3.5 stars rounded up ( )

When a body is discovered just before a Christmas tree lighting, Holly White has to work to clear her best friend Caroline’s name—particularly since she and her cupcake shop may be implicated in the murder. This was a fun Christmas cozy that has everything I look for in a cozy mystery—not too scary, check. Fun town and characters, check. For a Christmas book, going all five out of five candy canes on the holiday cheer. Definitely check. Holly’s family runs a Christmas tree farm. They’re building a cozy inn. There are Santa impersonators. Cold Maine weather. Romance with the town sheriff. Mistletoe and kissing all over town. Christmas shoppers. It’s about as Christmas-y as you can get! ( )

Holly White moved back to Mistletoe, Maine, to manage an inn for her parents. Holly selects many of the finishing touches as the contractor nears a Christmas completion date. Her parents own Reindeer Games farm which hosts lots of Christmas activities for the town. When Derek's body turns up in a bowl of holiday mints with Caroline's knife in him, Holly knows she must investigate to clear her best friend of criminal charges. Even the local investigator Evan does not believe Caroline committed the crime, but the evidence points to her so he must take her in. Evan's closed-mouth approach to the investigation just makes Holly dig a little deeper. Both solve the case about the same time, but not before Holly almost loses her life as she did last Christmas. It's a cute holiday mystery, but not great literature. It includes a little touch of magic near the end, but it probably detracts from the mystery. ( )

This is the second book to The Christmas Tree Farm Mystery.
A year later, Holly is working with her parents and has made some good friends. But there is another murder. Her best friend, Caroline is a suspect for the murder of a date she was seen arguing with.
Grab yourseld a mug of cocoa or 'special tea' and enjoy the second book. ( )

It's Christmastime in Mistletoe, Maine once again. Holly White is gearing up for all the holiday festivities and helping out with the family business, Reindeer Games Christmas Tree Farm. They are renovating and expanding to add an Inn for guests, but construction is way behind schedule. She's also trying to cheer up a friend who just had a really bad experience at a benefit dinner. Her date, the son of a local judge, behaved badly...and they had a fight. To kick off the holiday season, everyone goes to the town's tree lighting ceremony. What should be a fun holiday gimmick -- guessing the number of holiday mints in a giant glass bowl -- turns for the worst when Caroline's handsy date is found dead inside the glass bowl, covered in Christmas candy. Not only is that a terrible waste of lovely mint candy.....but Caroline is a murder suspect. A knife from her cupcake business emblazoned with Caroline's initials is the murder weapon. It might just take a Christmas miracle to prove that Caroline didn't stab Derek.....

This cute, enjoyable holiday cozy mystery got me in the mood for the Christmas season. :) I love the background theme of a Christmas tree farm...especially in a small town named Mistletoe. :) Finding the murder victim in a huge dish of candy was also a nice touch. I wanted the killer arrested not only for killing Derek the Handsy Jerk, but also for ruining the lighting ceremony and huge glass container of candy gimmick. I just kept imagining how pretty that big glass bowl filled with peppermints under all the lights would have been....until a body was stuffed into it. What sort of grinch does something like that? All is revealed by the end of the book! The mints however were a lost cause....

I enjoy this series. The characters are fun...from Holly White the main character clear down to Theodore the pet goat. I'm always a sucker for holiday themed cozy mysteries...and this series never fails to entertain me. The mystery is nicely paced....it's just Christmas-y enough to be fun....and there are enough twists and turns to keep the plot interesting. And, a couple special Christmas miracles are thrown in for good measure. All in all, an enjoyable holiday cozy with lots of feel-good moments. I will definitely continue reading this series!

Ho, ho, ho....Merry Christmas! :)

**I voluntarily read an advanced readers copy of this book from Crooked Lane via NetGalley. All opinions expressed are entirely my own. My guess....there were 20,947 candies in the giant bowl before the addition of a Dead Derek.** ( )