In the middle of a wonderful Christmas holiday in Dharma, Brooklyn and Derek receive a frantic phone call from their dear friend Claire in Loch Ness, Scotland. The laird of the castle, Cameron MacKinnon, has just proposed to her! They plan to be married on New Year’s Day, and they want Derek and Brooklyn to be their witnesses. And while they’re visiting, Claire hopes that Brooklyn will be able to solve a little mystery that’s occurred in the castle library—twelve very rare, very important books have gone missing.

Once in Scotland, Brooklyn starts working on the mystery of the missing books but is soon distracted by all of the thumping and bumping noises she’s been hearing in the middle of the night. You’d think the Ghost of Christmas Past had taken up residence. But when one of the guests is poisoned and another is killed by an arrow through the heart, Brooklyn and Derek know this is not the work of any ghost. Now they must race to find a killer and a book thief before another murder occurs and their friends’ bright and happy future turns dark and deadly. ( )

The Twelve Books of Christmas is definitely not like the books at the beginning of the series, books I absolutely loved. Those were full of mystery, mayhem, complicated plots, and interesting twists and turns. This one is about beautiful and rich people who fly around the world at a moment's notice on a private plane, stay at fancy castles, do things on a whim, and maybe solve a mystery or two while they do all their other stuff in between. And everyone calls Derek ''commander", never investigating him or Brooklyn, simply because of who he was, even though he was right there when everything happened. Not the same at all as the earlier books.

First of all, Brooklyn's independent character was something I enjoyed, even if she was somewhat whiny throughout the books. I mean her life got upended numerous times because she happened to come across dead bodies and it was natural that she would become a suspect, so I enjoyed those interactions she had with police officers and other people as she tried to solve the mysteries. Now, she just has Derek make a phone call and everything is good as he "pulls his magic strings" and suddenly, everything is taken care of. This despite the fact that he was one of the most suspicious people at the beginning. I get they are married now and I get that he would support her, but I would like to see them be a bit more suspicious of those around them.

The plot itself was so thin you can't even see the wire in the trees. For the first two thirds of the book, there were a lot of discussions about the missing books and how they were related to each other, but honestly, not big mystery came out of them simply because there was little to no investigation. And I don't necessarily need a murder in these books, just a good mystery, but neither was actually interesting. Both just seemed thrown into a plot that was weak, at best. Motives didn't make sense, the behaviour of certain characters made no sense, plot points were 'developed' and then discarded for no reason that I could see, so overall it was just a big mess. And pages of descriptions of the food. Ugh!

Verdict
The Twelve Books of Christmas was my least favourite entry in this series, and I was so disappointed over the plot and character development as well as the ending. It was a mish-mash of stuff thrown together in order to give the author an excuse to send Brooklyn and Derek to Scotland over the holidays, one of the only things I liked about the book. Unfortunately, this series has been going downhill for a few books now. I will probably give it one last shot, but after that, if it doesn't go back to the magic of the earlier books, I may have to call it quits. ( )

I have read this whole series but I guess I am growing tired of it because this one thoroughly bored me. There was so much fluff about what they were wearing (silk underwear on repeat) and what they ate (seemed to always be platters). It seemed like far too much filler and not a whole lot of story. Sigh ( )

Another great book in the series. I have to get back to reading more of the books. ( )

This series, with both books and mystery, never fails to thoroughly capture my attention and cause me to read slowly to try to make a new one last longer. Brooklyn and husband Derek are celebrating Christmas at their newly finished second home in Dharma, where her parents and assorted family live. They receive a call during the family Christmas Eve party to learn the laird they met in Scotland, Cameron, has proposed to their friend Claire. They want to be married on New Year's, so it's off to Scotland for Brooklyn, Derek and her parents. I liked the setting of the castle at the holidays, and the mention of so many novels involving Christmas. The inclusion of many Scottish holiday traditions was also very interesting. The castle has plenty of nooks and towers to facilitate secrets and clues as Brooklyn and Derek are introduced to some new characters, one of which winds up dead. ( )