3 stars.

This is one of those books that is highly entertaining to read, but isn't mind blowing, which it doesn't have to be. I really enjoyed reading this book and snuggling up with a blanket and sipping hot coco. The plot is fairly standard, in my opinion, with a personal spin from the author. I simply have to say I don't have a ton to say apart from the fact that I enjoyed reading it and would pick up something else from this author.

3rd book of a series, works as a standalone but might take a moment to work into the characters. Cass and her crew have been hired by the local university to update the video tour to attract new students. Since the school is on Christmas break, the team takes advantage of fewer people on campus to get footage. At the same time, a former secretive society is having their reunion on campus. All is fine until members are murdered and attacked and one of Cass's team members is accused of the murders.

ARC via Net Galley. All opinions are my own.

I hate giving 1 or 2-star ratings. I really do. So I'm going to make this a short review. Generally, I really enjoy Cozy Mysteries, especially if they have a paranormal element to them. So, I really thought this would be interesting to me. But unfortunately not. It was couldn't get into it at all and I didn't even retain enough of it to give a good book summary. Maybe I'm just missing to much, going into the story at book three. I don't know.

If you do decide to give this book a go. I would recommend starting with the first book, maybe knowing more of the backstory would help with the story.

I would like to thank Netgalley and the publisher for this chance to read and review this book. This does not in any way influence my honest opinion or review.

I like Cass and her ghost Doris. They are likeable characters. Sometimes I was confused but I haven't read the previous books. Will go back and find them. A quick fun read. Thanks #netgalley and #TheWildRosePressInc for the eARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are mine.

3,5/5 stars

This is the third book in an ongoing series, which wasn't mentioned in the description on the Netgalley page.
I think if I had known, and had read the first two books, I might have enjoyed this more. As I however didn't know, I was thrown right into the middle of the story, and the characters were just random strangers who took a good while to catch my interests. As they are mostly already established, it felt like joining a party where you know no one at all, while everyone else is well acquainted.

Once I got past that part, I did enjoy the tone and voice of the book, and was quickly absorbed. It's a quirky, fun read that doesn't take itself too seriously and just flows along nicely.

The plot was a bit rough around the edges here and there, and I did reread some paragraphs and especially dialogue as I felt like I missed something, even if I did not. A few more pages and a little mor depth every here and there would definitely have helped to round up the experience.

Plenty of food and festive activities along with murder, mystery and a wilful ghost kept me well entertained, and helped to awaken the Christmas feelings!

So even if this wasn't a personal favourite, it was still a quick, fun and peculiar read, that is well worth a look.

A Corpse for Christmas by Rena Leith is a cozy murder mystery involving a cast of characters from a couple of previous books. While they are explained, more details provided for back story would have been helpful for any readers who have not read the first two in the series, like me. I found the idea of the story intriguing, but I also got a bit bored at times. The story didn’t really flow well and some of the clues were odd. The protagonist takes on solving the crimes which evidently the police couldn’t handle. I found some of the actions unrealistic. With that being said, it is a cozy mystery and the main character is supposed to be heavily involved in solving the crime so readers who enjoy ghosts who take over cats and easy to read books will enjoy this one.

This is the third book in the Cass Peake mystery series. I read the first one in the series, so I already knew most of the characters and the background. The author did a decent job weaving in back story so the reader would know what was going on – like who Doris is (a ghost). Cass takes on the job of doing a new video for a local college and hires some young people to help her out, but while filming, they stumble onto a murder…or three. Her cop boyfriend George doesn’t like her getting involved, but Cass can’t help herself. Oh, and it’s Christmas so her brother and his wife are there as well.

There’s a lot going on in this book—sometimes so much that it gets a little confusing. And I was left with a lot of questions unanswered – like Thor – why was he so lethargic? And what happened to Doris? And such a big deal was made out of the diary, but it ended up not being important, so why the big deal?

Still, I enjoy the stories about Cass and her live-in ghost Doris and their sleuthing.

Recommendation: I suggest you pick up the first book in the series first so you understand better what’s going on in this one, then go ahead and pick them all up.

Disclaimer: Disclosure of Material: I received a final and/or advanced reader copy of this book with the hope that I will leave my unbiased opinion. I was not required to leave a review, positive or otherwise, and my opinions are just that… My Opinions. I am posting this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising”

This ARC was provided to me via Kindle by The Wild Rose Press, Inc and #NetGalley for my honest opinion. Opinions expressed are completely my own.

