Have Yourself a Merry Little Witness

by Dakota Cassidy

[Berls]

3.5 stars

I can tell that this cozy mystery series is going to be one of those I really enjoy for a quick break. It makes me laugh and I'm already growing attached to the main characters.

And, as much as I do love the main characters, please oh please can we have more of Uncle Darling? Hal's cross-dressing uncle and his husband were probably what made this book just a bit better for me than the last one. Uncle Darling is what every guncle should be (fun, loving, and a bit on the dramatic side). I say that raising my son with two sets of guncles, so maybe that's where the affection comes from? ;)

The mystery in this one was equally good - it kept me guessing from beginning to end and I did not see the answer coming at all. This murder was much sadder than the one in the last book - with the recovering alcohol husband and father to a new baby dying at the very start. I guess that probably also hit my harder because I have a 16 month old and I don't even want to try and imagine that loss. So this book hit me in the feels unexpectedly.

I'm also enjoying the developing romance between Hobbs and Hal. I look forward to seeing where that's going. I feel like Hobbs has some secrets that need to be revealed though -- Texan boy moved to Marshmallow Hallow, Maine just because he visited once and loved it? And how does he afford his lifestyle? I want answers.

My only two negatives - 1 for the series overall and 1 for this book. For the series, each chapter begins with the title of a Christmas book or song and their year and author. This COULD be a neat way to start the chapters, if I saw any connection between them and the story. And maybe there is one, but it's going way over my head. The result is that at the start of every chapter I get slightly confused and pulled out of the story, until I remember it's just because I'm starting a new chapter. This probably wouldn't be as disruptive in the print as it is the audio.

My second negative is actually the narration, this time only. In general, I really enjoy Hollie Jackson's narration and she does a great job with the characters. I LOVED her voice for Uncle Darling, for example. BUT in Have Yourself a Merry Little Witness, Hal is sick. Comments keep getting made about how awful she SOUNDS. And yet, she sounded exactly the same as she always does in the narration. It had the effect of (1) puling me out of the story to think about the narration and (2) making me forget she was sick frequently. I think that, if I were reading it, I would be imagining her voice as ill. I hate to come down on a normally great narration, but for me, that was a disappointment. Won't stop me from reading future books in audio, by any means. But it did take away a bit of my joy in this one.