A picturesque village.  Delightful sweet treats.  A polka-dotted pet pig.  And… murder?  Yep.  Just another chapter in Amanda Flower’s Amish Candy Shop series!

Premeditated Peppermint is the third book in this series, and it’s a title that you may remember from my previous post on upcoming cozy mysteries.  I requested this one from Net Galley, thinking I’d already read the other books in the series.

Turns out, I hadn’t… I’d read a *different* mystery series by Amanda Flower that was set in an Amish community!  (If you’re interested – of course you are! – it was the Appleseed Creek series!)  So naturally, I had to go back and start at the beginning of this one.  Once I did, I was delighted to find a new series, and even more so when I discovered how sweet and quirky this one was!

Have you read books set in Amish country?  If you haven’t, you’re missing out!  There’s something about the simplicity and traditions of the Amish that make these books so enjoyable.  And with Amish cozy mysteries in particular, the setting adds that much more to the community feel and strong bonds that already feature prominently in this genre.

The Amish Candy Shop mystery series starts with Assaulted Caramel.  Here we meet Bailey King, who has come home from New York City to a small town called Harvest to visit her grandparents… who happen to be Amish.  A series of events causes her to stay longer than she bargained for, and of course, she ends up knee deep in a mystery!  The series continues with Lethal Licorice, also set in Harvest.

If you want to start from the beginning with Assaulted Caramel, and don’t want ANY spoilers about the next books, then stop here and use my links to go get these titles! Then come back and find out more about the latest book, Premeditated Peppermint!

Premeditated Peppermint showcases the village of Harvest at Christmas time.  Here’s a peek at the story:

Christmas is Bailey King’s favorite time of year. For her first Yuletide in Harvest, Ohio, the former big-city chocolatier is recreating a cherished holiday treat: peppermint combined with molten white chocolate. But her sugar high plummets when her former boyfriend walks into the candy shop she now runs with her Amish grandmother. New York celebrity chef Eric Sharp and his TV crew have arrived to film an authentic Amish Christmas. Bailey’s not about to let her beloved town—and Swissmen Sweets—be turned into a sound bite. Unfortunately, she gets more publicity than she bargained for when Eric’s executive producer is found strangled to death—and Eric’s the prime suspect.

With Bailey’s sheriff deputy boyfriend out to prove Eric’s guilt, her bad-boy ex tries to sweet-talk her into helping him clear his name . . . and rekindle their romance to boost ratings for his show. Now, between a surplus of suspects and a victim who wasn’t who she seemed, Bailey’s edging dangerously close to a killer who isn’t looking to bring joy to the world—or to Bailey—this deadly Noel…

Bailey, like many cozy mystery heroines, seems to find herself in a jam more often than not!  And this guy, Eric, has brought her nothing but trouble.  But she couldn’t have imagined just how much turmoil he was bringing when he wandered into Harvest.  As she deals with his presence, the murder of his producer, and the hint of a new romance with a very handsome deputy, Bailey must also find time to care for her grandmother, and make Christmas candy for the festival and the shop!

I love the characters in this town… they are colorful, and flawed, and big hearted.  Well, most of them anyway!  Even the four legged characters are enjoyable!  And it’s fun to see how Bailey is adjusting to life in a small community, and how she balances the delicate line between the English and the Amish.  The author has managed to make the story funny but also suspenseful, and the result is a very enjoyable concoction!

Premeditated Peppermint is out now… read as a standalone or as part of the series, it’s a delightful addition to your stack of holiday cozy mystery titles!  Highly recommended… happy reading, friends!

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And thanks to Net Galley and the publisher for providing a complimentary review copy of Premeditated Peppermint.  I’m happy to provide my honest review of this title… all thoughts are my own.