CONTENT WARNING: murder, blood, infidelity

I love this series — enough that I’ll read a Christmas themed story. I never read Christmas stories because I have no connection to that holiday, and it’s usually overkill to have Christmas shoved down my Jewish throat for several months. The songs, ads, sales, and overwhelming amount of books is just … a lot. But this book made me willing to set my natural avoidance aside. And it was worth it.

I missed Lindsey, Wellie, Rory, and Kennedy, so seeing them was like visiting with old friends. I’ve worked in restaurants for many years, so I think it accurately portrayed the immense amount of work that goes into preparing for a regular day of work in food service, let alone around the holidays when you’re short-handed. I was so stressed for Lindsey! Even if I was drooling while reading about all of her yummy baked goods. But don’t worry — there are recipes included at the end of the book so you can make some of these amazing sounding goodies.

So, I have to be honest. My favorite character is Wellie, hands down. Lindsey’s Newfoundland dog is front and center in a lot of the story and he’s a total scene stealer. But the other characters are pretty awesome too. I think that Hannah’s strength with these books is her way of making so many characters seem shady and have a good motive, but sneaking a bunch of completely innocuous characters in and then BAM! The villain is the character you’d never have expected. Although there were a few characters that I suspected, the real baddie was someone I didn’t see coming at all.

There’s humor, romance, and plenty of Christmas stress. Oops, did I say stress? I mean CHEER. I liked how the spirit of the story wasn’t about what you have or do, but who you are with. There was a good message along with the great plot and great characters. I enjoyed the wintery setting, especially as the weather has *finally* started to cool off around here. This is a series that I knew I was hooked on immediately, and this has absolutely convinced me. I’m absolutely stuck on the Beacon Bakeshop, and look forward to more of them.

There is much to love about this second book in the Beacon Bakeshop series. The cover is gorgeous and invites you in to a story filled with over the top Christmas cheer. Lindsey is thoroughly wrapped up in celebrating Christmas - Christmas trees, decorating the lighthouse and Bakeshop, stringing lights and making Christmas goodies.
Lindsey is initially dismayed with the addition of a Christmas cookie bake-off to her already packed schedule, but the unexpected arrival of a cheerful assistant baker re-ignites her excitement and energy for the season.
I would have to say that if someone had to die for the story to be a mystery it couldn’t have happened to a better person. The bake-off judge was not a nice person.
There are some nice red herrings to send the story along its way.
I loved that Lindsey, her parents, Kennedy and Rory all got into the sleuthing. It was a bit of a comedy of crazy but fun too.
The story ends with the feel good vibes of the season. This is a story I happily recommend. I think there is sufficient introduction that this book could be read without reading the first, of course it’s usually more fun to read a series in order.

Lindsey Bakewell owns a bakery & cafe in a lighthouse in Michigan. It is Christmas time and a local shop owner decides to have a Christmas cookie bake-off. Of course Lindsey needs to enter because it would be wonderful publicity for her bakery and baking is what she does. A food critic, Chevy Chambers, is the judge of the competition. The bake-off is stopped when a body is found under the mistletoe. There are a few suspects, stolen cookies, and a few lies that kept me guessing. There were a few slow spots and a lot of descriptions of food and people but overall it was an enjoyable cozy mystery with likable characters, humor, romance, and an interesting mystery. #NetGalley #MurderAtTheChristmasCookieBake-Off #KensingtonBooks

I found so much to love about this mystery! This super series has a fabulous, engaging main character. Darci Hannah's sleuth, Lindsey is smart, caring and determined. With a compelling plot, drama aplenty, a great bunch of characters, and oodles of mayhem added to the mix, this was a fantastic read that kept me on my toes. With its super Christmassy vibe, I loved the touches of paranormal also and I'm really excited for book three.

I received a complimentary copy of this novel at my request from Kensington Books via NetGalley. This review is my own unbiased opinion.

MURDER AT THE CHRISTMAS COOKIE BAKE-OFF by Darci Hannah is the second book in the cozy Beacon Bakeshop mystery series. It’-as Lindsey’s first Christmas season as the owner of Beacon Harbor’s bakeshop cafe so she wants to get it perfect. As she dreams of sugarplums, she worries how she’s going to manage since she’s down an assistant baker. And now, Felicity Stewart, self-appointed Queen of Christmas, has organized a Christmas Cookie Bake-Off between local shop owners. Judged by a smarmy food critic from Chicago.

