Tag: Kensington Books

{Available January 28, 2020} This book was so much more than I expected! It’s incredibly atmospheric at the beginning – with rainy, early spring days, offset by Nora’s cozy, warm bookshop, Miracle Books.

I loved Nora’s friend group, the Secret, Book and Scone Society. This is a great novel about friendship – the importance of having people who support you, and the joy of meeting new friends. This is also a book for book lovers! It’s filled with literary references and each chapter starts with a quote from a famous author.

The Book of Candlelight is a lot grittier and more adult than your standard cozy mystery (I’d even classify it as a contemporary novel with touches of magical realism and mystery, with just a dash of coziness). The characters are real and there are some very serious issues and events that they face.

Thank you Kensington Books for the ARC!

{Available December 31, 2019} This one was lighter on the cozy, but heavier on the mystery. It’s surprisingly complex and detailed for such a short book (totaling fewer than 250 pages!)

The story weaves a present day murder with a 120 year old mystery, and does an amazing job of tying everything together.

I’d recommend this book to mystery/thriller readers who are looking for something light, but not too sugary sweet.

Thank you Kensington Books for the ARC!

{AVAILABLE December 31, 2019} Death Bee Comes Her is a great start to a new cozy mystery series! The Pacific Northwest setting is lovely. This book takes place during Oceanview’s Halloweentown week, after our main character Wren finds a dead body on the beach.

Wren owns a shop called Let It Bee, specializing in beeswax and honey products like lotion, candles, lip balm and candy.

Everett is Wren’s Havana Brown cat, and he’s a delightful edition to the story, reminiscent of Koko and Yum Yum from The Cat Who… series of books.

The plot was surprisingly complex for a cozy mystery (and actually ended up being quite a sad turn of events). I am definitely looking forward to reading more books in this series!

Thank you Kensington Books for providing me with a review copy.

Cobblered to Death is a strong start to a new cozy mystery series. Perfect for fans of Food Network and the Great British Baking Show, the book revolves around a new cooking competition show called The American Baking Battle. Things are off to a good start, until a contestant is murdered after the first day of filming.

I enjoyed the overall plot and the cast of characters. I watch a lot of cooking shows (and cooking competition shows!) so this was an especially fun read. I’m excited to see what happens next in the series!

Thank you to the kind people at Kensington Books for providing me with a copy of Cobblered to Death.

Christmas Cocoa Murder is a cute collection of hot cocoa-themed cozy mysteries. Christmas Cocoa Murder, Christmas Cocoa and a Corpse, and Death by Hot Cocoa each feature a mysterious death that somehow involves hot chocolate.

Christmas Cocoa Murder was fine – set in Ireland with an absurd cast of characters (typical for a cozy!) I loved our main character Siobhan’s family. This was the most fleshed out story of the three.

Christmas Cocoa and a Corpse was a good story, but a bit dark and sad for a cozy. The writing was good, and the overall mystery was interesting, but it wasn’t as lighthearted as I had expected.

Death by Hot Cocoa is the shortest of the three stories, but is unique because it takes place over the span of a few short hours. I loved the angle of our cast of characters being stuck in a Christmas escape room. The overall mystery was tough for the reader to solve, but a solid short Christmas-y story nonetheless.

Overall this is a decent collection of stories – great for readers looking for a quick, easy Christmas read.

Thank you Kensington Books for the ARC!

An Ale of Two Cities is a book for book lovers. The Shady Creek Winter Carnival is off to a great start – until a competitor in the ice carving competition is found dead.

This book has just the right amount of coziness and fun, mixed with more serious parts and investigative details.

I do have one complaint – the Inkwell is a fictional pub! It sounds amazing – featuring a menu full of literary food puns and yummy cocktails.

Thank you Kensington Books for the ARC!

What a sweet little cozy! Winnie and her Granny Smythe run Blossom Valley’s historic apple orchard. Winnie has dreams of opening a cider shop on the property, but then a dead body is found in the apple press.

This is a great read for late fall/early winter – featuring a great cast of characters, an interesting mystery and all of the drool worthy apple cider you could dream of!

Thank you Kensington Books for the ARC!

Mulberry Mischief is a delightful little cozy mystery. As someone who is half Ohioan and half Michigander (and 100% a Great Lakes enthusiast), the setting couldn’t be more perfect. Oriole Point is an adorable little resort town right on Lake Michigan.

Marlee is a great main character – and I loved her group of friends! I found myself wishing The Berry Basket was a real shop, and that I could somehow join the cast of characters in this book.

The mystery kept me guessing until the end (and the last few chapters are pretty fast paced!)

Thank you Kensington Books for the free book!