Revisiting the past can have unexpected results, especially when a mystery enters the picture. Hannah Swenson is on her way to becoming a baker extraordinaire, and her talents and skills have been requested to recreate a Christmas ball from the past. The event is to honor dear Essie Granger, who is currently in hospice care. As Hannah plans on what delectable desserts she will make for Essie’s honor, finding Essie’s old notebooks takes her down a different path.

Is it autobiographical or is it fiction? That is precisely what Hannah wants to know. As the story unfolds, Essie’s story becomes more clear.

Since I’ve devoured this entire series, I wanted to give you a heads up that you won’t have to choose between Team Norman and Team Mike. This book actually starts early in Hannah’s career, before she even has to think about her choice. In fact, even though this is Book 23, it’s actually the perfect prequel for the entire series. Hannah’s relationship with her mom and sisters plays a big part in this story, all while she also explores Essie’s old notebooks.

So, if you are lover of this series as I am, this early look into Hannah’s life was a nice switch. It was nice to see how her family coped with her dad’s passing and to also see her sisters starting out in their lives.

Many thanks to Kensington Books and to NetGalley for this ARC for review. This is my honest opinion.

Loved this book & all the recipes. This book goes back in time and gives some backstory on Hannah's family after her father passes away. Great cozy read.

I am a big fan of Hannah Swenson. She's saccharine sweet and everything you want in a mystery set in a small town. This isn't the best in the series but it's readable and I liked getting Hannah's backstory.

I'm a read the series in order kind of person, and when I couldn't even finish book one when I was trying to get caught up to read this one.... Well. This isn't the series for me.

Joanne Fluke is not a great writer. But for some reason I find myself going back to this series anyway. She over explains EVERYTHING. It’s a bit like visiting with your grandmother who has to tell you every detail of how to open the door, walk through the door, don’t forget your jacket, close the door behind you and lock it. I can’t decide why I read these books, but I’m not going to lie, I always do...

This series has been hit or miss with me, so with my Christmas Readathon, I thought I would give this one a go. I was pleasantly surprised to realize that this was a prequel to the series and we learned how Hannah became the owner of The Cookie Jar and other things about several of the recurring characters in this series.

Essie Granger has broken her hip and is in hospice because she can't go home alone. Hannah visits and Essie reminisces about the Christmas Ball and Parade of Cakes from many years ago. She also gives Hannah a journal that contains a story she wrote. To help bring her mother back to life after the death of her husband, she is able to convince her to help organize a Christmas Ball in Essie's honour. While working together with her mom, sister and some friends they take breaks while reading Essie's journal. I enjoyed both parts of this story. There wasn't really a mystery to solve in this one, except the one that pops up in the last couple of chapters, but I still really liked this story. There are a lot of wonderful sounding recipes included, although I wish they were at the end and not interspersed throughout the book. If you are a fan of this series, I think you would enjoy this book as it gives you a great story about the background of many characters. I may go back and read some of the ones I missed along the way.

23rd book in the series. It was nice to get Hannahs backstory. Huge fan of this series from the beginning. Keep them coming.

I truly did not care for this book. I thought I had read books by Joanne Fluke in the past, but now I know I was mistaken. The descriptions and dialogue seemed so forced and did not seem to flow well when reading. Maybe I am the only person who feels this way since there are at least 23 books in this series. It took such a long time to get to the actual point of the book, I thought I would run out of pages before I found out the ending. Since I am not a cook, the recipes included were just pages I skipped. I guess this series is just not for me.

I am a huge fan of Fluke and loved this installment. It was a fun look into Hannah’s past, showing readers how she started her bakery. The unique format of the women reading a short story as the premise for the mystery was a fresh approach. Still a fan and will always be.

This cozy mystery is my first by prolific author Joanne Fluke. I found it very sweet, in more than one sense, and think I probably gained 15 pounds just from reading all those recipes and vicariously sharing all those desserts. It's also sweet because most of the characters are very loving and empathetic; the villains are primarily kept "offstage." I have to admit, the ending got to me and I couldn't help but tear up too.