What a fun read! I look forward to more by this author.

A Corpse for Christmas by Rena Leith was an interesting read, a bit sidetracked, and confusing at times. My review is based heavily off of my expectations versus what I read, so lets begin with my expectations. I expected a semi-light and seemless reading experience. I was not expecting a "cozy" christmas murder, and this was not exactly cute and "cozy", this was different. Lets get to the details.

Characters:
While I do not expect well developed characters and a detail oriented book, the characters were not described well at all. Marc was the only one that had any real detail, mostly about his height, with the exception of the resident ghost (Doris) who changes outfits on a whim. Doris was fun, but I did not feel her overall value to the story. While I understand her purpose, she mostly seemed like an unecesarry, yet entertaining character. A very personal gripe, was all the characters with names than began with M. Given that they were not well developed, they mostly all meshed together in the begining. There was a lot of throwinng out names without any real references to develope them as characters. I would have liked to know a little more about George, Mina, and even Gillian. They were probably the characters that were developed the most, but because I was provided so little, I wanted even more.

Content:
This story was interesting. At times I was curious if I was reading a food/baking mystery as opposed to a murder mystery. You know the ones... a new bakery opens and someone dies from a cupcake consumption; that is what I felt like I was reading at times. I couldn't tell if I was reading a food based story, a murder mystery, a family christmas story, or a website content developing company. Add in actual murders and a secret society. I felt like so much was crammed into one book, and a short book at that with minimal character development and no real difinitive information on the secret society. As a mood reader I skimmed over some of the cooking paragraphs and towards the end I even skimmed over the video content recording parts. In the beginning the content recording was a vital part of the story and I recognized the importance, but by the end it seemed like an excuse to get on campus and had no real value. The story felt a bit jumbled at times and almost as if Rena Leith had a word count quota to fill and some things were thrown in to accomodate that quota.

Story Flow:
As mentioned above, regarding characters. In the beginning some characters were introduced and then some other names were thrown in. The first few pages moved fast, albeit confusing to sort out the characters. As the story started to settle in a bit, things slowed down and I made mental notes of characters so that I could keep them straight. The story flowed smoothly through the initial content recordings and even through the first two suspected murders. Now I am always game for a pizza, but once recipes and food preparations started to be thrown in I began getting a little sidetracked. The protagonist became a bit of a self-proclaimed detective, which I understand the necessity, but her attempts were not realistic at all. Again, I was not expecting "A Corpse for Christmas" to be realistic, but atleast semi believable. When the characters gathered to decorate the home and eat after seeing dead bodies and a potential serial killer on campus I could not fathom obessessing about food and decorations. However, those lemon bars did sound delicious and even the Christmas dinner sounded like it smelled phenomenal.

Recap:
While many of my comments above are not particularly positive, I did enjoy parts of this story. I felt it could have flowed a little smoother at a steadier pace without all of the added content. I also wish there had been some more information on Doris' past, as well as some more information on the constant references to a prior murder on campus many years before this story took place. I really liked Mina as a character, and even George grew on me. Gillian and Jack made me laugh with their light banter and Jack;s inability to pick up cleaning supplies. The ending seemed short lived and wrapped up rather quickly. I appreciated the follow up details regarding the investigation, but there were a lot of unanswered questions. Doris was light and fun, but I wish she played a bigger role and I really wish we had more of her story. This was an ok-ish read for me, I kept going because I knew it was short, but I wasn't actively willing to pick it up every chance I had. I imagine Rena Leith will grow to be an awesome author and I look forward to that growth.

Cass and her film group go to make a video tour of campus during the holiday break. When members of a private club start dying she keeps finding the bodies. This club is holding a reunion, but someone doesn't want them to leave. Fun group of characters, but felt like I came in a bit late. I am guessing there are others in a series, but this is the first one I've read. Enjoyed it, but would probably like it more with more background on the characters, especially the ghost Doris. Would recommend.

Fast cozy read set at Christmas time. A good book to pass a rainy afternoon.

Cass is working on her first real client for her new web business setting up a virtual tour of a local small, private college. She is determined to make the project a success but a bunch of dead bodies keep getting in the way of filming. With her neighbor and friend as a suspect, Cass is determined to solve the crime.

