“A Slay Ride Together With You” – the seventh book in Vicki Delany’s Year-Round Christmas cozy mystery series, is another great entry in the series. In this book it is almost Easter and things are a bit slow in Rudolph, New York which gives shop owner Merry Wilkinson some free time to help her best friend Vicky Casey plan her upcoming wedding. Merry is thrilled that Vicky is marrying Mark Grosse but questions their decision to buy a run down, supposedly haunted, house. Unfortunately, Merry’s doubts are soon realized when someone is killed on the property and Mark is the chief suspect. It’s a great mystery with a great setting – not only the house with its rich history – but the town of Rudolph itself and the people that live there – including Merry’s parents – her retired opera singer mother who is a diva in every sense of the word and her father who channels Santa Claus when it is most needed. The mystery is well done with just the right amount of suspects to keep readers guessing whodunit. The motive for the murder was a bit bizarre, sad, yet believable. All in all, another nicely done mystery by Vicki Delany.

I received a copy of this book from NetGalley.

This is A VERY GOOD COZY MYSTERY READ. The amateur sleuth is Merry and a good one she is. Her best friend Vicky is marrying Mark and they buy the old Cole house which is said to be haunted and needs lots of TLC. A murder happens there when Vicky, Merry and Mark hear noises. The girls check inside and Mark goes outside and what does he come up on but a dead body. At this time he is a suspect but as we go along the list gets longer. So much to tell but I don't like spoilers so as I always say, you will need to read this to find out who done it.

It's Christmas all-year long in Rudolph NY and I love visiting through each book. I would definitely live in this town, despite all the murders. The mystery is well-crafted and the conclusion satisfying. Looking forward to my next visit.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read this book.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Vicki Delany for providing me with a complimentary digital ARC for A Slay Ride Together With You, which was released September 24, 2024. The honest opinions expressed in this review are my own.

I’ve read a lot of books by this author and I love her writing! I think this is the first book in the series that isn’t set during Christmastime. I thought it was fun though. I absolutely love this series! The Christmastime cozy atmosphere is really fun. I loved the possible haunted house. I think a lot of the book was focused on Merry’s friend Vicky and her fiancé. I loved the mystery. I’m excited to see what’s next.

I would recommend this book to anyone who loves cozy mysteries!

Thank you NetGalley and Crooked Lane Books for providing me with an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. A Slay Ride Together With You is the seventh book in the Year-Round Christmas Mystery series. In A Slay Ride Together With You, Merry, the main character, has to investigate in order to clear the name of her best friend's future husband. Merry and her best friend, Vicky, are great characters. They really are a key ingredient for the book to be pleasant to read, along with a great setting, namely the town of Rudolph, and a strong storyline. This series is always a pleasure to read, and A Slay Ride Together With You was a wonderful cozy mystery. A perfect book for readers who enjoy nice mystery books and Christmas time.

Easter has come to Christmas town, but not all is fuzzy bunnies and chocolate when a body is found that leaves Merry's friends in danger! Merry is back to sleuthing in an attempt to save her friends from rumors and potential arrest! This series just keeps getting better and better. The plot is so well crafted that you'll be looking one direction when you should be looking another! All the right clues are there for you to see, but lots of red herrings to have you guessing the wrong villain! The mystery is of course the meat of this Easter story, but the characters' personal stories will also be integral to the plot as well! I must say that this book is my new favorite in the series as the author very creatively wove the mystery to be engaging and compelling. I can't wait to see what happens next in the series especially the Muddle Harbor vs Rudolph aspect not to mention all the events in the personal lives of the characters. I am already excitedly waiting for the next story to be written!

The newest year-round Christmas cozy series finds Merry helping her best friend Vicky, when Vicky moves into the town's supposedly haunted house and she is actually hearing things at night. When a man ends up dead outside the house, things because even more grim. Merry and Vicky investigate so that Vicky's wedding can go ahead as planned.

Another good entry in this series! I felt like the whodunnit felt a smidge random, but ultimately the explanation kind of leans that way too. Despite that, this series is very fun. It also seems like we will get some interesting developments with Muddle Harbor next book!

I received my copy from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Merry and Vicky have been friends for a long time. Vicky owns Victoria's Bake Shoppe.

Vicky announced that she and Mark were going to buy a house together. They were going to get the Old Cole House which everyone knew in town as the old Haunted House. Merry asked her if she was sure because that house was going to require a lot of work to fix it up properly. And people thought the house was haunted. Vicky said that was the only way they were going to be able to buy a house like that on Lakeview Drive.

This book was really good and they had a mystery to solve which brought them closer together. Check out the story I don't think you will be disappointed.