I liked this book. It was fun to see/learn the back story of Hannah and how she came to the baker she is. The story was fun and well written, and, per usual, some really fun recipes!

I was fully faithful to this series until Hannah's marriage and then quickly lost interest. This one just wasn't for me with all of the backstory rather than new developments.

The Christmas Cake Murder
By: Joanne Fluke
Published By: Kensington Books
Published On: September 25th, 2018
3 Stars

This installment of the Hannah Swensen mystery series takes us back in time to when Hannah’s dad has just died, Hannah has decided to drop out of her doctoral program, Andrea is pregnant with her and Bill’s first child, and Michelle is still in high school. Hannah’s mom, Delores, is struggling to deal with her husband’s death and has holed herself up in her room. At the same time one of Lake Eden’s beloved residents, Essie, has broken her hip and is in the hospital. While there, Essie keeps talking about her first Christmas Ball and how much she would like to go back and experience it again. Two of Delores’s friends come up with an idea to help both women. They ask Delores to help recreate the Christmas Ball that Essie is reminiscing about. Delores agrees to help and enlists the help of her daughters. Hannah is put in charge of baking the cakes. It is here that her dream for opening the Cookie Jar starts to form.

Hannah doesn’t actually stumble upon a body in this book. Instead, the murder takes place in a story within the story. The story comes from notebooks the girls find in Essie’s apartment. Each night the family sits down together and listens to Hannah read from the story. It turns out to be a mystery and everyone is engrossed in it and can’t wait to see how it ends. The problem is that Essie never finished the story. It’s left to the girls to figure out what happens next.

In this story we see how the Cookie Jar comes to be. It is Hannah’s dream, but Delores helps make it all come true. One of Hannah’s complaints about her mom though is that she tries to take control of her life. Delores takes some pretty big actions involving Hannah’s life in this story, but she doesn’t move forward with those ideas before checking with Hannah. Hannah seems good with all that her mother is doing to help her create a life in Lake Eden. Andrea doesn’t play prominently in this story, but we get the first inkling about her future realtor career. We see a fair amount of Lisa and Michelle, and it was fun to see how their younger selves acted. Although it is much like their future selves. Lisa’s mother is still alive in this story, but she is sick, and Lisa spends a lot of time with the Swensen family. Many of Lake Eden’s secondary characters do not appear in this story, but that’s ok. It is a great time to get to know the Swensens better.

I loved the story within the story in this book. I’ve really enjoyed the past installments, but it was a good change up from Hannah always stumbling upon a body. The story is intriguing and provides a much different setting than just Lake Eden. Just like the Swensens, I wanted to keep reading to see what happened next.

And like always, there are some yummy recipes included.

Fans of cozy mysteries and cooking mysteries will enjoy this book.

Thanks to Net Galley and Kensington Books for an ARC of this book. #NetGalley #TheChristmasCakeMurder

Fluke takes us back in time again for this holiday tale. Hannah has a dream of opening a cookie store and Lake Eden is busy with holiday events. Hannah finds an interesting story in an old notebook and we're off.

This was my first Hannah Swensen mystery and will probably be my last.

I love a cosy murder but the murder wasn't the most important part of the story and the story itself felt very short. I know the series has many fans and maybe if you've read the previous books it would be more fun.

It's hard to believe that this is book #23 in the Hannah Swensen cozy series. I love them all and the recipes are always easy to make and yummy. This story is a flash back to the beginning of the Cookie Jar Bakery and the start of Hannah's investigating career. As indicated by the title, this is a Christmas tale and Hannah's first murder solving attempt. It was a fun read to go back to the beginning and see how friendships developed and family interacted. If you haven't read the series it's a great book to start, it's easily a stand alone. I received a copy of this ARC in exchange for a fair and honest review.

