A Peppermint Mocha to Die For (Valentine)

A Peppermint Mocha to Die For
Wynn Valentine (2024)

(Not a review, just some notes to help me remember the things I've read. But written this way because it's the Internet, and some people will stumble across this page.)

This was a free ebook I download prior to Christmas but didn't get a chance to read until the new year had already begun. It was short, a novella really, with 65 pages.

Note that Good Reads and Amazon list the full title as "A Peppermint Mocha to Die For: Because Nothing Says 'Happy Holidays' Like a Murder Investigation" even though the latter half does NOT appear on the cover. It does say "A Haunted Inheritance Mystery".

The book opens with Sol hanging Christmas decorations following the very specifc instruction of her aunt while her uncle looks on. Her aunt and uncle are both ghosts.

Right here I figured that I stumbled onto the Christmas episode of a sitcom that I don't watch regularly.

The ghosts can apparently leave the house if they choose to, and other people can see them and know about them. I'm guessing that there are more ghosts to be found in town.

A mystery arises when Sol finds an old recipe card with a protection symbol on it belonging to her great aunt Edna. Aunt Prudence doesn't want to talk about it. It was a long time ago. Better to let some things lie.

But the "house" wants Sol to continue because Edna is in the house. She just isn't appearing like the other two.

There's a mystery, which really isn't a mystery, with a resolution that doesn't feel entirely satisfying. The ghosts know what happened. The older folks in town remember that Christmas party but no one wants to talk about it, until Sol finds the one woman from the original group of friends who is still alive. She finally opens up for no reason other than she's old now.

I had no interest in the characters. The story kept my interest but only because I was waited for something to happen. The writing didn't wow me but it didn't distract me either.

The book includes the recipe for the famous Mocha. I didn't try to make it.

This book doesn't check off any boxes on my Challenge checklist. I don't recall the lycanthropy being a curse. I already read a Christmas book. The title has 24 letters, unless I use the extended title frod Good Reads. (Then it would have a lot more than 25 letters!)

If you stumbled across my page via the Internet, please check out my short book series, Burke Lore Briefs.