I have not read the two prior books in this series so this was my first introduction to these characters. My favorite is Cass' resident ghost, Doris and her complete lack of social graces. I also love that she regularly inhabits Cass' cat Thor to go exploring. Her complaints about her various vessels' diets was the best part of the book.

I wasn't too absorbed in the story as it didn't really require a lot of concentration, which is what I was looking for right now. If you're look for an easy read set at Christmas time, this is a good mystery.

𝘈 𝘊𝘰𝘳𝘱𝘴𝘦 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘊𝘩𝘳𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘮𝘢𝘴 - 𝘙𝘦𝘯𝘢 𝘓𝘦𝘪𝘵𝘩
ᴘᴜʙ ᴅᴀᴛᴇ: November 30, 2021
ᴘᴜʙʟɪsʜᴇʀ: The Wild Rose Press, inc
ʀᴀᴛɪɴɢ: DNF

Well, nothing says Merry Christmas like a dead body. I wanted to like this book so much. When I saw it on Netgalley, the title sounded like exactly my kind of book. I could not bring myself to finish this book.

This book was all over the place. I made it just a few chapters before I had to call it. I am giving it the benefit of the doubt on the fact that it is apparently the 3rd in the series + maybe I came in too late. I have not read the first 2 books but there was no bridging that I could see from one book to the next. Sometimes information was thrown in there that you were expected to know, possibly from the previous books? I felt myself wondering what the heck was happening more often than I would have wanted to be.

In my opinion many sentences seemed forced and insignificant. Many non-important things were over explained + I felt like I was reading a lot of fluff.

Overall, I think the concept is cute + funny for a cozy mystery. I’m a big fan of the humor + relatability in them but unfortunately this one wasn’t for me.

This was a bit of a mystery within the mystery. What do all those mystical symbols and names mean in the diary? Who knew taking an additional job over the Christmas holiday would be so deadly? At a small, scenic college, at that.

Cass and her team of friends, family, and relatives set out to make a sort of virtual video to help the college promote itself to potential students. In the process, dead bodies keep popping up. As one suspect is singled out, Cass brings her some basic necessities.

What secrets will the diary that is given to Cass on the sly by the suspect reveal? Hey, wait. Why is the diary being given to Cass in the first place? What is the long-kept secret of the Black Triangle Club? Will the video Cass' crew is shooting reveal anything? How good of an actor must one be to feign innocence? Who is the new professor the college found so quickly to take that job? Who is, or maybe was, Doris? Will Thor survive her curiosity? Will Cass' brother and sister-in-law live to regret visiting her for Christmas?

I'm not telling. If you enjoy solving puzzles within puzzles, so to speak, and enjoy a good mystery, you'll want to read this book. This was a new series to me but worked nicely as a stand-alone. That said, I'm intrigued enough to be on the lookout for the previous two books and the next in the series.

Thank you #NetGallery and #TheWildRosePressInc #BackLitPR for this intriguing mystery. It was an intriguing puzzle.

In Rena Leith's third book in her Case Peake Cozy Mystery series, A Corpse for Christmas, amateur sleuth Cass Peake has multiple dead bodies to deal with. No bodies on the beach by her cottage this time. I really liked reading about all the investigating Cass, her brother and sister-in-law do to help solve the mystery. Resident ghost Doris is also helpful in the investigation. Doris is quite a character. I am really enjoying this series and can't wait to see what happens next.

Christmas time is coming and Cass Peake takes on some extra work to make a little extra money at the college. What was supposed to be a quiet time on campus turns into a murder scene. When this puts Cass and her family in a precarious position, they decide to figure out what’s going on before they become part of the body count themselves.

This is a new author for me and WOW. I am excited to have found her. Love cozies and love adding a new author to my must read list even more!

I live for cozy mysteries and this definitely fits the bill. It's a great, quick holiday read and I can't wait to read more from this author.

This is the first book I've read by this author and I was pleasantly surprised by how much I liked it.
Cass is a small business owner and in order to fatten up her bank account, she takes on extra work during the Christmas holidays.
A series of mysterious deaths puts Cass and her family in the path of danger, and they must act quickly before they become another victim.
#ACorpseforChristmas #NetGalley.