When Linds discovers the food critic murdered underneath the mistletoe, she can’t help but try to figure out whodunit. With help from bestie Kennedy, hottie BF Rory, her parents and Welly, her adorable Newfie. It seems that everyone involved with the bake-off had a motive for murder.

Perfect cozy Christmas read! Linds is incredibly relatable as she tries to create the perfect Christmas only to have things go seriously wrong.

Enjoy:
*Small lakeshore town charm
*Quirky secondary characters
*Small biz owner camaraderie
*Haunted lighthouse with a helpful ghost
*Romance in the air
*Deliciously mouthwatering food descriptions
*SO.MANY.SECRETS.
*Adorable dog antics with bonus reindeer sightings
*Wintery weather and Christmas decorations to set the mood
*And just who was that mysterious elderly woman who turned up just in time to be Lindsey’s assistant baker….

Grab a cup of hot cocoa and snuggle up as you get the perfect Christmas time vibes. The mystery was engaging, the banter was fun. The final scenes unmasking the murderer were total madcap zaniness. So much fun! And the recipes all sounded incredible.

It's beginning to look like a festive Christmas for Lindsey Bakewell. This is her first Christmas as the owner of the Beacon Bakeshop and she is trying to run her business without an assistant which is not easy considering that her fellow store owners want to serve Christmas cookies to their customers but are too busy to do their own baking. Bottom line, Lindsey is stretched to the limit and running on empty. There is a bake-off to win but she may not get that far. When things seem shaky in walks the answer to her prayers - Carol Nichols, a baker who looks a bit like Mrs. Claus. Now if she can just avoid being bested by a fellow contestant, Felicity Stewart, a woman bound and determined, by any means necessary, to win first place. Too bad murder is on the menu and the chef judging the contest bites the dust. Suspicion turns to Lindsey when her signature cookie is part of the crime scene. What else to do but do her own investigating in an effort to clear her name and hang onto everything she has worked so hard for. It's a tall order as the list of possible suspects is way longer than the list of those who even remotely liked him.
Family and friends are on hand to help when her parents and her best friend come to town. Even the lighthouse ghost helps in catching the killer. With a well plotted mystery, a fun cast of characters and a lovely setting, this was the perfect book to get me started thinking about Christmas.
My thanks to the publisher Kensington and to NetGalley for giving me an advance copy in exchange for my honest review.

MURDER AT THE CHRISTMAS COOKIE BAKE-OFF by Darci Hannah
The Second Beacon Bakeshop Mystery

Lindsey Bakewell wants a perfect Christmas, starting by decorating her bakery and lighthouse and preparing to host her parents and best friend for the holiday. To up the holiday stakes, Felicity Stewart, self appointed Christmas Queen, declares that there will be a Christmas cookie contest with all shop owners creating a signature cookie, culminating in televised bake-off. Lindsey wonders how she'll ever get everything done, especially without an assistant baker. A Christmas miracle arrives in the form of Mrs. Nichols, but competition brings out the grinches, as well as a smarmy celebrity food critic. The climax of the bake-off isn't the naming of the winner, however, but a murder! Now, in order to salvage the perfect holiday, Lindsey and her friends will search for a Christmas killer.

With themes of family, fidelity, and good old fashioned Christmas spirit, MURDER AT THE CHRISTMAS COOKIE BAKE-OFF is a mystery to get you into the holiday mood. By the second chapter I was dreaming of my own perfect Christmas, dreading problems that might arise, and wishing I had some hot chocolate and a veritable cornucopia of Christmas cookies.

I really enjoyed the camaraderie of the characters, working together and simply enjoying spending time with each other. I especially love Wellington and his antics. I could just picture the scenes in my head and he always made me smile. I absolutely adore Mrs. Nichols. What a delightful addition to the cast of characters. I was loving every moment of the book until the ending neared. Though fun and exciting, the confrontations with the suspects were a bit outrageous and the references to mental disorders a bit cavalier.

With nods to the Great British Bake-Off and a certain resident of the North Pole, MURDER AT THE CHRISTMAS COOKIE BAKE-OFF is a fun holiday mystery that will leave you believing in the spirit of Christmas and the joy of eating holiday cookies!

Murder at the Christmas Cookie Bake-Off is a "sweet" Christmas story about Lindsey and her visions of sugarplums, candy canes, twinkling lights, and….so much more goes into sugar overdrive. Murder appears to be the main focus of the bake-off. But there are some delightful recipes shared at the end of the book.

