This was a head-scratcher, for sure. Its intrigue level was mild and it wasn’t as captivating as I expected. Mel was disorganized and a bit of a scatterbrain. She was clueless and wasn’t very impressive as an amateur sleuth.

I received a free digital copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

It was the pretty watercolour cover art, showing an elegant woman in red, that sold me on this cosy mystery. It takes place over the Christmas holidays in a small town. As I grew familiar with all the personalities that mill about in this story, I felt like I lived there too, and I was excited to rush about attending all the holiday gatherings alongside the protagonist. The main character was artfully defined and nothing was missing. I could see the parts of her life where she was an active participant and the parts where she was ineffective and possibly indifferent. The only thing that bothered me about this book was that the falling action was incredibly brief. I wanted to see the fallout from the resolution. The ending suggests a sequel and I would read it.

With her life as a model behind her, Melanie Tower returns home to Wisconsin to open an arts/crafts mall. One of her vendors is found dead and Mel tries to help solve the murder. For more than half the book , I didn't warm up to her character at all. Perhaps that was intentional by the author, but it kept me from engaging fully with the book. The event after event she attended as Cheese Queen were over the top and confusing. However, the last third of the book drew me in and I ended up enjoying it.

I really enjoyed this Midwest mystery. It's a funny, light read, and I appreciated that it's "clean," or free from vulgarities and violence. I look forward to the next book in the series!

Perhaps I'm just too New York but I had a lot of difficulty connecting with and getting drawn into this book. The mid-Western vibes are very apparent but I just couldn't finish this.