You need to sign in or sign up before continuing.
Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.79 AVERAGE
3.79 AVERAGE
What a fun, festive cozy mystery! I love this author's writing and this book lived up to all my hype. Seriously, her characters are quirky and endearing and she always writes a good love interest. The 12 days of reindeer games at the Christmas Tree Farm are so creative and add the prefect holiday magic to this story. Even with a murderer on the loose, you cannot help but get in the festive mood and feel those holiday feels. Holly is really bouncing back from her cancelled wedding and I understand how being around family during this holiday time can heal. I was shocked by the murderer and loved how it all wrapped up. I am going to start the next book immediately!
Twelve Slays of Christmas by Jacqueline Frost 311 pages
Christmas Tree Farm Mystery #1
Genre: Holiday > Christmas; Mystery > Cozy Mystery; Thriller > Mystery Thriller; Romance, Contemporary, Adult Fiction
Featuring: Maine, a Bostonian, Reindeer Games, Return to the Nest, Cutesy Names, Cats, Murder -off camera
Rating as a movie: PG-13 for adult themes
My rating: ⭐⭐⭐½
My thoughts: page 28 - So-so
page 248 - Good but the main character is the only one I'm connecting with.
page 287 - I know it's terrible to quit with one chapter to go, but I'm going to be awake in a few hours anyway and I know who the murderer is.
So, I couldn't go to sleep without finishing this book, there were actually 2 short chapters left. If you have never heard of Jacqueline Frost or Jacqueline B. Frost, a lot of people seem to think this is her debut novel, but it's written too well and her name is as cute as the ones on the book. Julie Anne Lindsey has published over 40 books since her 2013 debut. She writes romance, mystery and suspense as herself and under the pen names Bree Baker, Jacqueline Frost, and Julie Chase. Her reasoning for the use of pen names is so her fans won't grab a Harlequin romance expecting a cozy mystery.
The story was better written than your average cozy mystery, yet it still didn't lure me down the rabbit hole. If I read the next 2 books it will be next year. I didn't fall in love with Mistletoe, Maine and although I was glad that Holly White wasn't your typical cozy idiot, she was the only good thing in the story for me. She had a legitimate reason to be nosy, she worked with the authorities and they weren't incompetent. She didn't put herself in danger or withhold information. It was refreshing to see a heroine with a brain, but everything else was either overly cute or unnecessarily vanilla conversation, so I wasn't jumping up and down over it. Overall it was better than okay but I enjoyed the cover more than the story. I am interested in reading one of her other pen names.
Recommend to others?: Yes. If you love Hannah Swenson but you don't like stupidity or recipe filler this would be a good read.
Christmas Tree Farm Mystery #1
Genre: Holiday > Christmas; Mystery > Cozy Mystery; Thriller > Mystery Thriller; Romance, Contemporary, Adult Fiction
Featuring: Maine, a Bostonian, Reindeer Games, Return to the Nest, Cutesy Names, Cats, Murder -off camera
Rating as a movie: PG-13 for adult themes
My rating: ⭐⭐⭐½
My thoughts: page 28 - So-so
page 248 - Good but the main character is the only one I'm connecting with.
page 287 - I know it's terrible to quit with one chapter to go, but I'm going to be awake in a few hours anyway and I know who the murderer is.
So, I couldn't go to sleep without finishing this book, there were actually 2 short chapters left. If you have never heard of Jacqueline Frost or Jacqueline B. Frost, a lot of people seem to think this is her debut novel, but it's written too well and her name is as cute as the ones on the book. Julie Anne Lindsey has published over 40 books since her 2013 debut. She writes romance, mystery and suspense as herself and under the pen names Bree Baker, Jacqueline Frost, and Julie Chase. Her reasoning for the use of pen names is so her fans won't grab a Harlequin romance expecting a cozy mystery.
The story was better written than your average cozy mystery, yet it still didn't lure me down the rabbit hole. If I read the next 2 books it will be next year. I didn't fall in love with Mistletoe, Maine and although I was glad that Holly White wasn't your typical cozy idiot, she was the only good thing in the story for me. She had a legitimate reason to be nosy, she worked with the authorities and they weren't incompetent. She didn't put herself in danger or withhold information. It was refreshing to see a heroine with a brain, but everything else was either overly cute or unnecessarily vanilla conversation, so I wasn't jumping up and down over it. Overall it was better than okay but I enjoyed the cover more than the story. I am interested in reading one of her other pen names.
Recommend to others?: Yes. If you love Hannah Swenson but you don't like stupidity or recipe filler this would be a good read.
funny
lighthearted
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
funny
lighthearted
mysterious
relaxing
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
mysterious
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
hopeful
lighthearted
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
TWELVE SLAYS OF CHRISTMAS is my first cozy mystery ever and I’m so glad it was. It’s ADORABLE. I don’t know how else to put it. It’s sweet and wholesome and just a little bit dark and very Christmasy and I couldn’t get enough of it.
It wasn’t sickly sweet, which is good, because I probably wouldn’t have been able to stomach it. Although the constant, and only, use of tummy instead of stomach really irked me. It’s just . . . you can’t mix it up just a little? Nope. All tummy, all the time. Luckily that was really the only think that rubbed me the wrong way.
Holly is very much a down on her luck woman who moved home after a cancelled wedding and just wanted to lose herself in her family’s traditions at their tree farm and not think about her ex. Until the local historical society woman gets murdered by a prop her dad was just holding. Holly sleuths around, but is kind of low key about it. Until she gets the killer’s unwanted attention and they start leaving nasty grams to ward her off.
A good chunk of the story is very much day to day in Mistletoe during their primary event, Twelve Days of Christmas, where they do have super kitschy events like building gingerbread houses and sleigh rides and a snowball competition and whathaveyou. It’s Holly making Christmas candy-themed jewelry and her friend trying to start a cupcake bakery and Holly’s mom making every sweet treat imaginable and it’s just love.
Sprinkled in you get Holly digging, but just a little bit. The distinct difference I’ve found between cozies and thrillers is the lack of tension. There’s very little tension in TWELVE SLAYS OF CHRISTMAS, which I think is the driving force behind cozies. There is a sense of danger, but it’s just a whiff, whereas if this were a thriller there’d be tension on every page, a sense of impending doom all the time, and your anxiety would be on high. Which I love, don’t get me wrong. But reading a murder mystery that wasn’t high octane all the time was a nice breather.
I’m not sure how I’d feel reading cozies all the time, because this was definitely a very specific mood read I was going for. Post surgery, I have a lot of downtime, I’m feeling very Christmasy, and I think I saw a bunch of cozies listed in one of the many book emails I get and it was just like I WANT TO READ THESE RIGHT NOW. And I kind of love this as a tradition starting this year. Cozy Christmas mysteries set a mood so wonderfully and I think I started with the perfect book in TWELVE SLAYS OF CHRISTMAS. So much so that I ended up buying a hard copy as well (that was NOT easy to find, which was shocking because this book isn’t even five years old) AND I bought the digital version of book two in the series. Whether or not I read it this year, I don’t know. But it will be ready for next year if I don’t.
I think if you’re a thriller lover like I am, but you also like the Christmas mood and don’t really want a Hallmark movie-like read, cozy mysteries are probably right up your alley and you should start with TWELVE SLAYS OF CHRISTMAS. I think it’s the perfect introduction to a niche of a niche.
4.5
funny
lighthearted
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Just what I wanted for Christmas, a Cozy Mystery with a little bit of romance in there. At first, I thought, why is this woman getting so involved but I soon forgot all about that and just enjoyed the book letting the cozy mystery feels take me away.
funny
mysterious
relaxing
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A