I love this series! I didn’t know who the killer was and was surprised at the solution. I like Merry, Vicky, and the whole crew. Mattie, the dog, is always a hit, because my dogs have a favorite person as well, and it also is not their owner.

I also love the fact that the residents at the Muddle Harbor Cafe know Merry and Vicky and make bets as to when they will arrive. I think its amusing that they don’t get mad but find it fun.

Overall, I rate this novel 5 out of 5 stars.

This was such a good, solid cozy. Vicki Delany gave me all the things I want in a cozy; interesting, complex characters; a town I want to live in and a multi-layered mystery.

Merry's best friend Vicki and her fiance Mark just bought the town's "haunted house" and when someone dies in their garden, Mark becomes a suspect. But it turns out the person wasn't well liked, and soon there are many suspects.

Merry was a terrific character and I loved her interactions with her family, and with Vicki. She has a solid love interest and a Saint Bernard. What more could a person want?

I need to go back now and read everything I haven't read from Vicki Delany. Thank you to the author, publisher and NetGalley for an Advance copy of this book. This is my honest review.

A Slay Ride Together With You is book #7 in the Year-Round Christmas Mystery series by Vicki Delany.

Just weeks before shop owner Merry Wilkinson’s best friend Vicky Casey is set to be married, there is a murder and Vicky’s fiancé was the one standing by the body. Can Merry help her best friend save the wedding? I enjoy trying to solve the mystery along with Merry. At one point I had the right person but I changed my mind after following some red herrings. I enjoyed this mystery. As a bonus, we get a few recipes from Vicky’s cookbook at the end of the book.

Thank you to the author, Crooked Lane Books, and NetGalley for the Advanced Reader Copy (ARC) copy of this book and I am voluntarily leaving an honest review.

This Year-Round Christmas book was set around Easter but it was perfect to read now because of the possible haunting. It definitely had me a little on edge when Merry and Vicky were searching the house. I felt like I was walking along searching with them. My cat even came down the stairs and scared me when I was reading that scene (LOL). We got a lot more of Vicky in this book and it was great. The fight at Vicky’s Bake Shoppe was unexpected. I always enjoy when Merry and Vicky visit the diner in Muddle Harbor. It is always comical and a little dramatic. I love how Merry thinks and enjoy being along for the investigation.

I so enjoy this series. I love Merry and her friends and family. Her mother's grand appearances always make me smile though I'm glad I don't have to deal with her on a regular basis. Any time spent around Merry's dog Matterhorn is always a good time and has me seriously considering getting a St Bernard. For this book in particular I especially enjoyed the focus on Merry and Vicky's friendship and seeing more of Vicky and Mark's relationship.

While the book is set in Spring with mentions of Easter dinner and bunnies it has enough creepiness to be a perfect fall read. I mean chunks of the book take part in a dilapidated mansion with some serious tragedies in its past as well as a modern day one. The victim was a horrid little man and more than a few people had a motive to breathe a bit easier once he was no longer breathing.

This was one of thoese right books at the right time for me. I thoroughly enjoyed the reading experience from the beginning to end and was sad when I put the book down. This is one of my favorite cozy series and Delany is an author I'm always on the lookout for. While you could jump into this mystery with no issue I do think you would enjoy it more if you started out with an earlier book. You won't be disappointed!

It’s spring in Rudolph, NY and Merry’s good friend, Vicki is getting married. Vicki and Mark have bought an old mansion that hasn’t been lived in for years. Needless to say, major renovations are needed but Vicki and Mark plan to take them gradually. Unfortunately, the nighttime noises are keeping them both awake and when Mark finds a dead body in the yard, he becomes a suspect. Merry and Vicki are trying to find the murderer but new suspects keep appearing. Former wives, wives-to-be, daughter, son-in-law are just a crazies. Don’t miss this book, great for the upcoming Christmas season.

The seventh book in the Year-round Christmas mystery series. I started at book six and one day would like to play catch up from the start.

The series is set in a town called Rudolph where the shop owners like Merry Wilkinson celebrate Christmas nearly all the time, with some extra fun thrown in at Easter. Merry's best friend Vicky is about to get married and move into an old house which appears to be haunted. A dead body turns up in the garden and Vicky's future husband is a suspect. Will there be a wedding? Merry sets herself to investigate and clear his name.

I enjoyed the setting, the story and the characters and it was an entertaining read.

