3.75 Stars


This was a super cute cozy mystery with a side plot of romance! I loved both of our main characters and enjoyed watching them solve the mystery together. I thought this book was face paced and it kept me intrigued almost the entire time. This is a super cute holiday read and I really enjoyed it!

first of all, thank you to the publishers and netgalley for the arc in exchange for an honest review! after reading the blonde identity a few months ago, i was excited to get started on this one once november hit.

this was so fun - i finished it in just one afternoon! just like with the blonde identity, the characters were lovable and the banter charming. holiday books are tough because they only work well for a few months of the year, but i enjoyed this one immensely. the book i read right before this slogged on and i ended up skimming by the end, so it was refreshing to have something i flew right through. a great little romance/mystery for anyone who doesn't need steamy scenes and likes some twists/action in the mix.

Okay this was so fun!!!! Holiday Rom com, enemies to lovers, he falls first, AND a cozy mystery that’s knives out coded?! Say less! I really enjoyed this fun story - don’t even care that there were too many characters that I got confused for each other, the main characters were all I needed to keep me hooked and squealing. No spice but that’s just fine. Highly recommend (and even though it’s a holiday themed book, it’s very lightly holiday, so this is good to read year round no problem!)

Thank you NetGalley and Avon and Harper Voyager for this ARC!

This was a fun "christmas" rom-com/mystery read!

This is a perfect start to get into the Christmas spirit.

Maggie and Ethan are rival writers, one writes cozy mysteries and the other writes more suspenseful thrillers. They both are invited to the famous Eleanor Ashley's house for Christmas. Think of Eleanor Ashley as Agatha Christie, but alive and well at 81 years old. Eleanor has written 99 mystery novels, outselling the Bible.

During Maggie and Ethan's trip to the Estate, Eleanor vanishes. Maggie is determined to find out what happened to her favorite author. Is she playing a game? Did something serious happen? Is her family involved? In this house, with no access to leave, can they solve the mystery of the queen of mystery herself? How will Ethan and Maggie work together?

This was a lighthearted mystery with all the rom-com vibes. Knives out meets a Christmas love story.

Read this if you like:
-enemies to lovers
-meet cutes (even though they may not realize it)
-one bed
-trapped in one house with strangers
-cozy mysteries
-low-level spice

Thanks to the publisher for the copy!

✨BOOK REVIEW✨
The Most Wonderful Crime of the Year
By: Ally Carter
4.5⭐️/5

🖇️ Forced Proximity
🏆 Rivals-to-Lovers
🌶️ Mild spice, closed door
🔐 Locked room mystery

I was so excited to be approved for this ARC! Thanks Avon and Harper Voyager & NetGalley!

Mix together Only Murders in the Building and Knives Out with a healthy dose of Hallmark Christmas movie, sprinkle with some Agatha Christie, and out pops The Most Wonderful Crime of the Year! Mystery Writers Maggie and Ethan have been rivals for years. And until they both are invited to (surprise!) legendary writer Eleanor Ashley’s estate for Christmas, Maggie thought it would always be that way. But when Eleanor vanishes from a locked room just before Christmas, they find themselves trapped in a castle of suspects. Together, they have to save Eleanor, figure out whodunnit, and maybe, just maybe, work out their differences before it's too late.

I loved every minute of reading this story, just like I've loved all Ally Carter’s stories! It delivered on everything I wanted from it and then some. Watching Ethan and Maggie work through past trauma together while also watching them be brilliant at solving mysteries is wonderful and emotional in the best ways. She took all the fun mystery tropes and turned the notch up by about 25% on each of them. Just ridiculous enough to make it a little funny but also not over-the-top, just the perfect amount of ridiculousness.

Verdict: Have recommended it to just about everyone who wants a good Christmas read. It's not a Roman Empire book for me, and I don't necessarily think everyone should read it, but it's the best at what it set out to do.

Ally Carter does it again with another FUN and intriguing suspense romance. I’ve been a huge fan of hers ever since Gallagher Girls came out and I’m loving the pivot to fiction for adults. When she described this book as “Knives Out with kissing” over and over, I knew I had to read it. When Maggie Chase’s favorite mystery author disappears from her British country manor at Christmas, it is up to Maggie and her “rival” Ethan Wyatt to discover the truth-all while evading death themselves. I really enjoyed this book and couldn’t put it down; Ally Carter gets better and better with every book. (I also appreciate that her books thus far are closed door.) Truly I could not think of a better way to start off Christmas book season!

