The SantaConviction

As usual, I love a good cozy mystery and this one did not disappoint. Set at Christmas time and full of funny puns it was a quick read and helped me get to 100 books read this year. 

The story revolved around Marcy and her cousin Holly, who lives in Canada. Marcy has come to stay with her and her roommate Hugh, when she decides to take some time off from college. Holly has taken on the task of running the local Santacon and the whole town is in a wash of Christmas decorations. As Marcy arrives at the event, Holly is excited to tell her that her teenage crush, Gabriel D'Angelo is in town and even better, he's on a dating app that she just signed her up for.  She convinces Marcy to  use the app and see if they match up and when they do, they decide to go together to his party later that night.

They go off to a local club where their roommate Hugh is working. While there they end up dancing and having a great time with a group of men dressed as Santas. Holly and Marcy get separated and Marcy ends up having a great time with a guy named Logan, Gabriel's best friend. When she realizes that its close to time to go meet Gabriel, she runs off to the party only to find Holly already there. She soon realizes that not only was Gabriel the guy that Holly had been dancing with, but he sent the invitation out to any single woman in the area, so there are a lot of other girls there. Disheartened, thinking she was the only one hed invited, she goes to leave. Holly convinces her to stay and go meet Gabriel. They finally find him, dead in the bathroom from an apparent drug overdose.

Holly and Marcy call 911 and when the paramedics and police arrive, things go south pretty fast. They determine that Holly was the last person to see him alive and when a bag of pills that match the ones found by the body, she is arrested. Holly and Logan join forces to find out who the culprit really is. Can they find the killer, before Holly is thrown into jail?

I thoroughly enjoyed this story. The pacing was quick, I was able to read it in about 2 hours. The characters are all so perfect. Holly and Marcy seem to have a good head on their shoulders and Logan is the perfect unexpected love interest. This author is new to me but I am very much looking forward to checking out more of her work and hopefully seeing more of Marcy and Logan. I received this book free from Booksirens for an honest review. It will be available November 15, 2021.