Sweets and Santa by Rosie Pease
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

In the town of Heartwood Hollow, in Founder’s Park, there appears a santa’s grotto and it almost feels like it arrives overnight, but that isn’t the only mystery in Heartwood hollow, Joanie is a baker who only lets a few people in on her secret recipes and they are the ones who work in her bakery with her, Gina and Bryan, as she prepares for a busy season and a few extremely busy weeks. She arrives in her bakery early to prepare for the day and her first time being open at Christmas, she has an ambitious plan for all sorts of flavours of cookies, this is on top of her usual orders of muffins, scones and more cookies for afternoon teas at the local hotel. As the town prepares for the holiday season as well, the only thing missing is snow, even though it is cold enough for it, so as Joannie makes her deliveries, she listens to the town rumours from the business owners including that another of her matches is going to be getting engaged soon, thanks to her, it is a family trait that she can tell who will be good matches, she can feel the connections as they are made and also, that the school kids are saying that her muffins are good luck and that is why this particular delivery has increased and that she should prepare more orders for when their final exams are coming up, but at least that’s all the rumours about her say.

As Joanie and the team are preparing the cookies for the day and thinking about the rest of the week and the new recipes she is going to try, this is when she is reminded of the Christmas window decoration competition as Sarah, her from of house employee asks whether she knows what the theme is going to be, it turns out that she has too many ideas and needs to narrow it down when she goes to the store to buy what she needs in a couple of days, but seeing as it is her first year, it doesn’t have to be anything too exciting or hard. When Gina suggests Cookies for Santa, but with a twist and it is then that Joanie comes up with her idea. She also receives a all from the local hotel and is surprised and happy to find out that they want her to do another load of cookies for another upcoming afternoon tea, Joanie agrees saying that although the bakery will be shut, she will be there anyway to decorate the window, so she can happily do both.

Later on that day, a frazzled looking young man enters the store and asks if they have found his engagement ring while cleaning up, Joanie hasn’t, but says she will let the young man know if she finds it, but that she hopes he does. It turns out that it isn’t the only thing that has gone missing, other bits a pieces have disappeared around the town and just as mysteriously, she notices that some gnomes have appeared at around the same time, but they don’t just look like normal gnomes, it turns out that they randomly appear and have done for years, but nobody knows who does it, Joanie goes to the library to find out more a few days later and while doing this, she comes up with the missing piece of her window decoration and a new recipe to try to top it off. As it nears Christmas and the town festivities start properly kicking off, things keep disappearing and the gnomes move around, but who is behind it and will the missing things be found, or will the Christmas spirit and romantic escapades be lost?

This is a seasonal themed cozy mystery which is a lovely and wholesome read, it is full of good cheer and the baking is guaranteed to make your mouth water and crave something sweet at the same time!

Reviewed by @roxsannel

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