I want to thank NetGalley and the publisher for letting me read and review an advanced copy of ‘Murder at the Christmas Cookie Bake-Off’.

The owner of a bakery/cafe in an old lighthouse, is trying to meet the Christmas rush needing an assistant baker. While going on little sleep, trying to decorate the lighthouse with Christmas decorations, and getting ready for her parents to arrive Lindsey Bakewell is overwhelmed. Then she finds out a local businesswoman is organizing a Christmas cookie contest, including a celebrity food critic as guest judge. Luckily, a mysterious Mrs Nichols (who has a resemblance to Mrs Claus) shows up and makes Lindsey’s life a lot easier.

Lindsey makes the finals in the contest, but some shenanigans and the death of the judge, Chevy, result in no winner being proclaimed. Lindsey, her boyfriend, Rory (an ex-Navy seal), and best friend, Kennedy, try to ‘help’ the police find the killer. Even though there are many suspects, the ‘team’, including Lindsey’s parents, confront each person trying to match motive and opportunity. As usual, Lindsey gets into some dangerous situations, where Rory (ex-seal) must save her.

This was a nice cozy mystery, and I enjoyed the Christmas and geographical setting.

Dreaming of sugarplums and Christmas cookies.

Lindsey Bakewell is hoping for a perfect Christmas this year in Beacon Harbor with her family, best friend Kennedy and new love Rory Campbell. But with large holiday orders, no assistant baker, the cookie bake-off and a dead judge, Christmas might not be so merry.

This is the second book in the Beacon Bakeshop Mystery series and it does not disappoint. I love the setting, characters and the recipes sound delicious. I can’t wait to try them.

Lindsey and her Newfie, Wellington, will have you summoning your inner Clark Griswold.

Another great cozy in the Beacon Bakeshop Mysteries by Darci Hannah! As I mentioned for book one, Murder at the Beacon Bakeshop, what makes this series so good is the detailed descriptions of the lighthouse, town, and food and the well developed characters who quickly become like friends.

The location is in Michigan with a haunted lighthouse on the shores that now houses a bakery with renovated living quarters, which would be a dream house for me. Add in a BFF who is an influencer for clothes and skin care, who also has a British accent and is super feisty with a heart of gold, a hunky next door neighbor that loves animals, a young cop that is very easy on the eyes, and parents that really want your business to succeed, and you have a recipe for a fantastic cozy.

Not only does the reader get all that but adorable dogs, Welly, Brinkley, and Ireland, along with soooo many great food and baking scenes. With some cooking cozies the food seems to be an afterthought or a marketing ploy, but not in this series. The story is infused with the cooking and baking, and Hannah includes all the contestants special cookie recipes at the end. And there are even more at her website: https://www.darcihannah.com

Besides having the resident lighthouse ghost, we get a bit more magical fantasy in book two with the new assistant baker. Hannah was able to combine this bit of fantasy so well into the story that it gives all the magical feels that a child has on Christmas Eve waiting for Santa to visit.

I highly recommend the Beacon Bakeshop Mysteries and can’t wait to see what Hannah comes up with in book three.

Second in the series - a delightful read.
While Lindsey Bakewell is happy with how well her Beacon Bakeshop is doing,
she is in serious need of an assistant baker. The town's decision to hold a
Christmas cookie bakeoff adds to her stress - all shop owners are expected to
participate and offer free cookies to patrons. The patrons will vote for their favorite
cookie and the bakers of the top four cookies will participate in a live bake-off.
Unfortunately, the celebrity judge is murdered before the winner is announced.
Lindsey, along with family and friends, is determined to unmask the culprit.

Thanks to NetGalley for a copy.

In this second installment of the Beacon Bakeshop Mysteries, it is Christmas time in Beacon Harbor, Lindsey Bakewell is busy not only getting the lighthouse decorated for Christmas, but also trying to keep up with the holiday orders. She is in desperate need of an assistant baker.

The owner of the year-round Christmas store has decided that a Christmas bake-off is just the thing to increase business in all of the stores. The winner will have a chance at their own baking show, The competition is intense, and just as a winner is about to be announced, the celebrity judge is found dead.

The search for the killer points at numerous suspects until the real murderer is found. As in the first book in the series, Darci Hannah did a great job making almost everyone look suspicious.

