Can’t-Wait Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted at Wishful Endings to spotlight and discuss the books we’re excited about that we have yet to read. Generally, they’re books that have yet to be released. Find out more here.
I really enjoy holiday books, so much so that I read them year round when I get a chance. Unfortunately, I don’t get a chance to read them as much as I’d like to as I have other reading commitments. So, let’s get on with it. I am looking forward to:
A Corpse Among the Carolers by Debra Sennefelder publication date Nov 12 2024
Book 7 of A Food Blogger Mystery
Description
Hope Early is fully immersed in the spirit of the Christmas season, until the sounds of joyful carolers are silenced by the words “Ho-ho-homicide” . . .
Food blogger Hope Early always gets a hearty holiday laugh from knowing that the weeks leading up to Christmas are as frantic as they are festive. But in spite of everything she has to do, the one thing she always has time for is the annual Jingle Bell Stroll, a night when the community gathers to sing their hearts out and enjoy each other’s company. This year’s caroling feels especially heartwarming, until the final note lands with a thud when Hope finds the body of the man who’d volunteered to play Santa, a knife plunged into his back.
With virtually the whole town present at the caroling, the list of suspects seems endless. It doesn’t take long, though, for both Hope and the police to turn a sharp eye on the victim’s bitter and vindictive ex-wife, along with his new wife, who may have been after his money. Then Hope unearths a clue that suggests the dead man may have been hiding a sordid past and connections to unseemly characters. But as she closes in on the killer, they’re determined to wring her neck before she can ring in the new year . . .
Includes tasty and toasty holiday recipes!
About the Author:
Debra Sennefelder lives and writes in Connecticut, where she shares her home with her family and slightly spoiled Shih Tzu. An avid reader across a range of genres, mystery fiction is her obsession. Her interest in people and relationships is channeled into her novels against a backdrop of crime and mystery. She’s the author of the Food Blogger Mysteries, the Resale Boutique Mysteries, and the Cookie Shop Mysteries. When she’s not writing, she’s either baking or reading. To learn more, visit her on the web at debrasennefelder.com.
Is this one on your radar and will it be getting a read this holiday season?
Have a wonderful day and thank you for stopping in.
Can’t-Wait Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted at Wishful Endings to spotlight and discuss the books we’re excited about that we have yet to read. Generally they’re books that have yet to be released. Find out more here.
The book I’m waiting for this week is one I received from NetGalley.
Paris, Pumpkins & Puns
A Sweet Fake Dating Romcom
by Marion De Ré
ABOUT THE BOOK
Description
Paris in the fall.
The Eiffel tower, the blanket of colorful leaves on the ground of the Jardin du Luxembourg, the picturesque cobbled streets of Montmartre.
Sounds amazing, right? That’s exactly what I thought when my boss offered me to come here to critique restaurants.
Well, the reality is a completely different beast.
There is no accordion music playing in the street, the city smells like smoke, and I have yet to see a single guy wearing a beret! This was all a lie.
To top it all, I’m now a prisoner of this city because of a national strike keeping all planes on the ground and flooding hotels capacities. At least one cliché wasn’t false.
Enter Olivier Brun, chef of a Michelin star restaurant and as hot as a pizza oven who offers me a room and even cooks me breakfast.
So, when he asks me to pretend to be his date for his matchmaking mom’s birthday, I return the favor.
As we get to know each other through pun-filled cooking lessons, farmer’s market outings and autumn festivals, I start to fall in loaf with Paris… and Olivier.
Suddenly, the idea of relocating here isn’t as crazy.
But does Olivier feel the same? And if he does, will he be able to get past the fact that I lied about my job?
Paris, Pumpkins & Puns is a closed-door romcom with cozy autumn vibes, plenty of cooking puns and an irresistible Frenchman.
Pub Date Sep 24 2024
This is a new to me author. I will admit I love holiday covers and couldn’t resist requesting this one from NetGalley. It’s sounds like a fun story too.
Have a wonderful day. Thanks for your visit today.
341 pages Aria publisher October 12, 2023 publish date
ABOUT THE BOOK
Newlyweds Ivy and Adam Taylor have put their heart and soul into building their own businesses, but when circumstances conspire against them, it all comes crashing down. Could a Christmas miracle be just around the corner when best friend Jess suggests Ivy open the bakery she has always dreamed of at her Cornish Farmhouse.
Ivy is not so sure she has the heart to start over and winter is hardly the best time to launch a new business near the seaside… but it’s not long before the couple realise that although they are starting from scratch in a new place, they are far from alone.
There is nothing the community at Renweneth Farm does better than Christmas, and as the nights draw in and the snow falls, nothing is impossible…
MY THOUGHTS
Book 2 of The Escape to Cornwall series. When I’m ready for a great relaxation read with snow and wind blowing outside, I turn to books like this. Set in Cornwall this one was hard to put down.
