It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas.....

TITLE: 'Twas the Knife Before Christmas (A Christmas Tree Farm Mystery #2)
AUTHOR: Jacqueline Frost
PUBLISHER: Crooked Lane Books
PUBLISHING DATE: November 13, 2018

FROM GOODREADS: A Christmas delight, ’Twas the Knife Before Christmas will charm the stockings off readers of Joanne Fluke and Leslie Meier. 

It’s out of the cupcake tin, into the fire for Holly White’s best friend, Caroline. Can Holly clear Caroline’s name in time to go caroling?

When a body turns up in the dumpster behind Caroline’s Cupcakes, Holly White is horrified to learn her best friend Caroline is the main suspect. Everyone in town, including Mistletoe, Maine’s sheriff, saw Caroline fighting with the victim on the night of his death. Worse, Caroline’s fingerprints are all over the murder weapon, a custom-designed marble rolling pin.

Now, just ten days before Christmas, Holly’s up to her jingle bells in holiday shenanigans and in desperate need of a miracle. Juggling extra shifts at her family’s Christmas tree farm and making enough gingerbread jewelry to satisfy the crowd is already more than she can handle—and now she has to find time to clear her best friend of murder. Add in her budding relationship with the sheriff, and run-ins with an ex-fiancé looking to make amends, and Holly’s ready to fly south until springtime.
But her Sherpa-lined mittens come off when Caroline is taken into custody. Can Holly wrap up the case in time for Christmas…even after she gains the true killer’s attention? Find out in ‘Twas the Knife Before Christmas, Jacqueline Frost’s second pine-scented Christmas Tree Farm mystery. 

MY THOUGHTS: If you would have ever told me I'd fall in love with a Christmas cozy series, I'd have said you were nuts.  Come on, I'm just not that jolly.  However, I have fallen in love with Frost's newest addition to last year's debut.  A new murder has taken place right as the festivities for Christmas Tree Farm are beginning. This time, Caroline is not a suspect and instead the police are looking at her friend Holly.Mistletoe, Maine has one of the cast of characters I've met in a long time.  The reader really gets sucked into this Christmas obsessed town and quickly attaches to many of the characters.  Like most cozies, there is an element of romance, but it's not overwhelming and I dare any reader not to cheer on the main couple. In addition, the mystery element was fun and satisfying.

I was initially worried that the author couldn't sustain a mystery centered around one particular holiday year after year.  However, that is no longer the case and I can't wait to see what happens next.  If you love great characters, good mysteries and a fun setting, you have to give this series a try!

I received a copy of "'Twas the Knife Before Christmas" from Netgalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

RATING: 5 paws