Thank you Avon Books for my copy! All thoughts are my own.

I don’t think there is anything cooler to me than the authors I read as a tween and teen now writing adult books. It’s so cool to feel like I am growing up alongside their careers! Ally Carter has been a favorite of mine since I found an article about I’d Tell You I Love You But Then I’d Have to Kill You in Seventeen Magazine. I was so pumped to continue to read her books as an adult.

I found this book to be straight up fun with a lot of heart and the perfect cozy holiday setting that isn’t cheesy. In fact, if your biggest gripe about holiday books or movies is that they are too Hallmark-y or cheesy, THIS is the book for you. It’s not cheesy at all. In fact, i found it to be quite beautiful while still being fun, light hearted, and fast paced. A cozy mystery mixed with a rom com. I loved it!

Synopsis:

“Meet Maggie Chase and Ethan Wyatt:

She’s the new Queen of the Cozy Mystery.

He’s Mr. Big-time Thriller Guy.

She hates his guts.

He thinks her name is Marcie (no matter how many times she’s told him otherwise.)

But when they both accept a cryptic invitation to attend a Christmas house party at the English estate of a reclusive fan, neither is expecting their host to be the most powerful author in the world: Eleanor Ashley, the Duchess of Death herself.

That night, the weather turns, and the next morning Eleanor is gone.

She vanished from a locked room, and Maggie has to wonder: Is Eleanor in danger? Or is it all some kind of test? Is Ethan the competition? Or is he the only person in that snowbound mansion she can trust?

As the snow gets deeper and the stakes get higher, every clue will bring Maggie and Ethan closer to the truth—and each other. Because, this Christmas, these two rivals are going to have to become allies (and maybe more) if they have any hope of saving Eleanor.

Assuming they don’t kill each other first.”

What I Liked:

The Concept—I am not a thriller person but I love the movies Knives Out and The Onion. And I love Ally Carter and Christmas Rom Coms so I knew this would be a winner from me just from the synopsis. I found it so fun and fast paced!

The Banter—Ally always knows how to bring the banter. It was what drew me to her books from a young age!

The Balance Between Festive Fun and Heart—I loved that this book felt a lot more grounded in reality than The Blonde Identity, especially when it came to the relationship. It was still light and fun but the characters really did need to go on a journey together.

What Didn’t Work for Me:

Romance Felt Underdeveloped—The romance was definitely the B plot which is fine, I just wanted a little bit more especially since these characters had quite a bit of history together.

Character Authenticity: 4/5 Spice Rating: 1/5 Overall Rating: 45

Content Warnings:

emotional abuse, gaslighting, infidelity, divorce, mention of pregnancy

This book was so cute and fun! I had a hard time putting it down. Love a whodunit, rom-com done right. Big fan of Ally and excited to discuss this for December book club!

Pick this up if you love:
- Knives Out
- Agatha Christie style mysteries
- Locked room mysteries
- Enemies to lovers romance

I'm so glad I picked this one up! It was really unique. I did have a couple issues with it. The idea that the two main characters would go to a stranger's house for Christmas in another country was far-fetched to me. And the epilogue made me 🙄 But, letting those two things go, it was a really fun, fast paced mystery! Definitely put it on your holiday reading list!

Absolute perfection! This is the book to take with you on your winter holiday so you can curl up beside a fire with it and get lost in the absolute fun of a good mystery with a healthy dose of banter and romance. Perfect

3.5 stars rounded down.

A fun and easy reading cozy mystery/romance.

Crime writer Maggie Chase and her nemesis Ethan Wyatt, who writes rufty tufty thrillers, are whisked away to the English estate of famed author Eleanor Ashley (think Agatha Christie) for a surprise Christmas break. But when Eleanor disappears and one of the other guests is poisoned, Maggie has to put her knowledge of Eleanor’s novels and Golden Age murder methods to work.

Maggie is still reeling from a broken marriage to a ruthless gaslighter and has to learn to trust her smarts and her instincts. Ethan has to persuade her that she doesn’t hate him and that she can trust him (though I’d add that it would help if he’d stop calling her “sweetheart” and “baby” - eww, she’s a grown woman not a teenager). The romance sizzles nicely and there’s a fair bit of dry comedy as well to keep it light and frothy.

It’s a classic Agatha Christie set-up with giant old mansion in the middle of nowhere that gets cut off by a storm - no power, no phones, no Internet. There’s a houseful of guests all of whom have secrets and motives which are gradually revealed. We even have the gathering in the library where Maggie takes us through the whole twisty and neatly tied-up plot and unmasks the killer.

