A fun cozy mystery. I enjoyed the characters and the plot. I have not read the other books in this series, but that made no difference in reading this one. I’ll read more from this author.

I received a copy of this book from the publisher. All opinions are my own.

Hayden Mundy Moore is back in this fifth instalment of the Chocolate Whisperer series. I've read the first one (way back) and hadn't realised there had been so many additions since then. I did enjoy the first one - a whole (cosy) mystery with chocolate at its centre? What's not to like?

This time, Hayden is in New England with her friend/accountant/keeper, Travis, in the town where he grew up, Sproutes, Massachusetts. Hayden is looking forward to her first picture-postcard perfect Christmas holiday - snow, decorations, carol singing, hay rides, the lot. Unfortunately, she stumbles across the body of a woman face down in the wassail punch on her first night at the B&B where she's staying, leading her into another murder investigation. Particularly puzzling is why the police seem to be so quick to dismiss it as an accident...

The story is well written and the characters neatly drawn, leaving us with plenty of suspects and red herrings to lead us astray.

Hayden is a bright and independent character, so I was slightly dismayed to see a potential love triangle brewing, what with Danny and Travis trying to outdo each other in their efforts to show Hayden the 'Ultimate Christmas'. This is an overused trope in cosy mysteries (I'm not quite sure why) and they get tiresome. I hope the author doesn't pursue this.

Overall, though, an enjoyable and fun read in a series that I'll be continuing!

The Peppermint Mocha Murder is the 5th book in this series.
I enjoyed this book from the start a lot going on. A good plot lots of twists never guess who the killer was and a lot of characters to choose from.
Having not read any of these books before I lost the conection between Hayley Travis and good friend Danny .I will go back and read the previous books to catch up.
Loved the Christmas theme and would look out for Colette London next book .
Many thanks to Kensington books and netgalley for letting me read and review this book.

I need to go back and read all of this series. This is book 5 in 5 of the released series and I can't wait for the next one. Just enough was mentioned of previous books to tease you into reading the previously released ones but nothing stated that would ruin a previous story. A beautifully built tension between two male characters and the female lead has me completely torn over who likes who as more than a friend and who I want to cheer for.

Now, for the mystery? I was dizzy trying to figure out who the bad guy was! Usually it's pretty easy but you were left wondering who the intended victim was or if there was more than one victim. If there was more than one victim, was there more than one bad guy? This was REALLY well done. I was left hanging until the big reveal.

The characters were wonderfully developed and the dialogue was fun. The world building was fabulous, you could easily place yourself there. It never got draggy in any places, though it easily could have. Not being much of a cook, I did have to look up some of the terms. Luckily, I just had to highlight the right word for it to clue me in. I definitely recommend this one.

Recipes Included: Peppermint-Mocha Cookies With Peppermint -Vanilla Icing & Candy-Cane Sprinkles, Easy Peppermint-Mocha Fudge, Peppermint-Mocha Dipped Pretzels With Candy-Cane Crunch, Peppermint-Mocha No-Bake Mini Cheesecakes With Chocolate-Cookie Crust, and Supersize Peppermint Mocha.

Thank you to Colette London, Kensington Books, and NetGalley for allowing me the opportunity to enjoy this wonderful story and share my thoughts and opinions with others.

This is the 5th book in series and one of my favorites. I love every book in this outstanding series. If you love a good murder sleuth, chocolate and fun charcters you will love this series as much as I do. I highly recommend this next in series for your reading enjoyment. Here is the list of all the books in the series. Each book is a delight of chocolate that the reader can indulge in without the calories !
1. Criminal Confections (2015)
2. Dangerously Dark (2015)
3. The Semi-Sweet Hereafter (2016)
4. Dead and Ganache (2017)
5. The Peppermint Mocha Murder (2018)

In this next in series our protagonist Hayden is celebrating the Christmas season with a trip to a charming New England town. Her friend Travis has invited her to his hometown with another friend for a premier of a musical.