For longtime fans of the Hannah Swenson / Cookie Jar series, this book will introduce readers to how Hannah’s business got started. It also provides some insight into her siblings (Andrea and Lisa) and mother’s behaviors and personalities. We get to meet Lisa, Hannah’s future business partner, while she is still in high school and just Michelle’s best friend.

The murder, because there is always a murder with the series, has a neat twist in that it involves an unsolved one from years past. We learn about Essie and a story she has written but left the end unfinished. Hannah and her team of family and friends are able to help Essie finish the story and tie up quite a few loose ends in the process. Though some of it is easy to figure out, Fluke still manages to introduce a twist or two.

And of course, there are recipes, lots of recipes. Though most are desserts, there are a few for other meals. If you are a regular reader of this book series, by all means get a copy of The Christmas Cake Murder.

This is the first book I have read in this series, though I have always thought I would like to try the series. Thus, when I got the chance to read and review Christmas Cake Murder on NetGalley, I jumped at the offer. After reading the book, I am not sure why so many reviewers raved about it. I guess it provided some good back story, if you are a reader of the series and a fan of Hannah Swenson, but I found it difficult to get through it. First off, there really is a murder committed in the book, but it is not a major part of it. Instead, what you have are recreations of events and opportunities leading to Hannah’s opening her bakery. Fine, if that is what you want/expect. However, with this title, I definitely looked forward to a murder, not some quickly put together memories and a sort of killing at the end of the book—put together very, very quickly, with little lead up. It almost seemed like the author stuck it in because she felt she had to because of the title. In this story, Hannah and her family are working to recreate a Christmas Ball, to honor the memory and selflessness of an elderly townswoman, Essie, who has fond memories of the ball as well as the eternal gratitude of the entire town, so because she had been injured, they decide to pump up her spirits with a recreation of the ball Of course, Hannah’s mother is running the project, a tribute to her wonderful organizational skills, while Hanna has been enlisted to provide the refreshments (lots of baked goods and many cakes for a ceremonial cake parade during the ball). This is the basic story. At the same time, Hannah is planning and bringing to fruition her bakery, also with the help of her family, which falls nicely in line with the plot. Throughout the story, Hannah reads excerpts from notebooks she finds out were written by Essie to her close family and friends. As the group listens to Hanna read the story of a woman escaping who knows what dangers, everyone wonders whether the story is a figment of Essie’s imagination or is somehow related to her mysterious past. Hannah spends some time puzzling over the story, aided and abetted by her family. Can they manage to put the pieces of this puzzle together and figure out 1) whether this is Essie’s story, 2) how it ends (Essie never wrote an ending) and 3) what it all means.

The book was not very long and was not very action filled. The back story about Hannah and how she got her bakery probably interested regular readers of the series, but, as I had not read any of the other books, I found it difficult get into. As I said, the back story was somewhat interesting, but not what I expected. The murder was, it seemed, hastily thrown in at the end to keep the book true to its name. This book will probably be of interest to readers of the series. As far as I am concerned, this was definitely not a good book to start reading the author’s works or the series, as I suspect it is not representative. I might try another book, when I get a chance. I received this from NetGalley to read and review.

This book was so fun because it was a prequel to the Hannah Swensen series, showing how Hannah came to open the Cookie Jar and start her cookie business. We also see younger Dolores, Michelle, and Andrea pregnant with Tracy. There is no romance dilemmas so it was just a fun read. I do like books that have a story in the story and this one had that too, actually it was the mystery within.

Great addition (or was it the start?) of this series.

Joanne Fluke continues to create a wonderful story while giving delicious recipes too through her characters including Hannah Swensen. The story is engaging and the writing is great as always with Fluke’s work. If you haven’t read any of her books in this series it is OK. You can fall in love with the character then pick up the other books. If you are a fan you’ll enjoy learning more about the characters and have a little different type of story with the same wonderful characters and addition of recipes. This is great for a quick read during the holidays with a Christmas flare.