I loved this addition to the series. The setting, the characters, and the story were all entertaining making this a light easy read. I am sure many readers will enjoy this Christmas themed cozy as we get closer to the season.

Thank you to NetGalley, Kensington Books, and Darci Hannah for the advanced copy of this book in exchange for a review. All opinions expressed here are entirely my own.

Lindsey Bakewell is in need of an assistant baker to help get through her first Christmas at the bakery. Her luck at an hiring assistant baker has been bad to say the least. She hires a perfectly lovely woman for the job just in time. The owner of the Christmas store in town gets a Christmas cookie contest started without talking it over with the other shop owners first. The other shop owners in town don't have the time to make homemade cookies for this bake off so they order them from the bakery. By the time the bake off happens, the three contestants are the Christmas shop owner, Lindsey, and the chef from the hotel restaurant. Before a winner can be announced, the head judge is found dead with one of Lindsey's cookies shoved in his mouth. Well I think Lindsey is not a serious suspect for the murder, she still gets involved in trying to track down the killer. One thing I will tell you is that we do find out why the Christmas store owner was so desperate to get this Christmas cookie contest started.

I was kindly provided an e-copy of this book by the publisher and/or author via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Such a cute story that had me smiling. I had no idea this was a series until I started to recognize the characters. The perfect amount of love, family, sass, suspense, and murder. A must read as a wam up to the holidays.

Loving this series and this is a great addition, a good Christmas mystery.
I was happy to catch up with the characters, the descriptions of the food are mouth watering and there's a good balance between mystery and festive atmosphere.
Good character and plot development.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine

Wow, what an awesome Christmas mystery! If you don't count the murder, lol. But the whole magicalness surrounding the lighthouse bakery sometimes was just the perfect Christmas spirit from the lights and decorations to the spirit of everyone working there. I can't say too much, but I had my suspicions about something else (not the killer) and was super happy to find out I was right. Now the killer was another story, and I changed my mind as much as Lindsey and Crew changed theirs.

I loved the sleuthing dynamic that Lindsey, Rory, Kennedy...and get this, even Ellie Montague, ex-super model and mom to Lindsey wanted to join in. She did have a good idea that was right up her fashionista alley, and it started chipping away at the answer.

The showdown was wild, full of confession, and reinforcement arrived just in the nick of time. Honest, that wasn't a Christmas pun! I loved how the book ended with the magic of Christmas, good friends, family and of course where Lindsey and her dad were involved, good food! One caution: Make sure you're not hungry when you're reading, 'cause you'll want to eat your book or drool on your Kindle! There were so many yummies mentioned and not just dessert. The main dishes sounded awesome too.

At the end of the book, you'll find everyone's bake-off recipes, but there's a link to the author's website for more recipes. Hmm I should go there, 'cause maybe some of those main courses that Lindsey and her dad made are there!

I voluntarily read and reviewed an ARC of this book provided by Kensington Publishing via NetGalley, and my opinions are my own.

Lindsay Bakewell is dreaming of the perfect Christmas. She is just not sure how that can happen with orders piling up for her bakery and no assistant baker insight. Then Mrs Nichols shows up and turns out to be the most perfect assistant or is she. When Felicity the town's year-round Christmas store owner comes up with a cookie baking contest everything starts to go awry. Especially when she brings in a food critic judge. When he is found murdered everything goes from a Holly jolly Christmas to he's a mean one Mr Grinch. Lindsay and Friends must find the killer before Christmas is ruined.

I only got a few chapters into this book when I had to stop. I had to stop because I was liking the book so much that I had to buy the first one and read it first. Not only did I love that book but it helped me to understand the Dynamics in the second book. I usually do not give five star ratings but this book totally deserved it. With lovable relatable characters and an amazing storyline this is a must-read for anyone.

I didn't realize this was another Beacon Bakeshop book when i received it from NetGalley, as soon as I started reading I recognized the characters.
As Lindsey is gettign ready for the holidays the town decides to have a cookie bake-off. As the presure builds the tension in the town picks up, however when the bakeoff is going on someone dies and the mystery begins.

I enjoyed this story it was a fast read, and I did not figure out who the killer was.


** I received a copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for a honest review**

Great series! I didn’t read the first one, but had no problems catching up with the characters and the side storylines. This was fun and clever, with some very solid twists and red herrings. The recipes at the end are also very tasty sounding, and I liked that there were quite a few of them as opposed to just one or two. Looking forward to the next book!