Somehow I didn’t realize there would be 3 separate stories in this one. The stories and characters were very different. But all had an interesting plot written in various degrees of wit and depth. Of the 3 the first had the most fun and misdirection. The last moved very slowly.

It’s shaping up to be a killer Christmas celebration this year with this one of a kind compilation of stories. The authors outdid themselves. I loved every minute of it. 5/5 stars

I Love that Kensington Publishing puts out these themed compilations. It's a fantastic opportunity to check in with authors you know and learn about authors you don't. Having not read any of Carlene O'Connor's work prior to this, her story was a great introduction to Siobhan and the small Irish village setting of her series. Maddie Day delivers another stunning mystery and another installation of her Country Store Series. Having only read one other work by Alex Erickson, I was thrilled to visit with Krissy again-and her adventure in an escape room was amazing! All of these stories feature the Christmas holiday and hot cocoa in some sort of intriguing twist to the story. A must for cozy fans!

I love holiday theme cozy novella collections! I read every one I can get my hands on. Not only are they cute, quick holiday theme stories, but it's a great way to find new authors/series to add to my tbr!

Christmas Cocoa Murder gathers 3 Christmas theme stories from different popular series. One series I have never read before, and the other two I've read one or two of the books. I'm definitely moving all 3 series up my tbr stack because I enjoyed this entire book!

This collection includes:

Christmas Cocoa Murder - This novella is set in Carlene O'Connor's Irish Village Mystery series. Main character Siobhan plans a quiet Christmas with her siblings, but someone kills santa in a dunk tank filled with cocoa. She's on the case to find out why someone murdered the eccentric man playing santa claus.

I have never read any of the books in the Irish Village Mystery series. I enjoyed Siobhan as a main character. Intelligent, funny and witty....just an enjoyable character! I like the setting as well. The mystery was solid and kept my attention. There are 4 books in this series with a fifth, Murder in an Irish Cottage, coming out in February 2020. I will definitely be reading this series!

Christmas Cocoa and a Corpse - I have read one book in Maddie Day's Country Store Mystery series. This novella definitely renewed my interest in reading the entire series!

Robbie Jordan gets pulled into a murder case when a local businessman drops dead after drinking her cocoa. Was the cocoa poisoned or did Cocoa the dog (a cute chocolate lab found with the body) have something to do with it? I thought it was really cute that the dog's name was Cocoa. Definitely made me smile. :) Cute way to tie in with the theme of this story collection!

I like Maddie Day's writing style. This was an entertaining story that definitely makes me want to read this entire series. I'm not sure why I never read more than one -- probably just a matter of my ponderous TBR pile. I will definitely be reading more of this series.

The Country Store Mystery series has six books so far, with a seventh, Nacho Average Murder, coming out in July 2020.

Death By Hot Cocoa - I have read a couple books in the Bookstore Cafe Mystery series by Alex Erickson and enjoyed them. So I happily read this novella! Krissy Hancock and her bestie are excited about trying a local Christmas theme escape room experience. But things get serious when they find the attraction's host dead in a puddle of cocoa. Yikes! Who offed the host and why?? I'm a sucker for locked-room type stories, so this was my favorite story in the collection. And it definitely has me wanting to finish reading this series!

This is a very enjoyable Christmas themed cozy collection. I'm definitely moving all 3 series by these authors up on my to-read list! And even though it isn't even fall yet as I write this, I enjoyed reading Christmas theme stories! Made me crave cocoa and Christmas music!

**I voluntarily read an advanced readers copy of this book from Kensington via NetGalley. All opinions expressed are entirely my own.**

Thanks go to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read an advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

A perfect read for a snowy December day! Christmas Cocoa Murder is a fun pop-in visit to the main characters of some well-loved cozy mystery series. All three novellas in this collection are well done, but my favorite is the one by Alex Erickson, where we find Krissy in an escape room facing an unplanned mystery that must be solved if she’s ever to escape.

This is a book that contains three different mysteries. The first one, Christmas Cocoa Murder, was very hard to get into and I actually lost interest in reading it. I would give it two stars. The second, Christmas Cocoa and a Corpse, was hard to get into but as the story continued I got sucked in and I enjoyed the ending. I would give it between three and four stars. The third story, Death by Hot Cocoa, was an excellent mystery that I loved. It had an interesting setting, but I didn't see the ending. It was a surprise.

