Here we go! It's the first cozy mystery book review of the year and I'm bursting with excitement. January's cozy read is "Miss Frost Solves a Cold Case", by Kristen Painter.
If you haven't gotten your cozy mystery reading challenge guide, get it here. Or, if you want to read about the rules of how I'll review a cozy mystery book, read it here.
Each month's book review will feature the basic facts of the cozy mystery book, including the Amazon synopsis that's included on their website. I've also included a hyperlink in the title to the amazon.com page for the book in case you want to buy it. FYI, I don't get anything for recommending the book (or not recommending if I don't like it). The only reason I'm including the link is in case you're interested in reading it.
I will then include my thoughts about the book after the basic facts of the cozy mystery. I give my general opinion as well as a couple of points if you are interested in specific things about your cozy mystery. For example, is there romance, what type of cozy mystery genre is the book, is it funny or does it have a bit of violence in it.
So, without further ado, read on:
Series: Yes (Book One)
Author: Kristen Painter
Publisher: Sugar Skull Books
Genre: Cozy Mystery
Pages: 324
Published: March 8, 2016
Synopsis:
Welcome to Nocturne Falls, the town that celebrates Halloween 365 days a year.
Jayne Frost is a lot of things. Winter elf, Jack Frost’s daughter, Santa Claus’s niece, heir to the Winter Throne and now…private investigator. Sort of.
Needing someone he can trust, her father sends her undercover to Nocturne Falls to find out why employees at the Santa’s Workshop toy store are going missing.
Doing that requires getting to know the town, which leads to interesting encounters with a sexy vampire, an old flame, and an elevator that’s strictly off-limits. The more Jayne finds out, the more questions she has, but the answers lead her deeper into danger.
Will her magic save her? Or will she come up cold?
My Take on the Book:
Wow! That sums it up. When you look on Amazon, 78% gave this book a five-star rating and 16% gave it four-stars and I can see why. I couldn’t put the book down.
I love books that are very character driven and this cozy mystery took the time to really develop each character's personality. The main character, Jayne Frost, is a funny, no-nonsense kind of elf and you can't help but like her from the start. The other characters are well-developed with their own personalities and idiosyncrasies so you don't feel as if you're reading the same character over and over again.
Kristen Painter also offers a great balance between description and dialogue. There's just enough description to feed your imagination but not so much that you have to slog through a page and a half of what a winter storm looks like.
Type of Cozy Mystery: This one falls into the paranormal cozy mystery genre. The whole town is filled with paranormal entities of one type of another. The main character is a Winter Elf, for starters, and one of her love interests is a vampire. There's werewolves, fairies, witches and all kinds of other paranormal types running through this book.
Humour: There was plenty of humour sprinkled throughout and I couldn’t help but love Jayne Frost’s sassy attitude. You jump into the story quickly and the mystery unravels just as fast, so this isn’t a book where you’re left wondering when you’ll get to all the good stuff. The interplay between characters keeps you laughing throughout the entire book. If you enjoy humour in your books, this one is a keeper for you.
Romance: As far as romance side plots goes, this one is just perfect! Kristen Painter does write paranormal romance as well so a romance side story is expected. However, don’t expect this romantic story to get out of hand. After all, we are talking about a cozy mystery. The romance is just nice enough to make your toes curl in happiness. There are some sweet descriptions about kissing and how Jayne’s romantic partner makes her feel but this is often done in a humourous way. A tiny little spoiler alert! There's a love triangle.
Violence: Of course, when dealing with a cozy mystery, you don’t have to contend with rampant descriptions of violence and this book adheres to the code. The worst that this book offers is someone hitting another person on the head and the description is very tame so you don’t have to worry about stumbling into a book that claims to be a cozy mystery but is filled with blood.
Small Town: Nocturne Falls. This small town is right up any Harry Potter fans’ alley. Kristen Painter has quite the imagination and this book is filled with fun and fascinating descriptions of this little paranormal town.
My final Rating: I would say this is a must read if you like cute and funny books that are a fast read. I couldn’t put this book down (I know I've said that a lot but it was so fun to read!) I’ll definitely be tuning into Jayne Frost’s next adventures at Nocturne Falls. This book gets a solid 4.5 stars out of five from me!
As a little side note, I haven't read the later books in the series yet, however, other reviews on Amazon do say that Kristen Painter carries the romance portion of the book a little too far and it becomes less of a cozy mystery and more of a romance. With that said, this first book, in my opinion, falls just perfectly within the cozy mystery confines and you're sure of a satisfied cozy mystery read.
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