Perfect for reading in the garden in a heatwave, though it would probably work equally well as reading in the house on a rainy day.

Thanks to Avon and Netgalley for the digital review copy.

This book was SO good! The kind of book that you can’t put down because you need to know what happens next but also the kind of book that you don’t ever want to end! The mystery was fantastic. The romance was sweet. The banter was fun. Ethan Wyatt is probably one of my top 5 favorite MMCs. All the stars! Go read this book, you can thank me later.

This book combined 3 of my favorite tropes/themes - cozy mystery, emenies-to-lovers and Christmas. This would be a really fun read for the holidays and loved the banter and storyline. Might have to read it again for the holiday season! And love the cover art for the book!

What. A. Fun. Read!!!!
Yes, 4 exclamation points!
Full of fun, wit, twists and turns, short chapters, and FUN characters! It was truly a "can't put it down" sort of book with very little, if any, objectionable content!
This is one that I am going to be recommending to all of my friends this season!

The Most Wonderful Crime of the Year was a well-executed romantic mystery. Hybrid genres rarely work for me, but Carter developed a satisfying mystery and a swoon-worthy romance. It was perfectly balanced. The pacing was great. It was an amazing holiday read. Perfect for readers who don't like holiday books. I loved this.

The Romance
Can we talk about Ethan for a second? OMG, what a top-tier love interest. I love the "he falls first" trope and his pining. He was so protective of Maggie. Be still my heart. The romance was emotional and sweet. The banter was chef's kiss!

The Mystery
It has been a long time since I have enjoyed a true locked-room mystery as much as I did with this story. The mystery was fun and fast-paced, and there was edge-of-my-seat action. I hope this becomes a series.

Thank you to NetGalley, Avon, and Harper Voyager for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

Loved! Okay I wasnt sure how I would feel about this but holy moly I loved it! It was so bingable! The storyline qas done so well and I really enjoyed it

Ally Carter is an icon for the generation. She continues to find inventive ways to capture readers across decades, and I absolutely love that I've had the ability to witness her writing from childhood to now. The Most Wonderful Crime of the Year delivers the most perfect balance of intrigue, mystery, with subtle notes of romance between two people who (think they) completely hate each other, all wrapped up in a Christmas bow. This book was witty, fun, and hilarious!

This is such a cute and cozy read! Maggie and Ethan are rival authors who are summoned on a secret holiday trip by Eleanor Ashley, one of the most prolific and esteemed authors in the genre. When their hostess vanishes from a locked room shortly after their arrival, Maggie and Ethan join forces to solve the mystery. But they just might find love while they’re trying to find Eleanor!

This book is part locked room cozy mystery, part romance, and all clever and adorable! The setting is perfect for a cozy – a remote British estate, complete with a hedge maze, during a snowstorm – and the mystery is very well-crafted, but it’s the dynamic between Maggie and Ethan that really makes this such a great story. I love the enemies-to-lovers romance between them, full of snarky witty banter and swoony chemistry. Such a charming, feel-good, Christmas read!

Many thanks to NetGalley and Avon Books for providing me an advance copy of this book.

Ally Carter is the perfect author for fun mystery romances. I love her perfect balance of mystery, without being too gory or graphic, with romance, but still maintaining suspense. I wasn’t able to guess the who-done-it (and the bonus twists thrown in) and was surprised by a cute bonus revelation in the epilogue! I didn’t want to put this down! The mystery had me want to keep reading because the pacing was pure perfection but the romance also had me swooning. Maggie and Ethan were complex on their own but then there was small time jumps that revealed parts of their backstories with perfect timing. Their dynamic was a perfect push and pull and the chemistry was palpable from Maggie’s initial illusion of hate. Their romance felt like its own mystery and it added a nice depth to the story. There was such a perfect balance between the mystery and romance and I’m convinced only Ally Carter can pull that off. I can’t wait until her next book release already! 5⭐️, 2🌶

I really, really enjoyed this book! I loved that this could have been branded as a mystery or a romance (is there a romance-mystery word equivalent to romcom?), and found myself thoroughly invested in both sides of the plot. I kiiiiind of saw the ending coming, but was too into the MMC to focus on any flaws in the storytelling. He alone was worth reading the book.

Thank you NetGalley and HarperCollins for the copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an eARC of this book!

I love all things mystery and I love a little romance in my mysteries. This book checked both of those boxes!

I would say if you enjoy a cozy mystery or you love Agatha Christie this is right up your alley. I happened to be reading an Agatha Christie novel simultaneously and it gave me ALL of the Agatha vibes while reading it.