I really enjoyed reading these Christmas-themed short mysteries by authors that I knew I already read and liked. I wasn't familiar with the series that the first story belongs with, but I had read the author's newest series. Even though I didn't know anyone, it didn't take long to warm up to Siobhan's character and her siblings. That and her possible love interest made me want to read this series. The ending of this story was so sweet and I hadn't guessed the killer.

In the second story, I loved how Ms. Day tied in the "cocoa" theme by having a Lab puppy by that name. A nasty man was killed, and it almost could have appeared as if the pup caused his accident...or was it an accident? Robbie and her hopefully future mother-in-law Freddy made a good investigative team for this case. I kind of had a feeling I knew who it was, but it was interesting to see how they caught the person. The dinner at Abe's parents on Christmas Eve was really fun and festive, since it ended in singing Christmas carols.

The last book was a locked room type mystery set in Christmas-themed escape room where the host had been killed, which wasn't part of the game at all. All eight of the game players were strangers, except for Rita and Krissy. Rita, of course had talked Krissy into doing this. Since she'd helped with a lot of local murders, Krissy naturally took the lead as investigator and questioned everyone. It was pretty cool how they did all work together, but they used their brains not their tech just like in the old days. I was totally surprised by the killer. I guess I had something or someone else in mind for what had happened, but it all worked out, they got out eventually and the killer was taken away.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an ARC from NetGalley, and my opinions are my own.

Three Christmas themed novellas with cocoa make this volume a special treat. The stories are set in Ireland, Indiana, and an escape room (really? ) In each case, the murder victim (as always in cozies) isn't the persons they wanted to portray themselves a being- even Santa! Siobhan, Robbie, and Krissy are intrepid heroines and while the short format doesn't give you a lot of time to get into their characters, the stories are just right for an evening read. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. For cozy fans.

Christmas Cocoa Murder has three great cozy novellas. They are all wonderfully written and have great characters. The storylines are interesting and well developed.

Since I am a fan of Carlene O'Connor, I was really happy when I got a copy of this book through NetGalley. For whatever reason I did not realize that the book also contained 2 additional novellas by other Authors, but all in the Christmas Murder theme. Cozy mysteries to read while it's raining or snowing outside with familiar and new characters that kept me guessing until the end. Very entertaining and despite the murders it gets you in the Christmas spirit. Also a great way to get to know new Authors.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher through Netgalley.

I have to admit that the biggest reason I requested this one was because there's a novella by Maddie Day in this book. I love her Country Store Mysteries series and I was excited to read her Christmas novella set in that series. I also like discovering new to me authors, so I figured this was a great opportunity to check out the other two stories as well which are by new to me authors.

Christmas Cocoa Murder by Carlene O'Connor
This story is clearly part of an ongoing series, but even so it was quite easy to get a feel for the setting and the characters. There were a few moments that I did notice me being new to this series, like trouble remembering all the character's names as none of them were familiar it was a bit much to get introduced to so many new to me characters and there was this part where I hadn't realized some of Siobhán's siblings were quite a bit younger than her. It also was a bit difficult at first to get the feel for the setting and characters while also following the start of the mystery. But overall I think the author did a good job making this novella accessible for those who don't know the series.

The mystery got off to a quick start when the village Santa gets murdered. Siobhán doesn't start her job at the Garda yet till next year, but she gets involved anyway and can help solve the mystery. The mystery was quite a good one. There are some clues that are important and some things I knew were part of the answer, but it still takes a while for things to come together. I wrongly guessed who the murderer was and there was quite the nice twist when everything finally falls on it's place.

I think I have the first book in this series and definitely plan to go back and read that at some point. I think if you are already familiar with this series this novella will be even more fun. I had some trouble getting a feel for the characters as I didn't know them beforehand, but even so it was nice following them around as they solve this mystery.

Christmas Cocoa and a Corpse by Maddie Day
This was the story I was most excited about and it really was a great one. I love this series and I really enjoyed spending some time with Robbie and in her store this time set around Christmas. The Christmas theme was a fun addition and I always enjoy seeing the familiar characters.

The mystery wasn't as complicated as that in most books in this series. With only two main suspects it was relatively easy to solve it and after a certain clue I was sure I knew who the murder was. Even the motive was clear already. I liked how Robbie again took the effort to be careful and not go alone when talking to possible murder suspect.

All in all this was a great short read set in this series. I enjoyed spending time with the characters and have an entertaining read set around Christmas. There also was a cute puppy and some cocoa as well.

Death by Hot Chocolate by Alex Erickson
This was a fun story. I liked the locked room type of mystery in this book. The main character and one of her friends join a escape room and during the escape room someone gets killed. Now they're stuck in the escape room and one of them is the killer. I thought this was a fun set-up for a mystery. It added some great suspense knowing one of them was the murderer.

I also liked how this set-up lend itself for a shorter read as they have to figure it out before they can escape from the room. Another bonus was that for those new to this series this short story was really easy to get into as it all takes place in the escape room there aren't many appearances of characters or mentions of things you don't know. And this story did make me curious about the rest of the series.

The mystery was a pretty good one. It was tricky to figure out who had done it, but before I had a solid guess the main character figured it out. It made sense and I liked how things fell on it's place. It also was interesting how the motive in this one was quite hard to figure out and even when the main character figured out the who she didn't know the why until the murderer told them.

To summarize
I really enjoyed this collection with three Christmas themed cozies. Only one of these was in a series I already knew and the other two authors were new to me. I enjoyed all three of the stories, although the one by Maddie Day was my favorite as I already knew that series. The other two have me curious to check out those series too. I also liked how each of the stories had a Christmas theme and hot cocoa played a role in the murder mystery. All in all I would definitely recommend this collection to cozy mystery fans.

Three sweet and entertaining Christmas stories.
I like them all and I think they're well written and fun to read.
Recommended!
Many thanks to Kensington Books and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine.

This book actually contains three Christmas mysteries. The authors pull off the difficult task of writing murder mysteries that still end on a hopeful note, suitable for a holiday collection. I had read books by only one of the authors who contributed to this book, but I really enjoyed all three stories. All three stories feature hot cocoa in some aspect in keeping with the Christmas cocoa theme.

The first story is the titular "Christmas Cocoa Murder" by Carlene O'Connor. I have read some of the full length Irish Village novels featuring Siobhan O'Sullivan and enjoyed this story which goes back to when she is first graduating from the Garda College. Siobhan is as impulsive, smart, and loving as ever. As the rest of the town are enjoying Christmas preparations, Siobhan is called into service to solve a murder. I liked seeing her solve a case even before she is officially on the job. Those who haven't read any of the books in the series will like getting to know Siobhan. Even though a murder did occur, the story has a sweet ending which gives a hint about Siobhan's life in the near future.

The second story is "Christmas Cocoa and a Corpse" by Maddie Day. Robbie Jordan and her assistant Danna Beedle are busy keeping the customers Robbie's country store and restaurant fed and happy in the days leading up to Christmas. However, Robbie finds herself putting all that on the "back burner" to catch a killer when her boyfriend's father is accused of murdering a former business associate. I've heard of this series but hadn't had a chance to read anything by this author before this story. I really liked the characters and the setting and am interested in reading full length books featuring Robbie and her friends. There were plenty of suspects for Robbie to investigate and everything was wrapped up in end.

The third story in the collection is Alex Erickson's "Death by Hot Cocoa." Krissy Hancock takes the day off from running her bookstore cafe to participate in a Christmas-themed escape room with her friend Rita. Lewis Coates doesn't seem like a people person but has done a great job organizing the even in which the participants find their way out of small, individual rooms into a large room from which the whole group must "escape." All but one of the participants are shocked when they find their way into the large room and find Lewis's dead body! I enjoyed seeing Krissy logically solve the escape room clues as well as the real clues to determine the identity of the murderer in this locked room mystery. I like Krissy and Rita and although I've not read any of their full-length adventures, I would like to read other books by this author.

Overall, this is a highly entertaining collection of three Christmas mysteries with a variety of settings and plots that will appeal to a wide range of cozy mystery lovers.

I received this book from NetGalley through the courtesy of Kensington Books. The book was provided to me in exchange for an honest review.

I absolutely loved being transported back to Ireland by Carlene O'Connor and Siobhan Sullivan and her family. This Christmastime mystery was everything wonderful with suspense, many twists and heartwarming family situations thrown in. There is a final romantic touch that I am still feeling. This offering in the anthology was perfection!
Robbie Jordan has a new challenge in Maddie Day's novella in the anthology as her boyfriend Abe's father is the chief suspect in a murder. A lot of ground is quickly yet thoroughly covered with a timely and satisfying conclusion. I think it was a great addition to the book.
The third in the anthology was by far the weakest, especially as I had vowed to pass on any future Krissy Hancock stories. That being said it was tolerable. The idea of an escape room increased the tension, yet the time frame was short enough that Krissy didn't really have a chance to get on my nerves.
This anthology is all based around hot cocoa and is a fun addition to my holiday cozy reading.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley. The opinions express in this review are entirely my own.