I enjoyed reading Adam and Ivy’s story. He is so sweet and supportive of her and all her endeavors going forward. Making the hard decision to relocate because of personal and business decisions we follow along with the couple as they experience ups and downs. Hard work pays off though in the end. Warm, feel-good read with holiday festivity.
Pub Date 12 Oct 2023 I was given a complimentary copy of this book. All opinions expressed are my own.
THE AUTHOR
Linn B. Halton is a #1 bestselling author of contemporary romantic fiction. In 2013 she won the UK Festival of Romance: Innovation in Romantic Fiction Award. Originally from Bristol, she now lives in the Welsh Valleys with her husband and Bengal cat, Ziggy.
For Linn, life is all about family, friends and writing. She is a self-confessed hopeless romantic and an eternal optimist. When Linn is not writing, she spends time in the garden weeding or practising Tai Chi. And she is often found with a paintbrush in her hand indulging her passion for upcycling furniture.
Her novels have been translated into Italian, Czech and Croatian. She also writes as Lucy Coleman.
Linn is represented by Sara Keane from the Keane Kataria Literary Agency.
285 pages St. Martins Press publisher September 26,2023 publish date
ABOUT THE BOOK
When fall rolls around, it’s time for Kerry Tolliver to leave her family’s Christmas tree farm in the mountains of North Carolina for the wilds of New York City to help her gruff older brother & his dog, Queenie, sell the trees at the family stand on a corner in Greenwich Village. Sharing a tiny vintage camper and experiencing Manhattan for the first time, Kerry’s ready to try to carve out a new corner for herself.
In the weeks leading into Christmas, Kerry quickly becomes close with the charming neighbors who live near their stand. When an elderly neighbor goes missing, Kerry will need to combine her country know-how with her newly acquired New York knowledge to protect the new friends she’s come to think of as family,
And complicating everything is Patrick, a single dad raising his adorable, dragon-loving son Austin on this quirky block. Kerry and Patrick’s chemistry is undeniable, but what chance does this holiday romance really have?
Filled with family ties, both rekindled and new, and sparkling with Christmas magic, BRIGHT LIGHTS, BIG CHRISTMAS delivers everything Mary Kay Andrews fans adore, all tied up in a hilarious, romantic gem of a novel.
MY THOUGHTS
The Tolliver’s are Christmas tree farmers living in North Carolina. Every year they cart their trees to New York and make a nice profit. This year their dad is sick and can’t go, siblings Kerry and Murphy are tasked to do it this year.
Traveling in “Spammy”, an old vintage camper they set up the family stand on a corner in Greenwich Village. While there they meet the neighborhood, quite the eclectic group of people. The neighbors are charming and enjoy the fast-paced Manhattan lifestyle.
I enjoyed meeting single dad, Patrick, and his son, Austin. A slow burn romance starts but will anything come of it in the short time they are at the tree lot?
Heartwarming, MKA does it again, writing a hard to put down book tugging at your heartstrings. Old man Heinz was my favorite character and I enjoyed seeing the character development. He is hiding a secret but it’s wonderful seeing how he opens up to Kerry as he comes to trust her and lets her care for him. A little bit of Christmas magic comes alive in this book.
Pub Date 26 Sep 2023 I was given a complimentary copy of this book. All opinions expressed are my own.
THE AUTHOR
MARY KAY ANDREWS is the New York Times bestselling author of 27 novels (including Hello, Summer; Sunset Beach; The High Tide Club; The Weekenders; Beach Town; Save the Date; Christmas Bliss; Ladies’ Night; Spring Fever; and Summer Rental, all from St. Martin’s Press, as well as Savannah Breeze; Blue Christmas; Hissy Fit; Little Bitty Lies; and Savannah Blues, all Harper Collins), and one cookbook, The Beach House Cookbook.
A native of St. Petersburg, Florida, she earned a B.A. in journalism from The University of Georgia (go Dawgs!). After a 14-year career working as a reporter at newspapers including The Savannah Morning News, The Marietta Journal, and The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, where she spent the final ten years of her career, she left journalism in 1991 to write fiction.
Her first novel, Every Crooked Nanny, was published in 1992 by HarperCollins. She went on to write ten critically acclaimed mysteries, including the Callahan Garrity mystery series, under her real name, Kathy Hogan Trocheck. In 2002, she assumed the pen name Mary Kay Andrews with the publication of Savannah Blues. In 2006, Hissy Fit became her first New York Times bestseller, followed by twelve more New York Times, USA Today and Publisher’s Weekly bestsellers. To date, her novels have been published in German, Italian, Polish, Slovenian, Hungarian, Dutch, Czech and Japanese.
She and her family divide their time between Atlanta and Tybee Island, GA, where they cook up new recipes in two restored beach homes, The Breeze Inn and Ebbtide—both named after fictional places in Mary Kay’s novels, and both available to rent through Tybee Vacation Rentals. In between cooking, spoiling her grandkids, and plotting her next novel, Mary Kay is an intrepid treasure hunter whose favorite pastime is junking and fixing up old houses.
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