I loved this story. It has everything you want in a Christmas cozy mystery. There are engaging characters, a wintery but cozy setting, and the smell of freshly baked pastries on every page. When. Lindsay rose at 3:00 a.m. each morning to begin mixing her doughs, I felt like I was there with her. As a baker myself, I could easily see in my mind her sweet roll dough recipe as well as her cinnamon rolls and caramel pecan rolls. She baked and fried the doughs before making a variety of danish pastries all hours before her bakery opened for the day.

The characters were believable. Of course, Lindsay is a great character but the villain seemed all too real to me also. Felicity, owner of a year-round Christmas shop, is the epitome of every jealous woman I have had to "compete" against when bringing treats to work. She will sabotage the efforts of other bakers in order to always be first at everything. A few years ago a co-worker threw my cookies in the garbage because no one was eating hers so I definitely feel Lindsay's pain. The celebrity judge, Chef Chevy Chambers, is another villain in the story. His character provides many of the twists and turns because he not only is having an affair with several contestants but he also put a few of them out of business with his scathing newspaper reviews of their restaurants. When he ends up murdered, there are several possible whodunnits. The howdunnit should be obvious. It's a rolling pin.

Murder at the Christmas Cookie Bake-Off is simply the best Christmas cozy that I have ever read. ( )

In the second Beacon Bakeshop Mystery, Lindsey Bakewell and most of the town of Beacon Harbor gears up for the cookie bake-off organized by the Christmas shop owner. She's in need of an assistant baker and someone who reminds Lindsey of Mrs. Claus applies for the job. In the lead-up to the event, three cookie-nappers visit the shop. They spot these cookie-nappers at the bakeoff and begin chasing them. After Lindsey chases the main one, she ends up locked in a closet. When Rory rescues her, he takes her to some mistletoe they spotted, but they discover the scumbag cookie judge/restaurant critic's corpse. The remainder shows how Lindsey and friends do a little unofficial sleuthing while the police investigate. It got off to a slow start, but once the murder took place, it picked up. ( )

I’m pretty sure I’ve read this book countless times before…only the title and all of the character names have been changed.

Thirty-something, former-investment-banker-turned-baker Lindsey Bakewell is in crisis after a painful break-up with her former fiancé, Jeffrey. She settles in the picturesque town of Beacon Harbor, Michigan seeking refuge from her dysfunctional life and romance in New York City. She renovates a quaint, old lighthouse into a charming bakery and residence in which she lives with her all-too-adorable dog Wellington while pursuing a fledgling romance with former Special Forces captain/huntsman extraordinaire, Rory. With her best friend Kennedy and her ragamuffin entourage of parents, dog, studly boyfriend, and assorted employees, Lindsey decides she must solve the murder of the local cookie bake-off judge herself because the local police are kind of a joke and—quite frankly—there would be no excuse for this book if she didn’t.

Like many contemporary mystery series, the writing is absolutely appalling. For example: “Kennedy, whom I had been texting with since the police had arrived…” Aargh! It doesn’t take any extra effort to write the correct, “Kennedy, with whom I had been texting since the police arrived…” It reads so much more smoothly when properly written. The author (or her editor) should have caught mistakes like these and corrected them, but they didn’t; the result is a very choppy, unpleasant reading experience. Darci Hannah would really benefit from a refresher course in elementary grammar.

And why do her female characters have to start so many sentences with, “Ooooooo….”? Oooooo! That was soooooo annoying!

Of course, there is nothing more annoying (or pathetic) than a self-styled amateur detective who can’t detect anything; even the simplest, most obvious mysteries seem to elude our intrepid, yet clueless, heroine.

Lindsey’s retired parents travel from Florida to Beacon Harbor in order to spend Christmas with their daughter. They rave on and on about how much they love Michigan, how much they miss Michigan, how much Michigan means to them, etc. Lindsey then catches them sneaking off for covert meetings with Betty Vanhoosen, Beacon Harbor’s premiere real estate agent. Lindsey suspects they are keeping something from her, but what could it possibly be? Lindsey is at an utter loss to know what is going on. When her parents eventually announce they are moving to Beacon Harbor to be closer to their daughter, Lindsey is floored…she had no idea they were planning to move! What a shock…for Lindsey, anyway. The reader managed to figure it out without any difficultly from the very beginning, and is forced to spend the duration of the book wondering why so-called sleuth Lindsey can’t pick up on the obvious.

Needless to say, this conspicuous inability to interpret clues & formulate accurate solutions extends to the book’s murder. Lindsey conducts her unofficial investigation in a sort of haphazard fashion that basically consists of randomly browbeating her neighbors and indiscriminately accusing them of murder. (How Lindsey expects to continue living in a community with these poor people after treating them this way is anybody’s guess.) Lindsey eventually zeroes in on her primary suspect, and proceeds to nab the culprit in a dramatically staged confrontation. Lindsey smugly basks in the glory of a mystery well-solved until someone taps her on the shoulder and says, “How dare you arrest anyone else when I am the actual murderer!” Oooooops.

Yep, somebody needs to buy this woman a copy of Nancy Drew’s Mystery Solving Techniques for Dummies because Lindsey is none too astute.

