Thank you for the ARC!

I absolutely loved this! The mystery, the characters, the setting, the BANTER! It was fast-paced yet so fun and satisfying. I miss Maggie and Ethan already and would read more adventures of them.

I don’t think the cover fits the book but that’s my only criticism.

📚 #BOOKREVIEW 📚
The Most Wonderful Crime of the Year by Ally Carter
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ / Pages: 304 / Genre: Cozy Mystery
Release Date: October 8, 2024

Maggie Chase and Ethan Wyatt have been longtime rivals since graduate school. Now Maggie is the queen of cozy mysteries and Ethan is the king of action thrillers. Both have been invited to a Christmas weekend away at the home of Eleanor Ashley, a world-renowned mystery novelist and Maggie’s favorite writer of all time. So when Eleanor suddenly goes missing, Maggie is determined to find her or at least find out who’s responsible for her disappearance and possible murder. But, of course, Ethan has to involve himself in her sleuthing, which eventually turns from annoying meddling into welcomed flirting. Curiouser and curiouser!

This cozy mystery/romcom is the perfect Christmas read on a winter’s day under a comfy blanket next to a twinkling Christmas tree. I enjoyed the rivals-to-lovers banter and finally revealed revelations between Maggie and Ethan.

Thank you, @TheAllyCarter, @AvonBooks, @HarperVoyagerUS, and @NetGalley for my gifted copy.

A delightful holiday book with a fun mystery with a closed door romance. I loved how the book was framed and plotted. With the interview starting each chapter and a late added dual POV, it felt fresh and new and filled twists - some I guessed and so many more that I didn't. But most importantly there was a sense of depth to both the characters and the plot that is often missing from holiday books, but this one had in spades. Maybe one of my favorite holiday books.

If Carter writes it I will read it. I was an avid writer of hers while I was a tween and for her to keep writing and now for adults I just feel like I am dreaming.

4.5 stars
I've officially switched into Christmas mode, and this was the perfect read for it.
Did I pre-order this based solely on the title? You bet I did.
The Most Wonderful Crime Of The Year by Ally Carter is, first and foremost, hilarious. Just the mood I needed. But it's more than that. It's a locked-room (well, specifically, mansion) with all the associated tropes - sprawling country estate of legendary author Eleanor Ashley, snowstorm, power is down, bridge is out. And one bed for warmth, of course.
Authors Maggie Chase and Ethan Wyatt have been summoned to board a trans-continental flight - no details, just get on, we ride at dawn.
What follows is not only a fun rom-com, but also a great seasonal mystery with an entertaining cast of characters. And some heartbreaking emotional depth to our MCs to round it out.
Highly recommended!

This was a really cute, fast read. I enjoyed the book, but I felt it was lacking a bit of the meat you might get in just a mystery or just a romance. The mystery didn't really have any twists, and the romance was pretty shallow.

But it was cute. It was funny. It was a romp. Maybe it wasn't supposed to have twists or deep connection! Maybe it was just supposed to be a breezy read! And it was! I just didn't realize that was what it was meant to be going in, which left me feeling sort of unsatisfied.

Did I love it? No.
But did I like it? Yes, absolutely.

PS I think this would be great as a movie.

This book was the perfect mix of a little mystery along with a great romance plot. The characters were well developed and made sense together!

Thanks to NetGalley for the free eARC. I was in a serious rut and needed a palate cleanser, and this fit the bill perfectly. It's really best when it leans hard into the satire - there are some moments when it gets a little too sincere and schmoopy for my liking.

I'm not a huge romance fan, and on the rare occasions I talk myself into reading romance, the whole enemies to lovers trope is the trope I hate most! Here we have two fairly successful writers - Maggie writes cozy romances not unlike this one, and Ethan writes hard boiled thrillers (two guesses who gets more attention from their mutual publishing house!). They, along with a motley cast of characters straight out of an Agatha Christie novel, are invited to the home of Eleanor Ashley, one of the greatest mystery writers ever to live (and yes, she's clearly a Christie stand-in). Then of course there's a terrible storm and the bridge goes out and the phones go down and Eleanor disappears from inside a locked room. The whole place is crawling with suspects, given that Eleanor was older and had recently revised her will. Much like Murder on the Orient Express, everyone has motive.

Maggie and Ethan get to investigating, and like I said, this book is really at its best when it leans into the absurdity. There are all of these flashbacks to Maggie and Ethan's first meeting, and Maggie's terrible marriage, and Ethan's terrible childhood, and it really just grinds everything to a halt. The mystery itself is frothy and fun, and mostly held my interest, but I confess that I finished this about a week ago and I already forget how the whole thing shook out!

DNF 51% - I wanted to love this book, but after two attempts, it just wasn't holding my attention.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the opportunity.

Loved this book a whole lot!! I think it had such a perfect blend of romance and mystery - I loved both Maggie and Ethan and their emotional journeys along the way. I read this really quick and definitely recommend.

