricki went through every bookshelf to confirm each cookbook was in its proper place. She organized them first by decade, then type, followed by theme. She found a couple of 1960s community cookbooks on the 1950s hardcover shelf. One featured appetizer recipes, the other was all about fondues. She moved them to their proper locations. ‘I have more cookbooks from the 1960s than any other decade,’ she said to Red, the only other shop occupant. ‘That’s my new go-to destination if anyone ever invents a time tunnel.’" (eBook location 927).

I highly recommend French Quarter Fright Night for other fans of cozy mysteries, and especially for readers who have an interest in New Orleans or vintage cookbooks.

Book Synopsis

The third in the fabulous cozy mystery series with a vintage flair from USA Today bestselling and Agatha Award-winning author Ellen Byron.

Welcome to the Bon Veeevil Festival of Fear! Prepare for the spookiest night of your life . . .

It’s Halloween in New Orleans, and the staff of Bon Vee Culinary House Museum is setting up a fantastic haunted house tour for their visitors. But when flashy movie star Blaine Taggart and his entourage move into the mansion next door, gift shop proprietor Ricki James-Diaz gets a fright of her own.

While Ricki is excited about the potential business the tours will bring to her vintage cookbook shop, she’s less thrilled by former friend Blaine’s arrival in town. Then Bon Vee’s prop tomb becomes a real tomb for Blaine’s nasty assistant, and suddenly everyone at Bon Vee is a murder suspect. There isn’t a ghost of a chance one of them committed the crime, but with NOPD busy tackling the mischief and mayhem generated by the spooky holiday, it falls on Ricki and her friends to catch the killer.

As the Big Easy gears up for the Big Scary, it seems everyone has skeletons in their closets. Can Ricki reveal the shadowy killer before someone else becomes part of the Halloween horror show?

Author Bio

Ellen Byron is a USA Today bestselling author, Anthony nominee, and recipient of multiple Agatha and Lefty awards for her Cajun Country Mysteries, Vintage Cookbook Mysteries, and Catering Hall Mysteries (as Maria DiRico). Her new series, The Golden Motel Mysteries, recently debuted. She is also an award-winning playwright and non-award-winning writer of TV hits like Wings, Just Shoot Me, and Fairly OddParents, but considers her most impressive achievement working as a cater-waiter for Martha Stewart. Visit her at Cozy Mysteries | Ellen Byron | Author

Author Links 

Newsletter:   https://www.ellenbyron.com/

Facebook:   https://www.facebook.com/ellenbyronauthor/

Instagram:   https://www.instagram.com/ellenbyronmariadirico/

Bookbub:   https://www.bookbub.com/profile/ellen-byron

Giveaway

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Book Review and Giveaway - Buried on a Sundae (Coffee & Cream Café Mysteries) by Lena Gregory

My Review

Dani Delany is trying to figure out where her possible romance with detective Jake Barlow stands when she finds herself in the middle of a new mystery.  She goes out to a new nightclub with her friends Gwen and Eli and witnesses a confrontation between Jake and a mysterious woman named Angelique.  When Angelique ends up murdered, Dani decides to prove Jake's innocence - with the help of her sister Meghan, Gwen, and Eli. 

I wanted to read this book because I like all Lena Gregory's mysteries, and especially enjoy the Coffee & Cream Cafe series.  

This is a fun, fast paced mystery.  Dani may own a vintage malt shop, but she thinks like a detective!  It was great seeing her work so closely with her best friends and sister on this case as well.  I didn't guess who the murderer was on this case, so I particularly enjoyed watching Dani solve the case.

My one and only wish was for more scenes at the malt shop.  There seemed to be fewer in this book.

I highly recommend Buried on a Sundae - and this entire series - for other cozy mystery readers.  You are sure to enjoy this book!

Book Synopsis

From author Lena Gregory comes a delicious new mystery…

Things have been looking up for Danika Delany’s business—her uncle’s old fashioned malt shop on eastern Long Island. But for her love life? Not so much. After a disastrous date with Detective Jake Barlow, Danika lets her best friends, Gwen and Eli, talk her into a night out at the hottest new nightclub in town. Only, while there, Dani finds her sort-of boyfriend secreted in the shadows on the beach behind the club with crime boss Patrick Johansen’s wife, Angelique! An upset Dani leaves without giving Jake a chance to explain, but when he doesn’t get in touch the next day, she takes a long walk along the beach to reevaluate her love life. That’s where she suddenly stumbles across Angelique’s body buried in the dunes near where she last saw her with Jake. Sure that Jake is innocent—of murder at least—Danika and her friends set out to prove Jake had nothing to do with her murder and stop a killer…before they strike again!

Author Bio

Lena Gregory is the author of the Bay Island Psychic Mysteries, which take place on a small island between the north and south forks of Long Island, New York, the All-Day Breakfast Café Mysteries, which are set on the outskirts of Florida’s Ocala National Forest, the Mini-Meadows Mysteries, set in a community of tiny homes in Central Florida, and the Coffee & Cream Café Mysteries, which take place in a small town on the south shore of eastern Long Island, New York.

Lena grew up in a small town on the south shore of eastern Long Island, but she recently traded in cold, damp, gray winters for the warmth and sunshine of central Florida, where she now lives with her husband, three kids, son-in-law, and four dogs. Her hobbies include spending time with family, reading, and walking. Her love for writing developed when her youngest son was born and didn’t sleep through the night. She works full-time as a writer and a freelance editor and is a member of Sisters in Crime.

Author Links

• Newsletter: http://lenagregory.us12.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=9765d0711ed4fab4fa31b16ac&id=49d42335d1.
• Website: http://www.lenagregory.com/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lena.gregory.986
• Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/Lena.Gregory.Author/?fref=ts
• Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/LenaGregory03
• Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/14956514.Lena_Gregory?from_search=true
• Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/lenagregoryauth/

Purchase Links – Amazon – B&N – Kobo – 

Giveaway

a Rafflecopter giveaway