Thank for NetGalley for the ARC of The Most Wonderful Crime of the Year
by Ally Carter

Enemies to Lovers
Cozy Christmas Mystery
It was a fast pace cozy murder mystery that had so many twist and turns much like mystery writer, Eleanor Ashley's books that Maggie aspires to be like, she and Ethan are both writers and invited to attend Christmas at the home of Eleanor, along with her family, then she goes missing. I could not put this book down! I finished it in 2 days and am left wanting soo much more!!

Somehow successful both as an enthralling possible murder mystery with multiple suspects, someone vanishing from a locked room, and all manner of hidden motives and unusual seclusion, plus a surprisingly sweet romantic comedy with occasional flashbacks to add depth to the characters that have known each other for some time but hadn't really had the chance to talk much before they're thrown into the middle of a festive attempted murder spree.

Sadly a miss for me!

I almost didn't request this because the cover and title were so "twee," but I ADORED The Blonde Identity so I decided to give this one a shot. But TMWCY had a very different feel to it. It really was very twee and a lot cozier than I anticipated from an Ally Carter. I was hoping for the trademark witty banter from Ally's first adult book, but instead the dialogue and banter read cringey... the story was also very on the nose with the tropes--so many repetitions of "who did this to you" and alpha-male "I must protect her at all costs even though we're only just now actually starting to get together," and proclamations of love almost instantly, and it was just too much.

Still, very grateful to Netgalley and Avon for this one--I was a huge Blonde Identity fan so I did think I would love this one!

This was a pretty fun mystery. I definitely enjoyed the mystery element more than the romance element. Some of it was fairly predictable, but it still made for an enjoyable read that was on the lighter side.

I'd recommend for anyone looking for a cozy mystery/romance for the holiday season.

It's the first time that I read Ally Carter and loved it! The whole cozy Christmas mistery got me hooked from the beginning. And the banter betweet Maggie and Ethan... *chef's kiss*

Thank you NetGalley for the arc of the most wonderful crime of the year!

This is the perfect start to the holiday season, super enjoyable and difficult to put down! This is more of a mystery with a side of romance when I was under the impression it was mostly romance.

I haven't read Ally Carter since her YA spy novels but I sure did miss her. I loved this book. It was a Agatha Christie with a little romance.

This was so cute and a genuine surprise! I didn't expect myself to be so invested in the mystery, but I can say that the resemblance that kept being called back to Knives Out in all of the blurbs was spot on! It was fun and gave me the push to read more mysteries.

I can't stop smiling after finishing this literary gem! As a romance enthusiast, I was pleasantly surprised to find myself completely immersed in this Christmas mystery that perfectly combines the tension of a thriller with the warmth of a love story.

Find themselves trapped in a mansion during a winter storm along with a famous mystery author who suddenly disappears. The result? An electrifying adventure that kept me glued to the pages until the late hours of the night.

What captivated me most was the masterful balance between elements: the Christmas atmosphere subtly woven into the plot without being cloying, the sparkling chemistry between the protagonists (those moments when Ethan calls her "Marcie" just to provoke her!), and a mystery so well constructed that, although I tried to solve it, I was completely surprised at the end.

For those who, like me, enjoy a good story of "we need to solve this mystery while someone possibly tries to kill us," this book is an early Christmas gift. The romantic tension between Maggie and Ethan serves as the perfect counterpoint to the main suspense, creating an addictive read that made me ignore all my responsibilities until I finished the last page.

This book definitely deserves a special place on my favorites shelf! It's the perfect combination of cozy mystery, captivating romance, and Christmas spirit. I especially recommend it for those cold winter nights, accompanied by a cup of hot chocolate and a soft blanket.

3.5 stars

Enjoyable and fun, reminded me of watching clue or knives out.

A good quick read and perfect for those looking for a Christmas themed mystery

“If you were missing, I’d find you. I’d tear the house down stoned by stone. I’d rip apart every room and scour every field and I wouldn’t stop. I would never stop.”