This was silly and cute but sometimes you are in the mood for silly and cute! Although it was set at Christmas it didn’t felt particularly “Christmas-y” but I enjoyed the romance/cozy mystery combo. It felt a little “insta-love” at times and due to their being history between the two leads you aren’t privy to until super late in the book some of their interactions didn’t make a lot of sense. Still enjoyed it overall and was a quick read.

The Most Wonderful Crime of the Year is a fast-paced romantic mystery. I admit that I've gotten a little tired of the romance genre from the little I've read, so the romance tropes annoyed me at the beginning, but there's a slow reveal of character backstory that made up for the tropes I found annoying. In contrast, I loved all the mystery tropes! This is just who I am as a reader. If you love the banter of the romance genre and the plot of a mystery, you should pick this book up

This was so good??? I've heard of Ally Carter before and was looking forward to the mystery component of this 'romystery' - and it did not disappoint! Ethan and Maggie are a fun dynamic duo as they navigate the sticky situation they've found themselves in. While there are some questionable decisions made by Maggie, the context of her life makes a lot of sense. I ended up really rooting for them and loooooved the switch to Ethan's POV that revealed just how down bad he was for her. Like. Yes. GIVE IT TO ME.

The Knives Out comparisons are very on point, and it definitely scratched the itch that that movie continues to leave in its wake. Would DEFINITELY recommend it for the holiday season.

Maggie Chase, a cozy mystery writer, would like nothing better than to shut herself up in her apartment for the holiday. She has lost her husband to her best friend and has lost confidence in herself. The one thing that she is sure of is that she hates Ethan Wyatt. Ethan is a leather jacket type who writes thrillers. The women swarm around him. When Maggie is invited to the English mansion of her biggest fan she is horrified to find Ethan on the plane with her. They have both been invited to the home of a famous mystery writer to celebrate Christmas. With two days to go before the holiday, their host disappears from her locked office. Maggie believes that this is a test to crown her successor, but there have been several attempts to murder her. Maggie and Ethan must work together to .discover who is responsible and the fate of their host.

In an enemies to lovers story, Ally Carter uses flashbacks to explain the animosity that Maggie feels toward Ethan. As annoying as she finds him to be, she is also aware that she is feeling an attraction to him. Ethan has been in love with Maggie from the moment he first met her. She was married at the time to the man who betrayed her. As they now work together, he is determined to show her that he can be trusted. From the very first pages I fell in love with these characters. Their witty banter had me laughing at times. Carter also gives you a house full of suspects and a final reveal that is reminiscent of Agatha Christie’s final gatherings of suspects. Treat yourself to a holiday gift with The Most Wonderful Crime of the Year. I would like to thank NetGalley and Avon/Harper Voyager for providing this book.

This book was very refreshing to read as a romance/mystery novel and took a new light onto the genre. My specific rating is 3.75 because the beginning and middle very so strong but the ending felt lacking to me.

I did love the connection between the FMC and MMC and how their "relationship" was shown between different timelines, and that their past was told in detail instead of alluding to things that are never explained.

I really loved that they were both involved in the writing/publishing world because it added so much to how they work and view situations.

overall I would recommend as a good holiday read!

Maggie tugged on every heartstring. Ethan is the misunderstood hero we’ve been waiting for. Their teamwork and chemistry builds and builds and builds. Excellent super fun read. My favorite Christmas book of 2024

I really wanted to enjoy this book, but I struggled to even make it to the 50% mark before deciding to put it down. While I’m usually a fan of enemies-to-lovers, I couldn’t connect with any of the main characters, which made it hard for me to get invested in their story. The mystery aspect didn’t feel particularly unique or gripping either, so this one just wasn’t for me. Unfortunately, it ended up being a DNF.

This was my first book by Ally Carter and I think she did a great job of writing an atmospheric Christmas rom com! It was a bit cheesy of course, but that's what most of us are looking for with holiday reads most of the time. The cover was a driving factor in me reading this book as well.

4.5⭐
Absolutely delightful mashup of a locked room mystery and an enemies-to-lovers rom-com. Christmas is coming, but Maggie Chase hasn't had the best year. Even though she's a successful mystery author, she's lost her husband, her best friend and her money. What she has gotten is a mysterious invitation to an Christmas at an English estate along with her nemesis, Ethan Wyatt. Puzzling and totally fair.

A famous mystery author invites a group of people to her home for Christmas only to disappear from a locked room. The premise of this book definitely sparked my interest! I am a sucker for a good holiday rom-com but I loved the mystery elements that were added to the equation in this book. I really enjoyed the banter between the two main characters and the overall enemies-to-lovers trope throughout the book. I also really liked that within the cozy mystery atmosphere there was also traumatic backstory. One of my major qualms with holiday books is that sometimes the characters can fall flat but I think the backstories of these characters prevented that from happening.
One thing I wish this book had done better was pacing. Near the middle of the book, I felt like the main characters were just exploring the house at times when I would have liked to see more dialogue and interactions with the other guests in the house
Overall, I think this was a fun and entertaining holiday read, which is exactly what I picked it up for!
*3.5 stars rounded up*
*I received a free reviewer's copy of this book. All opinions are my own.*