The reader is left wondering if poor Lindsey will ever solve the burgeoning mystery of her studmuffin boyfriend Rory and her superficial best friend Kennedy. Rory is described as a colossal hunk of a man with dark, coffee colored hair and Caribbean Sea blue eyes. Gag…I mean, swooooon. He is an ex-Special Forces captain and avid hunter who currently writes thrillers and does hush-hush, clandestine work for the DEA and Coast Guard, so he clearly enjoys killing things both professionally and as a hobby. Kennedy has no apparent talent or skills, but seems to find fame and fortune through sheer force of will and a predilection for exaggerated pretense and bravado—kind of a poor man’s version of Kim Kardashian. Kennedy is British; we know this because the author has her inject the word ‘wanker’ into every other conversation. Caribbean Blue Rory and Ken K spend a lot of time squabbling and insulting one another…a lot. *wink, wink* And, as anyone who has ever seen a low-budget Hallmark movie knows, this kind of open hostility is always the inevitable harbinger of romance.

We all know Lindsey will never be able to figure this out on her own, so it seems unavoidable that an upcoming sequel will have coffee-topped Rory and wanker-spouting Kennedy eventually fessing up to their torrid affair. Having had no prior inkling of their duplicity, Lindsey will fly off the deep end and poison them both with a carefully crafted spotted dick.

And Lindsey will still have no clue who did it.

Haunted by her own failure to solve the diabolical murders of her beefcake beau and her brazen bestie, Lindsey will lapse into a clafouti-induced coma, and this crap-fest of a series will come to a merciful and unsurprising conclusion. Oooooo, we hope. ( )

Lindsey Bakewell is finally making money at her bakeshop, and the demands for her tasty goods are growing, especially during the holidays. When her friends Betty and Felicity show up in her shop, they aren't there for the goodies this time. Felicity has convinced the town council to have a Christmas cookie bake-off, with a celebrity chef from Chicago to judge the goods. She's sure she's going to win because of her connection and the fact that she owns the town's year-round Christmas store, but unfortunately, she's up against both Lindsey and the chef from a hotel in town.

Finding out she has stiff competition, Felicity is not happy. She's blatantly flirting with the judge, who tried doing that with Lindsey also but was rebuffed. Her actions are noted by the other bakers, and not in a good way. When Felicity sees the chef flirting with another contestant, she goes ballistic -- but when he doesn't show up for the second half of the competition and is found dead by Lindsey and her boyfriend Rory. Now, along with Rory and her best friend Kennedy (and a little unexpected help from a few others), Lindsey is once again on the trail of a killer who might be cooking up another murder...

This is the second book in the series and I have to say that I loved it just as much as the first. Lindsey is nearly frantic with all the Christmas cookie orders she's taking, especially since she hasn't found an assistant baker to help her, until an older woman shows up and is just what she needs. With perfect help in the bakery, she finally has a little free time -- at least until she's off looking for a killer.

I am glad to see that Kennedy is back, as well as Lindsey's parents James and Ellie, (and, of course, their dogs, the models), as these characters bring a liveliness to the series and make it even more worthwhile reading. Lindsey is smart and business-savvy, and she's just beginning a relationship with her neighbor Rory, which, due to the holidays, is causing a bit of humorous frustration to them (at least for me). They just can't catch a break. Kennedy, however, has a secret of her own, and she's enjoying all of it, while the parents are both terrific people and I would love to spend time with them. Lindsey's lucky in her life, even with her ghostly Captain Willy around, who seems to be guarding her in his own way. I also enjoy looking forward to 'seeing' more of him in future books.

But the murder has the town on edge with everyone wondering who the killer is and a few of them are speculating that it might even be Felicity, fueled by jealousy. But did she kill the chef? And if she didn't, then who is to blame? The suspects begin to mount, and it brings even more questions as to the reasons why. When Lindsey and her friends start digging deeper, they find something they weren't expecting, and it leads to a rather interesting climax that has everyone surprised.

When the murderer is revealed it is rather sad, as most of the time it is; but who can say what is in the mind of a killer. Or what makes them do what they do. It all came together, wrapped in a nice package that completed the story satisfactorily.

And, of course, it's Christmas. Where would Christmas be without a little magic? I saw hints of it at the beginning of the book, and I knew why, although it certainly would take Lindsey a lot longer. After all, sprinkling holiday cheer is all what Christmas is about. Joy, family, and friends. Spreading happiness and love. And let's not forget that Christmas magic...

I received a copy from the publisher and NetGalley but this in no way influenced my review. ( )

Murder at the Christmas Cookie Bake-Off by Darci Hannah is the 2nd A Beacon Bakeshop Mystery. This new cozy can be read as a standalone. Murder at the Christmas Cookie Bake-Off is a fun lighthearted story with delicious cookies. The cookie descriptions will have your mouth watering. The story contains good writing with developed, relatable characters. I just love Lindsey’s Newfoundland, Wellington. I loved the idea of Lindsey and Welly having matching coats (I wonder if I can get my dog to wear a coat). There is humor sprinkled throughout that had me chuckling. The author captured Michigan in the winter. Beacon Harbor sounds like a charming small town. I love Lindsey’s lighthouse with its resident ghost. I enjoy the paranormal element and would actually like more of it. The mystery was well plotted with several suspects, a red herring, and good clues. It depends on your sleuthing ability on when you will solve this whodunit. Murder at the Christmas Cookie Bake-Off is a cute cozy that will put you in the mood for the holidays. There are cookie recipes at the end for several of the tasty treats featured in the book. Murder at the Christmas Cookie Bake-Off is a merry tale with cookie trickeries, dazzling lighthouse lighting, a bevy of baking, an affable assistant baker, delectable cookies, and a spectral captain. ( )