Hayden decides to make chocolate peppermint truffles to surprise the owner and guests of the B&B where she is staying. When she is up during the night baking she discovers the body of a woman who is the producer of the musical. The police seem to think it was an accident and want to close the case. Hayden has questions that she feels lend toward murder and she decides to investigate . As she begins to piece together clues and suspects she finds interesting secrets about the town and soon is on the right path . Soon she manages to be the one solving the murder and with help from her friends and a lot of delicious chocolate she discovers the right suspect!

This is a lovely Christmas setting and perfect for fall reading . There is enjoyable supporting characters. I highly recommend this next in series. Thank you for the ARC to the author and publisher and Net Galley. I have cross referenced reviews on Net Galley, Good Reads and Amazon for the author.

Omg this was such a sweet book! (Pun intended) - I liked the characterization in this book, everyone was well thought out and had subtle nuances that differentiated them! I loved the expert chocolate knowledge, research is so impressive (Sad fact, seeing as some authors don't do their research!). I loved the inclusion of recipes and I also loved the 'milk' hint - Genius! The distraction with the 'animal' (No spoilers here!) was so clever!

Ebook/Mystery: I loved the cover. I loved the description summary. Who wouldn't love getting away from Las Vegas to celebrate Christmas in a snowy B&B. I was all in. And then I read the book. This book is well into a series. It has chocolate, doppelgangers, and unrequited romance. I don't don't why I didn't like it more. Hayden was so dull. She's independently wealthy with a trust fund and not having any real problems, I don't know. I just couldn't relate. I learned a lot about chocolate and I plan to try the mocha recipes in the back. I really can't recommend it. To me, it was less than average.
I did get this book from NetGalley in lieu of an honest review.

I enjoyed the small town feel of the book. The characters are enjoyable and loved the recipe at the back of the book. The dynamics of Hayden and her love interests are interesting. The mystery was well written. I enjoyed it, its a fun Christmas themed mystery. .

It is always a delight to be following the adventures of the chocolate expert. Her hands off relationships with her handlers are intriguing. Not quite friends with benefits. The murder mystery was clever and held some surprises.

The Peppermint Mocha Murder is the 5th book in A Chocolate Whisperer series. Hayden Mundy Moore, the chocolate whisperer, travels to Snowy New England to Travis home town to spend Christmas with him, and to see his friends musical. Danny is also there guarding the star of the show. I loved the interaction between Hayden and her bodyguard/ long time friend Danny as well as her "keeper" Travis. Travis is Hayden financial planner, who she recently met in person. Danny and Travis don't like each other, so this adds to the entertainment of the book. Hayden is also attracted to both men.
This book has well developed characters and plot which kept me guessing until the end, and I can't wait for Hayden's next adventure. Not only do you get to travel to different destinations without leaving your home, you can also drool over the food descriptions. I recommend this cozy mystery book and the whole series. 

I received this book in exchange for a fair and honest review.

This was an interesting cozy mystery story. From the beginning, the premise is set that we don't know who the murderer is, and we don't even know for sure who the intended victim is. I liked that aspect of the novel. I also really liked the setting - cozy New England in the winter. It makes one yearn for an old-fashioned Christmas :) This was my first novel in this series and I found that I didn't connect with the characters as much as I'd have wanted. Maybe reading another one or two of the books would give me more of a connection with them but I did like it overall.

What could be better than a trip to a small New England town for Christmas. That’s how Hayden Mundy Moore, a chocolatier, feels when her financial advisor and friend, Travis, invites her to his hometown. He invites her to join him and his friend Albany for the premier of the musical adaptation of Albany’s recent book.

On her first night in town, Hayden can’t sleep so she decides to make chocolate peppermint truffles to surprise the owner and guests of the B&B where she is staying. Instead of making her way into the kitchen, however, she finds herself in the dining room. There she discovers the body of a woman who she later finds out is the producer of the musical. The police seem to think her death was nothing more than an accident. Hayden has questions though, and she decides to investigate it herself. Along the way she discovers what secrets this little town holds.

I really appreciated the setting for this book. It did a great job of setting a Christmas atmosphere even with a murder hanging over the town. The delicious sounding chocolate treats don’t hurt either. There is a great cast of characters in this book. However, I don’t feel like Hayden was able to ever really able to find out the who, what, when, why, and how about each of the characters. It makes her conclusions at the end of the book seem a little weak. The book was still very enjoyable to read, and I hope to go back and read the first five books in the series.

I think fans of other cooking mysteries will enjoy this book.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced copy of this book.

This book has me feeling a bit bipolar about it. I very much enjoyed the mystery angle. It kept me guessing right up until the end. It was suitably festive. I loved the chocolate theme as well. It had a great cast of likable (some more than others) characters, and the yummy sounded recipes at the end were a nice touch.

What really brought my rating down was the weird love triangle thing that was going on between Hayden, Travis, and Danny. Any time Hayden was remotely in the vicinity of those two she was either jealous, horny, or claiming she didn't think about them that way. I don't think I have ever read a cozy mystery that was this sexualized, and as I mentioned, I just found it a little off and misplaced. It was also quite repetitive in places.

So a bit of a mixed bag with this one...

Hayden THOUGHT she was going to have a nice peaceful Christmas with Travis in his hometown of Sproutes but......when she can't sleep and goes downstairs at the B&B, she discovers Melissa dead on the floor! This is in classic cozy territory with the twist that the victim looks a lot like Albany, who really is a rotten person. There's a little romance (and tension) with two love interests, lots of references to chocolate, a decent mystery, and a nice small town setting. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. You can happily read this as a standalone.

Christmas in New England with snow, chocolate and a murder. All the makings of a cozy mystery. The story is well written and definitely puts you in the mood for the holidays. The only criticism is the hangup on Hayden’s petty feelings but they are easily overlooked. If you love chocolate and Christmas, you’ll almost smell the chocolate while you dig in to this delightful read. Thank you NetGalley for ARC in exchange for my honest review.

When I saw the title of this cozy mystery, I just had to read it! Peppermint Mocha. My all time favorite flavored coffee drink. I wait every year for the holiday season just so I can get it at Starbucks! Coffee of the Gods!

I love foodie cozies....so this series is right up my alley. The main character, Hayden Munday Moore, is a chocolate expert. She lends her expertise to companies wanting to develop the best chocolate dishes. Restaurants, bakeries, candy makers, special events.....her services are in high demand all over the world. This time Hayden is travelling to Sproutes, MA to help with a premiere party at the request of her financial advisor, Travis Turner. Unfortunately, as usual, Hayden finds a dead body. She doesn't even get to spend one relaxing evening in her lovely, decorated for Christmas, B&B room. Wandering downstairs, unable to sleep, she discovers a dead woman on the floor, covered in spilled Wassail. So much for a relaxing trip to Massachusetts!

I like this series! The background theme of chocolate and baking doesn't overpower the mystery plots. In this newest addition to the series (book 5), the murder mystery moves along at a nice pace, accented by a Christmas theme this time. There are plenty of suspects and some nice twists. About the only thing I didn't like is a developing love triangle sort of situation. This is such an overused trope in cozy mysteries. Ugh. Not another relationship confusion/love triangle trope! Bleck!

All in all, a nice Christmas and chocolate themed cozy! Made for enjoyable reading! I will definitely continue reading this series. The cover art is colorful and festive. Cozies have the most wonderful covers!

**I voluntarily read a review copy of this book from Kensington via NetGalley. All opinions expressed are entirely my own. Warning: May cause chocolate and peppermint cravings! :) **

It's beginning to look like Christmas for Hayden Mundy Moore. On vacation from providing her sought-after expertise in all things chocolate, Hayden heads to snowy New England with her friend and financial advisor, Travis, for the opening of his pal's highly touted holiday musical. When the show's producer is murdered, Hayden trades sampling Chocolate Santa’s for finding the killer.