Delightful anthology with 3 great cozy authors. Carlene O Connor’s entry is based from the Irish Village mystery series and Siobhan O Connor must find a killer of a Santa in a Cocoa dunk tank and Santa was certainly no angel. Good addition for this series. Maddie Day’s entry is from her Country Store mystery series and Robbie Jordon must find the killer of local businessman and clear her hot chocolate. Learn more about her boyfriend and an adorable puppy. This was a good addition to the country store mystery series. Alex Erickson’s entry in his bookstore café series features a Christmas themed escape room and this one was very fast paced and I loved the concept. All of these were great novella’s with fun holiday themes of hot cocoa…

September seems to be Christmas month for publishers, so I have a bunch of holiday themed cozy mysteries to indulge in. First up is Christmas Cocoa Murder. 🎁 A three short story anthology dedicated to cocoa. ☕ Christmas. 🎄 And Murder. 🔪

CHRISTMAS COCOA MURDER 🎅 by 𝓒𝓪𝓻𝓵𝓮𝓷𝓮 𝓞'𝓒𝓸𝓷𝓷𝓸𝓻
🌟🌟🌟🌟 ➡ I enjoyed this story a lot. 🙌 It was set in Ireland, which made it extra special to me. 💗 It was also very festive. 🎄 I'm not a fan of a book that advertises itself with a "holiday" setting and barely mentions the holiday. 👀 This was choked full of Christmas fun. Santas, Elves, Nutcrackers...the whole kit and caboodle (as they say). 🙌 The mystery was laid out nicely with a few red herrings thrown in here and there. 🙈 That said, I figured out the "baddie" fairly early on. 😁 There was a fantastic cast of entertaining secondary characters, and I found Siobhán to be a likable main character. 👍 And as a bonus we get a yummy sounding recipe for hot cocoa with Irish cream. ☕ What more can you ask for? 👍👍

CHRISTMAS COCOA AND A CORPSE ☕ by 𝓜𝓪𝓭𝓭𝓲𝓮 𝓓𝓪𝔂
🌟🌟 ➡ This one wasn't that great for me. 🙈 First, I found Robbie unlikable. 😠 I can't put my finger on the reason, she just came across cold and bitchy to me. 👀 I also thought the mystery was pretty thin, and other than it taking place around Christmas it really wasn't all that festive. ⛔ However, the Mexican hot chocolate recipe and the eggnog oatmeal recipe at the end sounded yummy, so there is that. ☕

DEATH BY HOT COCOA 🔪 by 𝓐𝓵𝓮𝔁 𝓔𝓻𝓲𝓬𝓴𝓼𝓸𝓷
🌟🌟🌟 ➡ This was a fun one since it all takes place inside a Christmas themed escape room. 🎁 So bonus points for originality. 👍 However, it also seemed to be the shortest and least fleshed out of the three stories. 👎 I wish there had been more to the story once they were all in the "murder" room together. 🔪 I was also a tiny bit disappointed to see that there wasn't a recipe included at the end of this story. 😪 Still, overall it was a quick and entertaining story.

