Premeditated Peppermint

Premeditated Peppermint by Amanda Flower is the third tale in An Amish Candy Shop Mystery series. Bailey King is looking forward to a peaceful Christmas in Harvest, Ohio with her grandmother, Clara and cousin, Charlotte. They have been busy preparing a variety of peppermint candies for their Swissmen Sweets table at the Harvest Christmas Market. Then a grinch arrives in the form of Bailey’s ex-boyfriend and baker, Eric Sharp along with a camera crew. He wants to film the Christmas special of his show in Harvest with Bailey. Bailey agrees to meet the producer, Rocky Rivers the next morning to discuss the proposal. On her way to the meeting, Bailey notices a set of lights out on the gazebo. When she enters the gazebo, Bailey finds Rocky dead with the lights wrapped around her neck and Eric standing over her body. Deputy Aiden Brody quickly arrives on the scene and targets Eric as his prime suspect. Eric asks Bailey to prove his innocence before he ends up as head baker at the local prison. Linc Baggins (not a hobbit) arrives to take over production of the show and he has a surprising business proposition for Bailey. Then Juliet Brody approaches Bailey with a special request for her almost daughter-in-law (Aiden and Bailey have yet to have a first date). Juliet feels that Jethro has the face for television, and she wants Bailey’s help jumpstarting the pig’s career. Then Margot needs Bailey’s help with the live nativity. Bailey’s Christmas is quickly spiraling out of control. Premeditated Peppermint is an entertaining cozy mystery as you can tell from my summary. You will be hooked from the very first page. While Premeditated Peppermint can be read alone, I suggest reading the series in order. It will provide you a better understanding of Bailey and how she came to live in Harvest. I thought Premeditated Peppermint was well-written with a good pace. It is just the right length at 306 pages. I had been reading a different book that was dragging along (I fell asleep), so I switched to Premeditated Peppermint and quickly devoured it. Harvest is a quaint small town that has a mixture of Amish and English citizens. There are charming shops and events that attract tourists such as the Harvest Christmas Market. Bailey is a smart and talented main character. I was happy to see Bailey’s best friend, Cass pop up in Harvest to help Bailey. Juliet Brody is quite a character. She goes around town with her pig, Jethro on a leash. I can see Jethro acting as the ring bearer if Aiden and Bailey ever marry (picture Jethro wearing a cute little tux). There are many laugh out loud moments in Premeditated Peppermint courtesy of Juliet, Jethro, Eric, Margot Rawlings, and the camel, Melchior. I enjoyed the descriptions of the delectable candies being prepared at Swissmen Sweets. The mystery was interesting with a handful of suspects and misdirection. The method of murder fit in with the book and the author provided good clues to aid the reader in solving the crime. There are recipes at the end of book and a preview of Toxic Toffee. My rating for Premeditated Peppermint is 4 out of 5 stars.

I love this series. I missed book 2 but there was no spoilers or feeling like I missed something. I do want to go back and read the second book just because the books are so great. The characters are well developed with plenty of growth in each book. The writing keeps your interest. There was more than one thing to figure out and both kept me guessing. One I had guessed right fairly early but the other I was completely off base with. The world building is fantastic and the glimpse we get in the next book shows that we will become more familiar with the "other life" that Bailey left for her new one. There's a big difference to me between moving on and actually getting closure. I'm glad that we got to see Bailey get the closure that was needed. Yeah, she had moved on from her previous romance but now, even the reader feels ready for that next step. I am also glad we saw some character development in Eric too. I'm not sure what his future is or if we will see more of him in the future, but I enjoyed how things played out there. Overall, this continues to be a fantastic series and I recommend them in any order. Recipe Included: Bailey's Peppermint Bark Thank you to Amanda Flower, Kensington Books, and NetGalley for allowing me the opportunity to read this wonderful story and share my thoughts and opinions with others.

Amanda Flower is one of my favorite authors and this book in the series affirms that belief. Fast moving, a couple of good red herrings and satisfactory conclusion makes for an enjoyable read.