USA Today bestselling author Amanda Flower is back with the third in her more-charming-than-ever Magical Bookshop mystery. Fans of Sofie Kelly and Heather Blake, prepare your bookshelves!

Niagara region booksellers Violet Waverly and Grandma Daisy sleuth the slaying of a sommelier whose book signing turned into her sayonara.

January means ice wine season in the Niagara Falls region, but the festivities leave Charming Books owner Violet Waverly cold, still reeling from a past heartbreak. A past heartbreak who will be present at the annual midnight grape-harvest festival, and no magic in the world or incantation powerful enough could get Violet to attend. But Grandma Daisy, an omniscient force all on her own, informs Violet that she’s already arranged for the mystical Charming Books to host celebrity sommelier Belinda Perkins’s book signing at the party. Little do either Waverly women know, the ice wine festival will turn colder still when Violet finds Belinda in the middle of the frozen vineyard—with a grape harvest knife protruding from her chest.

Belinda grew up in Cascade Springs, but she left town years ago after a huge falling-out with her three sisters. One of those sisters, Violet’s high school friend Lacey Dupont, attends the book signing in the hope of making amends with her sister, but Belinda and Lacey end up disrupting the signing with a very public shouting match and Lacey quickly becomes the prime suspect in the sommelier’s murder.

Violet is sure Lacey is innocent, and to keep her friend out of prison, Violet asks for guidance from her magical bookshop. The shop’s ethereal essence points her to Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women, but what have the four March sisters to do with the four Perkins sisters? If she can’t figure it out, Violet, herself, may turn as cold as ice. Violet, Grandma Daisy, Emerson the tuxedo cat, and resident crow Faulkner are back on the case in Murders and Metaphors, USA Today bestselling author Amanda Flower’s enchanting third Magical Bookshop mystery.

approx. 320 pages

Out February, 2019

MY THOUGHTS:

I received this book in exchange for my honest review.

Although the third book in A Magical Bookshop Mystery, I had no trouble jumping in and enjoying the story.  Flower’s writing is easy and crisp and very clear to follow.

Every now and then you read of a made up place and wish it were real. This book has one such place.  The characters were wonderful and developed perfectly.  A magical bookshop… I want one. Imagine a bookshop that leaves clues to solving mysteries. Add a bunch of laugh out loud moments and a resident ghost.

I absolutely got lost in this story and know if you like cozy mysteries, this one is for you. I plan on hunting down the first two books of the series so that I don’t miss a thing. I look forward to the next book by Flower and can’t wait to see what she writes next.

What else can I say, but the writing style is done well, paced nicely with plenty of twists and turns to keep your interest.  If only I could step through the pages and enter the world Flower’s created. I loved all the characters but mostly lovely Grandma Daisy.

I gave this book a well-earned: