A romantic mystery. While I am not a Christmas person, I do enjoy reading about the cold and snow, especially when it is hot outside. A delightful group of friends and family in this charming small town. There is even a goat. The winter wedding sounded beautiful. Thanks to the publisher for providing a copy via NetGalley. A very enjoyable series.

Slashing Through the Snow by Jacqueline Frost is the 3rd book in A Christmas Tree Farm Mystery, and another great addition. Holly White's family owns the Christmas Tree Farm in Mistletoe, Maine, where Christmas is big business for the little town. I would love to go and drink hot cider, play some Reindeer Games, and take a buggy ride at the Tree Farm. Holly is the new innkeeper, of the B&B that the tree farm just opened. Cleo is a mean B&B critic who review can make or break them. When Cleo's body is found, Holly is determined to find the real killer. If you love cozy mysteries, and are looking for a delightful Christmas story, give this book/series a try, you won't be disappointed. I can't wait for the next book in the series, please keep them coming. I highly recommend this book
I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

Slashing Through The Snow
A Christmas Tree Farm Mystery, Book #3
Jacqueline Frost
5 Stars

Synopsis:

Maine innkeeper Holly White returns to sleuth another seasonal slaying in the third Christmas Tree Farm mystery from bestselling author Jacqueline Frost.

Reindeer Games Christmas Tree Farm is going into the B&B business, and Holly White is looking forward to her new role as innkeeper. Even better, Mistletoe, Maine's sheriff, Evan Gray, has deputized his little sister Libby to help Holly wrap presents for Mistletoe's toy drive. But a cold wind ruffles the cheery holiday decorations when a new guest checks in: Cleo, a vicious B&B critic, who could make or break the new inn. And the short December days turn even darker when Evan and Libby find Cleo's dead body in the gift-wrapped toy donation box.

The suspect list is longer than Santa's naughty list, and local resident Cookie is on it, since her fingerprints are all over the murder weapon, a metal nutcracker that she gave to Holly. So is Libby, who recently moved to town from Boston in less-than-savory circumstances. But cranky Cleo was an oh-holy-nightmare to lots of the townsfolk, such as Evan's reporter friend Ray; Christopher, the inn's former contractor; and confectioner Bonnie, whose Gum Drop Shop was a direct target of Cleo's scathing prose.

To figure out the killer's identity and clear Cookie's name, Holly and her friends brainstorm at The Hearth, the farm's café, while her mother keeps them fueled with Christmas goodies fresh from the oven. But if they can't put the culprit on ice, Holly may never see another Christmas. (Amazon)

Review:

The characters are well developed and well rounded. Holly and her gang have a new mystery to solve. Someone is killed and stuffed into a toy donation box. When her friends is blamed for the murder, Holly has to figure out who the real killer is before Cookie’s Christmas is ruined. Her friends and family will have to help her.

The writing style flows smoothly and the book is an easy read. The author is very talented in her descriptive writing and it pulled me into the story from the very beginning. The mystery was well plotted and it was not easily solved.

I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a well crafted
cozy mystery. I was very excited when I saw this book was coming out. I wanted to find out how Holly and her friends and family were doing.

I voluntarily reviewed an ARC of this book provided by the publisher, Crooked Lane Books, and NetGalley, which I greatly appreciate.

For anyone looking for a cozy holiday read and series, this is a fun series. The festive setting of Mistletoe, Maine, a Christmas themed village with candy shops, bookstores, and more, including the family owned Reindeer Games Christmas tree farm and inn owned by Holly White's family all make this a great backdrop for a way to get into the holiday spirit. There is an recurring cast of interesting characters in addition to Holly, including her boyfriend, Sheriff Evan Gray. Holly's friend, Cookie, is accused of killing an inn guest after she is overheard making a remark about the caustic food critic and a nutcracker she gave Holly is found to be the murder weapon. Holly is determined to find the real killer to get her friend off the hook but she gets a little too close and her life is put into the killer's sight a time or two. Great mystery to solve and festive theme make this a fun holiday cozy to read. There is a sweet special ending with a open situation to be seen in the next book.
I received a complimentary copy from Crooked Lane Books through NetGalley. All thoughts and opinions are mine only.

I love the holidays; this time of year is filled with lots of laughter and surprises, and I look forward to all of them. This series brings me joy. From the first book to this latest one, it has become a part of my Christmas tradition, and I hope this continues for many more years to come. Slashing Through The Snow is destined to become a yule classic. A tree farm, a B&B, a murder, what’s not to like?

Holly doesn’t have the best of luck when it comes to the Christmas holiday. She seems to spend her holidays solving murders. It doesn’t help in this case that the victim was someone almost everyone wanted to kill. There are a half dozen suspects who had great motives to kill the critic, Holly among them. Now that the family tree farm is adding a B&B, having a guest killed doesn’t help publicity, and the fact that the victim wrote terrible reviews of almost all the businesses she reviewed adds to the tension.

There is plenty of action in this book. Characters that hold readers’ attention, a location that will inspire readers Christmas decorations, and evidence that leads to more and more questions. The tree farm is hopping, and although it isn’t the main attraction, it is still the reason for the season. Holly’s mom is cooking up a storm; the food is tantalizing. Evan and Libby play significant roles in this addition, and the town’s business owners feature throughout. The B&B sounds delightful, and I wouldn’t mind spending my holiday season there.

As the investigation progresses, readers soon realize that Holly may be placing herself in danger. If she isn’t careful, she and Libby may find themselves spending their holidays buried somewhere on the tree farm’s grounds. In a spectacular reveal, the killer is caught, the B&B saved, and Christmas filled with happiness instead of grief. The characters in Slashing Through The Snow bring the holidays to life; they bring smiles and happiness to readers’ lives and remind us that no matter how bad things get, everything can change in the blink of an eye. I can’t wait until next year’s installment!

Christmas Tree Farm in the small village of Mistletoe, Maine was getting busier the closer it came to Christmas. With Holly White now running the new B&B onsite, and her parents running The Hearth which was a delicious café for the guests to have breakfast and dinner, and other people who would just drop in for hot chocolate and cookies, things were looking up. Holly’s best friend Cookie had just arrived with more bags of donated toys for the children at Christmas but with the number of toys arriving, she knew she’d have to get her friends in to help wrap.

Everyone was at The Hearth for dinner, including the latest guest, a critic who was known for her acerbic tongue and derogatory comments, when the Sheriff arrived – Evan Gray was Mistletoe’s resident sheriff and Holly’s love interest, and she was pleased to see him. But it was when they returned to the B&B that horror struck when a body was discovered in the toy bin at the door. Karen the critic would criticize no more…

Evan and his deputies were investigating Karen’s death, talking to everyone there but when Cookie’s fingerprints were found on the murder weapon, Holly was horrified to see her friend taken in for questioning. Would Evan find the killer before Christmas? With Holly searching for answers – much against Evan’s wishes – she was determined to prove Cookie’s innocence one way or another.

Slashing Through the Snow is the 3rd in the Christmas Tree Farm Mystery series by Jacqueline Frost and I loved it! So much fun and entertainment, a beautiful cover and great characters filled this book and I’m looking forward to #4 already. With plenty of twists, a Christmas wedding, reindeer, a goat and a mischievous cat, I didn’t go close to guessing the killer! Highly recommended.

With thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for my digital ARC to read in exchange for an honest review.

Holly White has moved into her parents’ new Bread & Breakfast. She’s excited and looking forward to the holiday season. A reviewer is staying at the inn and Holly is hoping for the best. Unfortunately, the reviewer is extremely touchy and doesn’t seem to get along with anyone. When she’s found dead, no one is surprised but Holly’s good friend is the chief suspect.

This is my first read of this series and I really enjoyed it. A great little town with lots of spirit. I look forward to more.

What could be better than a cosy mystery that has a Christmas theme? Not much as I love them both. And this one didn't disappoint.

A Christmas village called Mistletoe, an Innkeeper named Holly who is dating the Sheriff and a bad review, then a murder! Hmmmm! The suspects are many, the murder weapon a nutcracker and so the investigations begin.

This is a fun, quirky and very Christmassy book which has plenty happening to keep you reading but is so easy to read I had it finished before I knew it. A great plot, lots of action, a twist here and there and a bit of humour all makes for a good book.

A great read and I highly recommend it.

I enjoyed Slashing Through The Snow immensely. It was a fun read which kept me intrigued right up to the end.

Thank you to NetGalley and Crooked Lane Books for my ARC.

The wait is over and the third in this delightful series is another five star read. There was a bit of a wait between #2 and #3 but in that period I got to enjoy the mysteries she writes as Bree Baker. So worth the wait. Holly White is now an innkeeper in her home town of Mistletoe, Maine. Her family owns and operates a Christmas tree farm and the addition of the B&B seems to be the perfect fit. Well it would be if some Grinch hadn't bumped off a nasty B&B critic and wrapped her up like a Christmas gift. Not the kind of package one wants to unwrap but Holly ends up dealing with it when her friend, Cookie, is the prime suspect - her fingerprints are all over the nutcracker aka the murder weapon.
With help of her family and friends Holly is drawn into tracking down the killer, much to the dismay of her boyfriend, Evan, the local sheriff.
The setting, the cast of recurring characters combined with a delicious holiday mystery make for a wonderful reading escape.
My thanks to the publisher Crooked Lane and to NetGalley for giving me an advance copy in exchange for my honest review.

This is the third—and possibly last—book in Frost's "Christmas Tree Farm" mystery series taking place in Mistletoe, Maine, following ''TWAS THE KNIFE BEFORE CHRISTMAS and THE TWELVE SLAYS OF CHRISTMAS (although there's at least one unresolved plot line when the book ends). It's been a year since the inn at Reindeer Games, the Christmas tree farm run by the White family, opened, run by Holly White, who returned to her home town two years earlier. This year, Holly is trying to show a good time to Karen Moody, a persnickety reviewer for "New England Magazine," but Karen, whose annoying personality proceeds her, is all about complaining about the smallest thing. But it's no joke when Karen is found bludgeoned to death on the front porch of the Inn, her body in a collection bag meant for toys, and the murder weapon is the Christmas gift just given to Holly by her oldest (literally) and dearest friend, Delores "Cookie" Cutter, a metal nutcracker. Cookie's are the only fingerprints found on the nutcracker, and she had been heard by a guest making a bad joke about murdering Karen earlier in the day. So Sheriff Evan Gray must consider her the prime suspect, even if Holly won't stand for it. She determines she doesn't want to put herself in danger as in the previous two Christmases when first her dad and then her best friend were accused of murder, but she must clear Cookie somehow.

Due to Karen's personality, there are several suspects to zero in on, but I started looking at one person partway through the book and it turned out I was almost right. My big problem with this book is that other stuff was so predictable. For instance, Evan Gray and Holly are a couple, and when he says he's going to surprise her with something special for Christmas, I knew immediately what it was. Everybody else knows what it is, too, and I can't believe Holly didn't figure it out! Also, in the original synopsis the magazine critic was named Cleo. While that name seems to be overused in mystery fic these days, "Karen Moody" strikes me as such a pat, stereotypical name that it's annoying: "Karen" for the pushy privileged white woman who calls out people of color, and "Moody" describing her choleric personality. If you were going to peg anyone as being a pain in the ass, wouldn't you immediately think "Karen Moody"?

Once again with this series, I love the idea of the Christmas town, the great tree farm with its yummy coffee shop, and most of the supporting characters. But I would have preferred fewer stereotypes. And as for that surprise...Holly, dear, you are dense!

After an unpleasant magazine critic checks into The Inn at the Christmas tree farm, Holly White tries her best to please her. When the critic winds up dead and Holly’s elderly friend Cookie is the main suspect Holly decides to investigate.

I like the town of Mistletoe’s year round Christmas theme and there are plenty of Zany characters. And the mystery had plenty of red herrings. But I found myself slightly annoyed that after all of the dangerous situations Holly has put herself in she still hasn’t learned how to stay safe.

What a fun book! The characters, The mysteries, everything was just interesting and kept me entertained throughout the whole book. The author did a wonderful job describing the townspeople, and the whole town, of Mistletoe, Maine. I really what to go visit the town - join in the reindeer games, drink hot cocoa with candy canes, visit all the cool shops...but maybe without a murder, please. LOL

Many thanks to the publisher, Crooked Lane Books and NetGalley for an advance copy of this book. My thoughts and opinions are my own and without bias or favor or expectation.

Another excellent edition to a wonderful series! Full of twists and turns that leaves you wanting more and enjoying each moment until the end when the killer is caught!

I would like to thank Netgalley, Crooked Lane Books and Jacqueline Frost for an E ARC copy of this book.
I enjoyed the story and the characters but was frustrated by the bad editing job done – there were missing letters from words, sometimes there would only be two letters and I had to guess the word. This took away from the overall reading experience and dropped my rating (would have been 4 stars).
The story is set on Reindeer Games Christmas Tree Farm. The main character is Holly. She runs the B&B on the family farm. She is also helping with the local town’s toy drive and her friend Libby is helping her with the wrapping. One of the guests at the B&B is a horrible B&B critic who has not a nice word to say about anyone. One evening the critic (Chloe) is found dead on the porch of the B&B in the toy donation box.
As the local police start to investigate there is a long list of suspects, most prominent of these is Cookie, a friend of Holly’s. To help stop Cookie being arrested for the murder Holly and Libby put on their sleuthing hats and help (or maybe hinder) the police to find the culprit.
A well-paced cosy mystery, with good characters and setting. I enjoyed the setting of the Christmas tree farm and the town of Mistletoe.
Would recommend this book, once the editing errors have been fixed.

