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jbarr5's review against another edition
5.0
Plum Pudding Murder by Joanne Fluke
Love this seires and this one is about Larry who runs the crazy elf christmas lot. Lots of suspects in town and some mysteries surrounding the mayor, Norman's mother, Carey keeps declining others dropping by or going out with them,
Hannah's ex professor who she had romantic encounter with years ago is now her sister Michelle's friend, and Larry's ex wife teaches at the local college
Hannah takes it upon herself to help question others and put the pieces together. She is providing food for her friends upcoming wedding.
With Christmas things are very busy. Hannah discovers his body and figures he's running the business in the red and figures also that his ex wife might want to do him in also.
Recipes for Christmas dinner are included along with ones in chapters. Love catching up with the townsfolk and finding out what they are up to.
I received this book from The Kennsington Books in exchange for my honest review
Love this seires and this one is about Larry who runs the crazy elf christmas lot. Lots of suspects in town and some mysteries surrounding the mayor, Norman's mother, Carey keeps declining others dropping by or going out with them,
Hannah's ex professor who she had romantic encounter with years ago is now her sister Michelle's friend, and Larry's ex wife teaches at the local college
Hannah takes it upon herself to help question others and put the pieces together. She is providing food for her friends upcoming wedding.
With Christmas things are very busy. Hannah discovers his body and figures he's running the business in the red and figures also that his ex wife might want to do him in also.
Recipes for Christmas dinner are included along with ones in chapters. Love catching up with the townsfolk and finding out what they are up to.
I received this book from The Kennsington Books in exchange for my honest review
bucherwurmchen's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
bakersmom's review against another edition
4.0
Another great installment of the Hannah Swenson series. As Christmas approaches everyone in Lake Eden is ready to purchase their Christmas trees and transform the community into a winter wonderland. But, along the way Hannah will discover another body with Norman and encounter a person from her past.
As much as I love this series and appreciate a wholesome read, I really want Hannah to decide who she likes better, Mike or Norman. If it was up to me it would definitely be Norman.
As much as I love this series and appreciate a wholesome read, I really want Hannah to decide who she likes better, Mike or Norman. If it was up to me it would definitely be Norman.
passionatereader78's review against another edition
lighthearted
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
I love this series and I enjoyed reading this book. Hannah and Norman find a body at the Christmas Tree Lot, so of course they decide to investigate.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death and Gun violence
ofearna's review against another edition
4.0
I thought it was funny that part of the book was explaining that her plum pudding cookies had NOTHING to do with the traditional (icky) plum pudding :-)
hannah_the_home_librarian's review against another edition
3.0
Christmas has come to Lake Eden once again! This time, Hannah is investigating the murder of Larry Jaeger, the Christmas tree salesman at the Crazy Elf Christmas Tree Lot. Typically, I absolutely adore the holiday shenanigans of the Swensen clan and the resulting ensemble of characters such as Mike, Norman, Herb, Lisa, Carrie, etc., but I found that this book lost some of that Christmas charm that the Blueberry Muffin Murder and Sugar Cookie Murder books had.
Mike Kingston, for one is starting to slip further and further down my liked characters list, especially as he continues to "mansplain" things to Hannah in nearly every book. Why Hannah can't finally decide that Norman is 100% a better guy for her than Mike is unbeknownst to me, other than the fact that Mike is, as always, "classically handsome" whereas Norman is always basically described as 'not traditionally handsome, but not ugly'. His last-minute "save the day" attitude when Hannah is constantly involved in danger is also getting a bit repetitive. I wish that this time it had been Norman who saved Hannah since he was already present at the same venue when Hannah confronts the killer of Larry Jaeger. Furthermore, this book, unlike the others of the series, made it much more blatantly obvious which character had killed Larry, which took away some of the enjoyment for me because I like the usual twists and red herrings Joanne Fluke usually has in her stories to make the ending much more satisfying.
Of course, I still enjoyed the Hannah/Norman moments in the book, loved the small mentions of Lisa/Herb and their excitement to hopefully get a puppy, Hannah's interactions with Michelle, Andrea, and her two nieces, and the family Christmas Eve dinner held at the end! However, one of Hannah's former college lovers appearing at various points throughout the book read more like a slap across the face than an interesting plot point. I honestly have no idea why Bradford is even necessary in the plot and why Michelle would refer to him as a college "friend" when he is clearly one of her professors. Furthermore, the book simply ends upon Hannah realizing that is who Michelle brought to Christmas Eve dinner, so now we as readers most likely have to suffer through his inclusion in the next book.
Overall, I enjoyed Plum Pudding Murder and will continue to read the series, but the up and down ratings for this series make me curious as to why the quality between the books in this series is so drastically different when they are written by just one author.
Mike Kingston, for one is starting to slip further and further down my liked characters list, especially as he continues to "mansplain" things to Hannah in nearly every book. Why Hannah can't finally decide that Norman is 100% a better guy for her than Mike is unbeknownst to me, other than the fact that Mike is, as always, "classically handsome" whereas Norman is always basically described as 'not traditionally handsome, but not ugly'. His last-minute "save the day" attitude when Hannah is constantly involved in danger is also getting a bit repetitive. I wish that this time it had been Norman who saved Hannah since he was already present at the same venue when Hannah confronts the killer of Larry Jaeger. Furthermore, this book, unlike the others of the series, made it much more blatantly obvious which character had killed Larry, which took away some of the enjoyment for me because I like the usual twists and red herrings Joanne Fluke usually has in her stories to make the ending much more satisfying.
Of course, I still enjoyed the Hannah/Norman moments in the book, loved the small mentions of Lisa/Herb and their excitement to hopefully get a puppy, Hannah's interactions with Michelle, Andrea, and her two nieces, and the family Christmas Eve dinner held at the end! However, one of Hannah's former college lovers appearing at various points throughout the book read more like a slap across the face than an interesting plot point. I honestly have no idea why Bradford is even necessary in the plot and why Michelle would refer to him as a college "friend" when he is clearly one of her professors. Furthermore, the book simply ends upon Hannah realizing that is who Michelle brought to Christmas Eve dinner, so now we as readers most likely have to suffer through his inclusion in the next book.
Overall, I enjoyed Plum Pudding Murder and will continue to read the series, but the up and down ratings for this series make me curious as to why the quality between the books in this series is so drastically different when they are written by just one author.
jenniferdenslow's review against another edition
3.0
Hannah Swensen isn't busy enough with her bakery; she has to go around solving murders as well! This outing on the long-running series finds a shady businessman setting up in the small town to take advantage of everyone's Christmas spirit. But one elf is just not that jolly....