This was such a fun read! I really enjoyed reading how Maggie and Ethan are stuck together for Christmas at Maggie’s biggest idol, Eleanor Ashley. Maggie and Ethan do not get along and I love all the biter and bantering we got with the two of them. The mystery was a fun one to read. I enjoyed all the adventures making Ethan go through to find Eleanor. While this book is a close door romance, we get a lot of steamy kisses, and I am all here for that! One thing I loved about this book was the fact that both Maggie and Ethan are deep with each other and I liked how they open up to one another about their struggles in life. I found Ethan to be so swoony! I love that there was no tiptoeing around their feelings for each other. The things that Ethan did for Maggie were so sweet. I loved how protective he was with her! While this book does take place around the holidays, it can totally be read any other time of the year as it’s more focused on solving a mystery than the holidays.

Read if you like:
Dual 3rd person POVs
Enemies to lovers
Hero falls first
Forced proximity
Protective hero
Closed door romance
Romantic suspense
Knives Out inspired

Do you like the enemies-to-lovers trope? Do you like locked-room cozy mysteries? Does a snowed-in scenario at an English countryside estate sound good? Does a story inspired by the famous disappearance of Agatha Christie intrigue you? Do you like a wounded FMC who has to learn to let her guard down and trust the sarcastic, yet eminently lovable MMC?

Welcome to Ally Carter’s newest book The Most Wonderful Crime of the Year, where you’ll get a solid cozy mystery and a charming rom-com all rolled into one!

Mystery author Maggie Chase hates Ethan Wyatt, a fellow author at their publishing imprint. He’s good-looking, popular with literally everyone and the guy can NEVER get her name right. Marcie? Margaret Grace? Margaret Olivia? Margaret Lavinia? (For the record, it’s Margaret Elizabeth). What she doesn’t understand is that Ethan knows EXACTLY who she is and has since the very first moment he saw her in that elevator years ago!

When Maggie and Ethan are unexpectedly invited for Christmas to the vast estate of Eleanor Ashley, the grand dame of their fictional mystery-writing world, Maggie thinks she may have died and gone to heaven! Her euphoria is short-lived when the eighty-one-year-old, whose books were Maggie’s lifeblood growing up, goes missing from her locked office

Trapped by a blizzard with an assortment of Eleanor’s other guests, including her son and daughter-in-law, her niece, butler, doctor, a lawyer, a duchess and duke and fellow author Sir Jasper, Maggie has to draw on her extensive knowledge of Eleanor’s books to try to solve the mystery of what happened to her, if she can avoid all those pesky attempts on her life. It’s a good thing Ethan used to be a Secret Service agent! Maybe he’s not so bad after all …

This was really cute! The mystery is decent and serves to move the story along and give a reason for our MCs to grow closer, but it’s not the strength of the book. Where the book shines is the romance arc and the sarcastic, playful banter between Maggie and Ethan, which was so fun. Each gets their own POV chapters, so you get both sides of the story, which is told in present and past chapters with short but hilarious police interview interstitials scattered throughout.

If you like a holiday rom-com with a little Agatha-inspired mystery thrown in, this is a fun one!

★★★★

I loved this book! It’s a great read, one that I’ll be recommending to my friends! There were a lot of moments where I couldn’t put it down! Thanks NetGalley and the publisher for giving me this opportunity to read this book!

Did you read The Takedown last year and fall in love with the Die Hard version of Christmas novels? Did you read Blonde Identity and adore Ally Carter's humor and writing style? Or did you love the cozy isolated resort aspect of The Writing Retreat?

If yes to any of the above, you're going to want to read The Most Wonderful Crime of the Year. Maggie and Ethan are author rivals trapped at a famous elderly author's mansion with her family for Christmas, following a mysterious invitation. Then the author disappears, a storm isolates the guests, and Maggie and Ethan are left to wonder whether it's a game or if Eleanor really has been murdered.

This was such a good holiday binge. @shopcoffeekids said it reads like a game of Clue and I couldn't agree more! I really enjoyed Maggie and Ethan as a couple, once they decided to trust each other. They had really great banter, and I especially loved the insights into Ethan's personality that were revealed as the story went on.

The ending is great as well!