A super fun read! It had me guessing until the end. I loved the twists and turns of the mystery. The plot was well written and thought out. The writing was through and justified. I really liked this book. I could not put it down! I was invested in the mystery and surprised by the ending. I thought that the writer invested herself into this book and surprised the reader (and myself!) with the murderer! I enjoyed the book throughly and could not put it down. I’m looking forward to more by this writer.

Slashing Through the Snow by Jacqueline Frost is the third book of the cozy A Christmas Tree Farm Mystery series. Each book in the series has it’s own mystery to be solved so they can be understood as a standalone. However, there is some character development that is carried over from book to book for those that read the series from the beginning.

In the first book of the series Holly White had returned back home to her parents Christmas Tree farm in Mistletoe, Maine after her fiance had broken up with her two weeks before their wedding. After jumping in and helping her parents to take her mind off of her troubles Holly had begun to feel at home again and decided to stay in Mistletoe, Maine.

Holly is now really settled into her life in Mistletoe and taking the family’s business, Reindeer Games Christmas Tree Farm, to the next level by opening a B&B. Holly is looking forward to the role of Innkeeper and getting closer to the sheriff, Evan Gray, who she has been dating. However, things of course go off the rails when a a critic, Cleo, is found murdered, her body found gift-wrapped in the toy donation box. Of course Holly is going to do everything she can to find the murderer.

The cozy A Christmas Tree Farm Mystery series is another that I started at the beginning and really enjoyed the first two books. After a long wait since book two I wasn’t sure this one was going to continue but I’m glad it did as I found myself right back being invested in the characters and story. This would be one of the quirky, humourous cozies that I enjoy quite a bit and this one has the bonus of everything Christmas tossed into the mix too. I would certainly read another book in the series if it does continue yet again.

I received an advance copy from the publisher via NetGalley.

You know it’s getting colder out when I start picking up Christmas-themed cozies!

The Christmas Tree Farm Mysteries are the best of the holiday-centred cozies I’ve read, and I look forward to reading each new book whenever they come out. SLASHING THROUGH THE SNOW is the third instalment and keeps the series going strong.

The setting of this series is the star: a tiny little town that revolves around holiday tourism and Holly’s family tree farm, always busy with winter games and activities. In this volume, Holly’s just started running the newest addition to the property, a cozy little inn. Naturally, she’s invited a local B&B reviewer for a bit of publicity. Of course, things go wrong, the reviewer turns up dead and its Holly’s friend who ends up as the prime suspect. I loved spending time at the farm again and visiting all the little shops in Mistletoe, Maine. It’s a gorgeous place with (starring in this one) a cute bookshop, aa teddy bear hotel and a mouth-watering bakery. If only I could actually visit! Frost absolutely nails an immersive setting.

I do also love Holly as a character too. She’s bright and funny, if a little too stubborn when it comes to poking her nose where it doesn’t belong. There’s plenty of red herrings, interesting characters and a dash of holiday romance.

SLASHING THROUGH THE SNOW is a great addition. A really well done cozy mystery, perfect for any time of year.

Jacqueline Frost writes Christmas-themed cozy mysteries that are a delight to read all year long. This one is exceptionally well-done, with loads of fun Christmas activities underway at Reindeer Games, the family Christmas tree farm in Mistletoe, Maine, where the property's new inn is now being run by Holly White. An influential B&B critic pays a visit and quickly wears out her welcome, and soon, the critic's body is found in one of the town's toy-donation boxes.

The murder weapon turns out to be a nutcracker that one of Holly's friends, Cookie, gave her, and although Cookie is naturally under suspicion, no one seriously believes she committed the murder. That in and of itself ends up being a fun subplot. But the critic, it turns out, was on the naughty list of plenty of local folks, and Frost keeps readers hopping as they try to solve the crime.

The festive Christmas atmosphere in these books is hard to beat, and Frost's well-developed characters and thoughtful plotting shine in this one. With an ending that's as warm and sweet and cozy as a cup of hot peppermint cocoa, Frost has gifted readers with the perfect cozy mystery to bring on all the holiday feels.

I really liked this mystery. It was easy-to-read and such a nice escape from the normal day-to-day chores. Holly and her folks have an Inn and Tree Farm in Mistletoe. Everyone is busy with the upcoming Christmas festivities. One of Holly's guests is a critic. Holly wants to make sure everything is just right, but there seems to be no pleasing the woman. When the critic is killed, Holly's friend Cookie is the prime suspect. Who would ever suspect an 80 year old woman? But Cookie is in the middle of it. Holly doesn't mean to "solve" the case, but she just can't help asking questions.

This was fun and kept my attention. The town of Mistletoe sounds quant and friendly. I love all the characters.