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In Jenn McKinlay's Sugar Plum Poisoned, cupcake queen Mel DeLaura nÊe Cooper is already inundated with holiday orders when she takes on a baking gig for singer Shelby Vaughn. But then Shelby's shifty manager bites the big one, and rumor has it that it might be because he bit into one of Mel's cupcakes. What's a baker to do? Investigate! Well, that and prepare to host fifty-plus of her nearest and dearest for Christmas. Both make for a nerve-wracking -- and entertaining -- Noel.
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Cacti do grow in Idaho, which just happens to be the setting of the last book I read, Codi Hall's There's Something About Merry. The sequel to Nick and Noel's Christmas Playlist (which I read last year), it centers around the Winters Christmas Tree Farm and the festively-named family that owns it. Middle child Merry loves the farm so much that she wants to run it someday. So she's bummed when her dad hires someone else to do just that. Clark Griffin (who, although not a Winters, isn't immune to the "merry" moniker theme; his favorite holiday flick is Christmas Vacation) is no longer the lanky, long-haired nerd that popular Merry crushed on back in high school. Now a single dad, he's assertive but still reticent, his quiet nature masking a wound. Yet when he and Merry connect on a dating app, their chemistry is palpable. As a writer and an introvert, I love an epistolary getting-to-know-you, and this one is especially sweet. But perhaps the best thing about it is that it doesn't go on forever. Merry and Clark discover each other's identities early. So instead of being the entire story, the online dating trope serves as more of a prologue, building tension and layers. Because who says romcoms can't be deep?
Not this fool for love. And cacti. đđĩ
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Faux fur is for real. After all, what beats the winter blues better than synthetic fluff in cruelty-free colors? Even if I considered the alternate title Faux Fur, My Chauffeur. Because these coats take me wherever I want to go -- which is anywhere and everywhere as long as I'm wrapped in cozy and kitschy. To that point, the first pic was taken two years ago at Smithville, one of the coziest -- and cutest! -- places around.
Who knows where my outerwear will take me next? Hopefully, not the DMV.
I wasn't kidding about that chauffeur.
A December to Remember is just as cozy as its cover. (So, nothing like those Lexus commercials. Who buys a car at Christmas, let alone a Lexus?!). Three estranged sisters reconvene in the idyllic English countryside of Rowan Thorp to carry out the terms of their late father's will. A wanderlust-struck eccentric, Augustus North sends salt-of-the-earth Maggie, sophisticated Simone, and free-spirited Star scrambling on a scavenger hunt to claim the money that he cached for them to resurrect Rowan Thorp's famed winter solstice celebration. In working together, they squabble but ultimately reconnect, which is perhaps (insert heart emojis) the biggest prize of all. A December to Remember is on brand for Bayliss and is just the kind of quirky, hipster fairy tale that warms my heart at this time of year.
Similarly, The Santa Suit sparkles with poignant nostalgia. City girl Ivy Perkins moves to a North Carolina farmhouse to heal from her divorce. Yet Four Roses Farm turns out to need more love than Ivy anticipated. Luckily, her realtor Ezra Wheeler is only too happy to help her with her busted hot water heater and drafty windows. What's more, Ivy finds a beautiful Santa suit in a closet with a note tucked inside. All Carlette wants for Christmas is for her father to return from Vietnam. Touched, Ivy sets out to uncover what happened to Carlette and her family. Along the way, she makes two life-changing friends and finds the home she always wanted. Andrews weaves small-town charm, seasonal suspense, and old-fashioned romance with all the Christmas magic of a ribbon glittering through evergreen. Short but sweet, The Santa Suit is a joy to read, making you believe that, in December, all things are possible.
Hopefully, that extends to me getting that tree up.
You know those cold case shows like Dateline and 20/20 where they investigate the suspicious deaths of women forever frozen in outdated hairdos and wedding gowns? Well, even the commercials for those shows make my skin crawl, so I never watch them. That said, an unsolved murder woven into the plot of an otherwise lighthearted novel is an entirely different kettle of fish. It comes across as more haunting than harrowing -- and yet also somehow more real. Which, I suppose, is why I took to Mary Kay Andrews's The Homewreckers.
Savannah widow and historical home rehab maven Hattie Kavanaugh agrees to star in a reality show about renovating a hundred-year-old beach house. Cheekily called The Homewreckers (apparently, Saving Savannah was too sleepy), it capitalizes on the reality programming mainstays of hairspray and hissy fits, all (un)scrupulously scripted to look off the cuff. Although more at home in Carhartts than cutoffs, Hattie puts up with the Hollywood hullabaloo in hopes of repaying her boss, who also happens to be her father-in-law. But she gets more than she bargained for when she finds a wallet that belonged to her beloved high school English teacher, who disappeared seventeen years ago. What was Lanier Ragan doing in that house, and who was the last person to see her? Someone doesn't want Hattie -- or anyone else -- to find out and starts sending not-so-subtle warnings. With her last cent tied up in the renovation (TV gigs being less lucrative than one might think), Hattie literally can't afford to turn a blind eye. Not only that, but Lanier was more than a teacher. She was a friend who helped Hattie through a tough time.
Hattie, by the way, is what makes this book compelling. So many mysteries feature a sleuth with no skin in the game, someone just looking for kicks or fulfilling a promise to a weaker character. And although those premises can be fun, I often wonder why the "detectives" just don't walk away. Life's hard enough without goading baddies into tossing bricks through your window. Yet Hattie's invested, and each and every step she takes toward whodunit rings true.
The Homewreckers covers all the baseboards, from murder mystery to reality TV to family drama to, of course, romance. With characters and a plot built to last, it's a story you can sink your sawteeth into.
