Christmas, Cabernet, and Chaos by Wendy Day
I received a copy from Open Sky Publishing through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
When Sally learns that she won’t have any family around on Christmas, she’s devastated. That’s until her crush turned friend, Mike, invites her to visit him in McKenzie Bridge. Delighted by the invite, Sally drags Pearl all the way over to the small town that takes Christmas to the next level. Pearl doesn’t have an ounce of the Christmas spirit in her, but Sally sure does, so it’s a Christmas miracle when they find themselves getting more and more involved in the small town’s holiday snafus.
If you’re looking for a book that feels like a Hallmark Christmas movie wrapped up in a neat book cover, then this is the book for you! It’s bursting from the seams with Christmas cheer complete with a Christmas miracle. I was excited to start this book thinking it was a holiday cozy mystery, but quickly discovered it’s certainly cozy, but where was the mystery? Well, without spoiling anything, there was hardly anything mysterious going on. By the time there was a mystery for these crime solving best friends to investigate, the book was almost over, and the mystery itself was one tiny dud.
I think my favorite part about the entire book is Pearl. She’s funny, grumpy, and doesn’t have a filter. We follow Sally and Pearl, but I really enjoyed following Pearl the most. I also like the small town Christmas vibes, and the book itself made me feel like I was reading a cozy holiday Hallmark movie turned into a book. There’s also a good cast of core characters, and the book itself is pretty well written. I just wish it wasn’t presented as a cozy mystery because it certainly was not. I spent a portion of the book wondering what it was trying to be because it was drawing too many things in at the same time. We’ve got a cozy holiday, a baking contest, a light holiday romance, a tiny dud of a mystery, and a few Christmas miracles all wrapped into one cute read. I kept wondering where the mystery was even as the small mystery was happening.
I’m rating this as a cozy mystery because this is what it was presented as, and so it’s a solid 2.5 stars out of 5 stars. However, I do think it’s a cute and fun read on top of being well written, so it would’ve gotten a higher rating if it was presented as contemporary or women’s fiction.
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