A review by nitabee
Holiday Buzz by Cleo Coyle

3.0

Holiday Buzz is a fast, enjoyable read. With Mike Quinn living in DC, he makes fewer appearances, but he still shows up a lot. The dead body Clare stumbles upon this time is one belonging to M, her friend Janelle's employee who's been helping out at the Blend during this busy holiday season. A second body shows up midway through the book, belonging to

Spoiler

a baker named Rita Limon

. Police detective Lori Soles' usual partner is out due to medical reasons, so she's been saddled with a bumbling detective named Endicott - turns out he has political connections, is related to the mayor, which explains why he holds his job. Clare gets involved since Endicott is on the totally wrong path; in fact, he suspects Dante from the Blend! Clare thinks she has the murder solved at the end of the book, but she's slightly off.

Spoiler

She suspects it's one half of a Real Housewives type reality show BFF pair named Danni, but it's really Delores, the smaller, more shrewd one. Delores had been responsible for the death of M's cousin, Kathryn, a year earlier after stealing a hockey star's car and crashing it into Kathryn's bakery. Rita lets M know through a letter, and M decides to blackmail Delores for $50,000, though Clare discovers M had planned to use the large majority of the funds for noble purposes

.

Madame shows up sporadically throughout Holiday Buzz, aiding Clare in one of her usual madcap plots (this one to gain access to a retirement center to find one of M's friends who worked there). Matt and Bree are also present, and Matt is as delicious as ever. Joy is still in France, though Franco helps out Claire once or twice. I'm not sure how much longer Mike and Clare can manage the LDR, and references are made to an eventual wedding, with Mike telling Clare how he likes hearing her say "I do."