Soon Hayden discovers there's more to Travis's chic hometown than mulled wine and cocoa cookies. Almost no one, including Travis, is quite what they seem. Did the show's lead have more savage motives than stardom? Could the dead producer's husband have felt murderous envy for his successful wife? Getting behind the mistletoe and jingle bells will take all of Hayden's savvy if she hopes to catch a killer with a heart more bitter than the darkest truffle.

--

Series: A Chocolate Whisperer Mystery - Book 5
Author: Colette London (AKA: Lisa Plumley)
Genre: Cozy/Culinary Mystery
Publisher: Kensington Books

Colette London is a good writer. She has a vivid imagination and works in the details without missing a beat or distracting from the story. Most of her characters are lively and memorable with enough oddness to make them normal. This holds true, especially in The Peppermint Mocha Murder.

Hayden wants to enjoy Christmas like she hasn’t in many years. She wants it all, snow, carols, lights, and presents. But she learns that things don’t always turn out the way you want them. She is a bit immature, and on occasion can take things too far when she wants information. This is particularly true when it comes to finding out more about Travis’ past.

Other characters in this book are entertaining and at times thought-provoking. In particular, Travis and Danny. There is a bit of dislike and completeness between the two men, and it appears that Hayden may have to choose between them. The tension allows the reader to want to know more about both men and their relationship with Hayden. This gives the book a bit of an edge at times.

For many readers, the constant talk about chocolate can get to be a bit much, even for a chocoholic. Although it is an important part of Hayden’s life, it shouldn’t be the main focus. Also, and this may be a sticking point for me, knowing the law and what a person can get by with, makes Hayden’s inheritance restrictions unbelievable. No one, even someone who is leaving you a great deal of money can put a constraint that does not allow you to settle down in a home on a permanent basis.

Because of the inheritance situation, it also limits what can be done with the character in future installments. It makes it difficult to generate interest in the setting. It might be better if the character must always travel, to place her in exotic locations around the globe instead of a small New England town or other small towns in future editions.

The murder itself is intriguing, and the suspects are credible. The killer is unexpected and yet seems to be appropriate. All the clues are in the story that the reader needs to solve the murder. Some are well disguised and takes some thinking to make sense.

The Peppermint Mocha Murder is a fun read even with a few issues. The premise is original, and hopefully, the author will be able to find a solution to the problems without diminishing the enjoyment of writing the series or reading it.


ARC provided by NetGalley

The Peppermint Mocha Murder by Colette London is the fifth installment in A Chocolate Whisperer Mystery series but can be read as a standalone.
This is the first book in the series for me and I had no problem following the story since references to past happenings are clearly explained.
This time Hayden is not working and is celebrating Christmas with her financial adviser Travis in his hometown, where his old school friend has an opening night of her highly acclaimed musical. However things don't go according to plan as musical producer ends up dead.
Hayden is not above bribing people with her exquisite chocolate creations for some information since Travis has asked her to help.
Very absorbing and entertaining read. A lot of suspects to question and many twists and turns to keep readers guessing.
Most pleasing all those chocolate delights and the recipe to try.

They mentioned chocolate a lot in this book but I liked the book this was my first book by this author I know I started with book 5! But I got in to it from the beginning to the start had me guessing what was next, Hayden Mundy Moore was on A vocation from providing her sought after expertise in all chocolate, Hayden headed to snowy new England with her financial advisor. for A opening of his pal highly touched holiday musical. But when the show producer is murdered Hayden trades sampling chocolate Santa for finding the killer to find out more you'll have to get your copy.

I thoroughly enjoyed the plot, atmosphere, and characters. I would recommend the book to friends and family for their reading pleasure.