Book Review: Murder in the Mystery Suite (Book Retreat Mysteries, #1) by Ellery Adams

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Murder in the Mystery Suite (Book Retreat Mysteries, #1) by Ellery Adams is the first book in the Book Retreat Mysteries series and is set in western Virginia at a charming resort called Storyton Hall. This unique resort is designed specifically for book lovers who want to escape, unwind, and immerse themselves in their favorite stories. The resort’s manager, Jane Steward, decides to host a themed “Murder and Mayhem Week” inviting mystery enthusiasts to gather, role-play, and solve fictional crimes. However, the event takes a dark turn when one of the guests is found dead in his suite and a valuable prize goes missing. Jane must uncover which guest is responsible for the murder before the retreat is ruined . Before picking up this novel, I had only read one other book in the series. I decided to start from the beginning as part of my New Year’s resolution to finally read books I purchased years ago. I’m so glad I did. Starting with the first installment allowed me to fully appreciat...
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Book Review: Christmas Cookie Murder (A Lucy Stone Mystery, #6) by Leslie Meier

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book review christmas cookie murder leslie meier

It's the Christmas season in Tinker's Cove, Maine, and Lucy Stone is looking forward to hosting the annual cookie exchange that Sue normally hosts. When  Tucker, one of the guests, is found murdered the next day, the entire town is in shock, and the local dentist is arrested for it. Lucy decides to investigate on her own in Christmas Cookie Murder (A Lucy Stone Mystery, #6) by Leslie Meier.

This is the perfect book to put me in the mood for Christmas, and it's in one of my favorite genres . . . a mystery. Who would ever think a murder mystery would put a person in a holiday mood? But, with the cookie exchange, the holiday shopping, and Santa Claus visiting the elementary school during the Christmas play, it's easy to get excited about the holidays.

As far as the suspects go, the obvious one is the dentist because he's the boyfriend of Tucker, but I dismissed him right away. I did consider Lee, the wife of the dentist for most of the book because I thought she had more motive to kill Tucker since Lee and her husband were separated. About halfway through Christmas Cookie Murder, I did start to suspect the fire chief from a neighboring town after he reported a theft committed by four of Tinker Cove's volunteer fire department. You'll have to read the book for yourself to see if either of the people I suspected was the murderer.

There were a quite a few things I enjoyed about this installment of the series. I could totally relate to Lucy and all the things that went wrong during the exchange because I could see the same things happening to me. Various scenarios in Christmas Cookie Murder were extremely believable like when Lucy's son and his friend were procrastinating on filling out college applications and parents bragging about which colleges, or universities, their children were accepted into.

Five out of five stars is the rating I gave Christmas Cookie Murder (A Lucy Stone Mystery, #6) by Leslie Meier. If you enjoyed this book, I recommend reading Christmas in High Heels (High Heels, #3.5) by Gemma Halliday.


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