A Slay Ride Together With You by Vicki Delany takes us back to Rudolph, New York, a town that has refashioned itself as “America’s Christmas Town.” They did let Easter peek in just a little and that is when we find ourselves there. Merry’s best friend, Vicky, baker-extraordinaire, is about to marry, Mark, an excellent chef who has put the hotel on the culinary map for the area. Vicky and Mark have bought a house: a big, scary, maybe-haunted house, that hasn’t been lived in in years and is in terrible shape. Mark’s dream. High school kids have been hanging out and scaring one another for years: Cole House. They and a crew of friends have cleared the majority of the trash out, saving only some wood pieces that might be salvageable and Vicky and Mark are planning to live in three rooms on the ground floor. But, Vicky is frightened. She goes to bed way before Mark comes home but she hears knocking and footsteps and all manner of frightening sounds. Merry could see the lack of sleep on her friend’s face and questioned her about it. At the same time there was some shirt-tail relative of Emmeline Coles running around and telling people the house should be his. Plus Mark and Vicky had a wedding to plan.

As always, Delany writes excellent characters, giving personalities to more than just the couple of leads. The plot was quite good as various characters seemed to have reason to question the sale and then the murderer turned out to not give a hoot about the house, but was after something else entirely. It was a merry chase with all kinds of twists and turns in this lively little town near Lake Ontario. Sub-plots abound in this coziest of cozy mysteries. I highly recommend.

I was invited to read A Slay Ride Together With You by Crooked Lane Books. All thoughts and opinions are mine. #Netgalley #CrookedLaneBooks #VickiDelany #ASlayRideTogetherWithYou

Another wonderful installment in the Year-Round Christmas mysteries, even if this one does take place before Easter... I must say that means, motive and opportunity are becoming extra interesting on behalf of Ms. Delaney given she has published over 50 books, including three of my favorite mystery series.

Merry Wilkinson runs a year-round Christmas shop, which is open even in the month leading up to Easter in the holiday town of Rudolph, NY. Her BFF is getting married and she and her fiancé have just purchased Rudolph's so-called haunted house. Vicky does not put stock in the rumors but as she is hearing things go bump in the night, something is obviously happening in the wee dark hours. Then her fiancé finds a deceased person on their property and he looks like the prime suspect. However, it turns out the man had a multitude of enemies and narrowing down the suspect pool is going to be difficult.

This installment of the series carries the camaraderie I always enjoy in cozies and what keeps me returning to these small-town settings. We get Merry, her BFF, her parents and many other town staples I have come to look forward to reading about. As always, I adore the pets of the series and wish for a dog like Matterhorn for myself, maybe minus all the shedding. I can dream!

These books are always a welcome addition to gearing up for the holiday season and I look forward to the next installment.

My thanks to Netgalley and Kensington Cozies for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I found this series is always a fun read. The mystery kept me guessing. I like the characters and that they move forward in their lives. This seems like it would be a fun place to live.

Thank you to the author, publisher and NetGalley for my eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Spring in Rudolph, New York, American’s Christmas town, is usually a little show, which means it is the perfect time for Merry Wilkinson’s friends Vicki and Mark to plan their wedding. They’ve even managed to buy the Cole House to move into, but only because it needs a lot of work. However, things aren’t going well at the house since the couple are hearing strange noises in the night. Then, when Merry is visiting, the trio find a dead body. With Mark under suspicion, Merry starts gathering clues. Can she figure out what happened?

Normally, I enjoy this series, but this entry didn’t work for me. The story was too slow to get going. While things did pick up once we found the body, including giving us some great suspects, it wasn’t satisfying. Having said that, my questions were answered at the end. Since this is set in spring, it didn’t have quite the usual Christmas cheer, but I think that’s on me more than anything. The series regulars were still fantastic, and I did enjoy getting to see them again. And we got three recipes that Vicki has been working on for her cookbook. Fans of the series will be happy to check in on the characters, but everyone else can pass this one by.

A Slay Ride Together With You is book 7 in Vicki Delaney’s A Year Round Christmas Mystery series, but it can easily be read as a standalone.

Set in “America’s Christmas Town”, Rudolph, New York is a small town located on the southern shore of Lake Ontario.

The story is told in first person from the point of view of Merry Wilkinson. Merry runs a small shop in town, and her father is known around town as Santa.

When Merry’s best friend’s fiancé is accused of murdering a man after his body is found in the backyard of the home the couple recently purchased, Merry feels the need to do some sleuthing to find the real culprit.

I always find stories set in themed towns to be a lot of fun. I love seeing how an author envisions such places and the interactions between the residents, the businesses they come up with to support the town and the story.

A Slay Ride Together with You was a good cozy mystery. While the town itself is Christmas themed, this story took place around Easter although the holiday didn’t play a large part in the story.

There were quite a few suspects for the murder, enough to keep me guessing, but not so many that it was hard to follow the story. I will admit that I figured out the culprit before the end of the story, but until the end I still doubted my guess.

If you’re looking for a light murder mystery, give A Slay Ride Together With You a try!

I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.