I read between 20-50 cozy mysteries a year but also read a fair amount of romance, and I can say that this book hit both of those loves for me. I loved the enemies (but not really enemies) to lovers vibes as well as the tenderness that Ethan had for Maggie. I wish I got more of their backstories because they both had such sad backgrounds, but I love that they found each other! Them solving the mystery together was adorable, though I almost lost it when some miscommunication snuck in there!

There were 2 things that made this a 4 instead of 5 star read for me and one of those was the romance. While I'm all in for a quick romance with some flashbacks to give it depth, there just seemed to be something missing with this one. I didn't swoon over Ethan's "touch her and I'll kill you" lines as much as I wanted to, but his golden retriever energy was to die for! The other item I didn't absolutely love was the set up of the mansion in the book. The whole book I had the hardest time picturing the setup of the mansion.

Overall, this was such a fun read and would be perfect for someone trying out the mystery genre for the first time!

This was such a fun mystery novel. Who invited 2 writers with such a past to spend Christmas in your home, and why? When their host dies, which of the guests did it? Did the host a well known writer, write of her own death? It's up to Maggie and Ethan to put their differences aside and find out. A bridge out and phones down, a locked room, will hinder their investigation.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
🔥

Quick Breakdown

Christmas Romance
Rivals to Lovers
Bookish Book
Rom Com x Cozy Mystery
Black Cat x Golden Retriever
Forced Proximity
Snowed In
He Falls First
Dual POV
Closed Door - Fade to Black

Rival writers Maggie & Ethan are sent cryptic invitations to a Christmas getaway in England & later learn that their host is famed mystery writer, Eleanor Ashley. In a strange twist of events, Eleanor disappears from her locked office. As the Christmas guests search for her, they learn there have been multiple attempts on Eleanor’s life recently, leaving Maggie & Ethan scrambling to figure out which of the other snowed in party guests is a wannabe murder.

What a way to start off my Christmas reading! I loved this original take on a holiday romance. Ethan was a fan-fluffing-tastic MMC with him falling first & his golden retriever ways. A great pair to Maggie’s occasionally gruff exterior. The banter this pulled from them had me smiling throughout my read.

The cozy mystery aspect kept me thoroughly entertained as well. I loved finding the breadcrumbs Eleanor left right along with Maggie & was quite surprised when the villain was unmasked. The English countryside setting was the perfect backdrop for a Christmas romance that I felt wasn’t overtly in your face with the holiday.

First, thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an advance reader copy in exchange for honest review! I liked this cozy mystery rom-com! I think if you want a cozy christmasy romantic comedy, it will be perfect for this holiday season. My personal preference is a little more spice and less rom-com, so for me personally this one was just okay. I give this book 2.5 stars and would recommend it to readers who love cozy seasonal reads!

📣 a cozy-ish mystery in the English countryside with two bantering, opposites attract leads

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for the complimentary ARC; all opinions provided are my own.

📖 how would your phone complete this title: The Most Wonderful…

This book is too cute.

Set in the English countryside, The Most Wonderful Crime of All features a reserved author at a crossroads (Maggie), a charmer lead who no one else notices is all persona (Ethan), & the mysterious disappearance of a beloved author.

The banter between Maggie & Ethan is fantastic, as is how the narration reveals the many, many ways Ethan has been/is currently crushing on Maggie. He supports her so hard & the gesture he makes at the end left me with the biggest heart-smile. Honestly, it was so cute.

I’m ALL about these two recent adult releases of Ally Carter’s & definitely feel like I missed out by not reading her earlier. They’re so smartly & amusingly written—the interaction between the characters jumps off the page.

Have you read this one or The Blonde Identity yet? Add them to your TBR if not!

CWs: attempted murder.

[ID: Jess holds the ebook in front of yellow sunflowers.]

I didn't expect to love this, so it's a fun surprise.

Maggie's an author who hates Christmas due to past tragic encounters. She also hated her work rival, Ethan, another author who's the star of the party. She was pushed to go on a secret trip by her publisher and Ethan was also invited. They stayed in a manor owned by Maggie's favorite author. One night, the author disappeared and so Maggie and Ethan teamed up to solve the mystery.

It's really easy to read. I would call it cozy mystery, due to the fact that the setting is in a manor with a snowstorm while they were fighting for their life. It's action-packed and page-turner. I love the banter between our main characters. I love that we saw a whole differenet side of Ethan throughout the story, and how Maggie was slowly unlearning her traumas.

Very fun, very cutesy and very good story overall. I wished I read it closer to Christmas but I want to read all of my ARCs TBR so here we go!