Christmas Cocoa Murder
Carlene O’Connor

September 27, 2019
In September many Christmas novellas hit the shelves. A trio of authors brings us 3 tales that take place right before Christmas arrives. In the first, Christmas Cocoa Murder we find ourselves in Kilbane, County Cork, Ireland. Siobba’n O’Sullivan has just graduated from Templemore Garda College. She is due to start her position as a garda in Kilbane right after the first of the new year. She is off to enjoy the town’s Christmas celebration with the presentation of the annual panto or play that all of her siblings are characters in. She fears she will be late as she as been searching for the family pup, Trigger. Enroute to the panto she hears of others that have lost their dogs as well. She feels she will need to report it to the garda station after the evening is over. At the brief intermission, Paddy O’Shea is rolled out on a dunk tank. It was filled with hot chocolate. The elf picked up snow and rolled it into a ball. He threw it at Paddy in his Santy suit. It hit the ringer and Santy was dunked down into the chocolatey mess. Shortly thereafter, there was a commotion in the tent. The tank rolled out and Santy was floating dead in the tank. This story continues with Siobba’n helping to solve the murder.
The second tale was Christmas Cocoa and a Corpse. Robbie Jordan was wrapping up another night in her Country Store and Bistro. She had only a few days left before the holiday shutdown. She looked forward to the rest but she knew the next few days will be very busy. She and her business partner Danna Beedle exchanged cooking and waited tables to ease the stress of the work. That night Robbie and her boyfriend, Abe O’Neil were invited for a gathering at his parent’s house. It was a gathering of Howard O'Neills friends and acquaintances from the college where his wife worked. Although dinner was delicious, the group was somewhat testy during the after dinner coffee. A visitor came by to drop off a puppy that Howard had gotten for his younger son, Sean for Christmas. They needed to find someone to babysit the pup for the next couple of days. WillaMae, wife of Jed Greenberg volunteered to care for the dog at their home. All was well until the next day at breakfast when news traveled into the restaurant that Jed Greenberg was dead. He had not been murdered but there had been some sort of a tragic accident. The adventures continue to find the cause of his death.
The final selection was Death By Hot Cocoa. Krissy Hancock and Rita Jablonski were old friends. This night they decided to try their hand at going to an Escape Room. The game was owned by their friend Louis. He had invited them to come down to try it out. When they entered there were others coming in to have a go at getting out successfully in the time given. The group members each entered one of the rooms. Their coats and phones were placed in the locker room so no calls could stray their attentions. This last story was rather tedious to read. There were many details and too much conversation.
None of the three were as enticing as they could have been but I was intrigued due to the first author, Carlene O'Connor. She is an Irish author that has written Irish comfort mysteries. They were a somewhat fun read. The book, Christmas Cocoa Murder by Carlene O’Connor,
Maddie Day, and Alex Erickson will be published on September 24, 2019 by Kensington Publishing Corporation.

Three Holiday cozies guaranteed to make your day
Christmas Cocoa Murder by Carlene O'Connor
Siobhan Sullivan has graduated from Garda College and is waiting for the new year to begin her new position. She is investigating nine missing neighborhood dogs on her own. When a local eccentric is murdered her boss-to-be invites her into the investigation, after she asks to help. We are treated to a succession of suspects with as many motives and she helps to confirm or discredit information. The fact that she is getting close is not missed by the murderer, one who had not been on police radar, and is saved from her own possible death by her eavesdropping family.

Christmas Cocoa And A Corpse by Maddie Day
Robbie Jordan is very busy at her Country Store / breakfast and lunch diner. Making up unique meals and selling vintage cookware earns her a good living. She is a big crosswords fan and very good at collecting information and clues. When a friend is arrested in a murder case, she gets busy to collect and pass on to the sheriff as much information as she can, managing to come up with a witness who actually saw what occurred.

Death By Cocoa by Alex Erickson
Krissy Hancock and Rita Jablonski attend an 'Escape Room', a type of live mystery theater. The attendees must manage to work together uncovering clues to escape two locked rooms, one they are put in alone and one they gather in after getting of the first room. After the group manages to get free of the first, they find the host dead in the second. Their phones were locked up at the start, so they must find the way out, while being suspicious of each other, after all, someone here killed their host.

All three tales are written by talented authors, designed to catch and keep your attention until the end, and there are delicious sounding recipes to try out.

I requested and received a Net Galley Arc to peruse and offer my opinion freely.

Three delightful Christmas themed stories. The first story, Christmas Cocoa Murder by Carlene O'Connor is set in Ireland. It was well written and full of humor. I really liked the main character, Siobhán. She's smart, funny, and I enjoyed getting to know her and her siblings. The mystery was solid and interesting enough for me to keep reading until the end. The second story, Christmas Cocoa and a Corpse by Maddie Day is set in the wonderful fictional town of South Lick, Indiana. This is one of my favorite cozy mystery series and my favorite of the three stories. The writing is excellent and the plot is perfectly paced. I enjoyed getting to know Robbie's boyfriend, Abe's family a bit more and their adorable puppy, Cocoa. This was a great addition to the country store mysteries. The third story, Death by Hot Cocoa by Alex Erickson is set in a Christmas escape room. I loved this story. It reminded me of a horror movie. It was fast paced, and I had a lot of fun reading it. Overall, I highly recommend this book. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC. The opinions expressed are my own.

Every part of this compilation was magically full of mystery and just a sprinkle of cheer! Each author brings so much to the plate individually but with all of these stories together, it just flows together naturally from author to author. If you are looking for an enjoyable series of different events with a solid mystery, look no further.