Advent Reads Day 5: An Eggnog to Die for by Amy Pershing

 Welcome to Advent Reads!

This is an event I have had on my blog for several years running now.  Each evening I feature a different holiday themed book. Think of it as your Book Advent Calendar! I post a variety of holiday books including romance, children's, middle-grade, mystery, paranormal, and I try to find some that are other holiday celebrations than Christmas too. I hope you will stop by each evening to see what new book I have for you!

Synopsis: "Christmas has come to Fair Harbor, but when the town's Santa is murdered, it will be up to Sam Barnes to find a killer in this newest installment of the Cape Cod Foodie Mysteries.

It's Santa Claus, she says tonelessly. Santa Claus is dead.

Food writer Sam Barnes wants a lot of things: a quiet Christmas at home with her dog and the town's handsome harbormaster, to never be in a viral video again, and to stop finding dead bodies. Unfortunately for Sam, her parents are coming to visit, she's often around cameras for work, and she just found the town Santa dead in the storage room of the cocktail bar she was profiling.

Although she was only interviewing the owners of the Ginger Jar in hopes of getting the recipe for their Coquito Eggnog cocktail for the friends and family Christmas Eve dinner she's hosting, Sam quickly finds herself taking on the role of investigator once again. She needs to find out who slayed this Santa--but with holiday stress already building, will Sam be able to pull off a perfect feast and nab a killer?"

My Review:  I just read this first book in this series in anticipation of this one coming out, I am a sucker for holiday themed books. I enjoyed getting to know some of the side characters we were introduced to in the first book some more and we also got to see a bit more of the small town setting. I have to say, I struggled a bit with this one, it was a similar set up to the first book and I was hoping for some new way for Sam to be involved. I also think her parents kind of stole the show on this one, I absolutely adored her mom. Anyway back to the story, I did enjoy the unique ways of trying to figure out the 'how' Sam works through as she tries to solve the case. I like that things are lightened up a bit with almost a bit of comedy of errors type moment, it keeps the story nice and light. We got some interesting twists as we try to figure out the 'who' and we are kept guessing throughout the story. I will be continuing on with the series.

My Rating: I enjoyed the way this mystery was tied into the holidays, it was a fun way to break up all the more sappy Christmas stories (granted there is a bit of feel good to this one too). It was a good installment to the series and it did keep me guessing throughout but I am hoping for a bit more variety with Sam in the future. I give it a rating of Three Paws.

I received a complimentary copy of this book via Netgalley, the above is my honest review and opinion.

You can find out more about Amy Pershing and her Cape Cod Foodie Mystery series on her Goodreads page or Website.

An Eggnog to Die For was just released on November 9th so you can pick up your own copy today from Amazon or Barnes & Noble or request it from your local library or bookstore.