Moving back to my hometown of Pumpkin Hollow should have been easy. But when the most hated woman in town is murdered, the police start looking in my direction and I have to wonder if moving home was a good idea.
In Pumpkin Hollow, Halloween is celebrated all year long. Mia Jordan has just moved home after being gone ten years, and when she discovers a neighbor has been murdered, it casts a … discovers a neighbor has been murdered, it casts a shadow on the town’s year-round Halloween theme. Can Mia find the killer and save the town’s Halloween celebration before it’s too late?
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Mia Jordan has returned home after ten years away at college, chasing degrees. She has the degrees, but still doesn’t know what she wants to do with her life. So she’s working in her family’s candy store, along with her mother. Unfortunately, she also has to deal with cranky customers, including Hazel Martin, the meanest woman in town, and the Jordans’ next-door neighbor. Hazel hates Halloween, which is ironic since she lives in Pumpkin Hollow, a town that celebrates the holiday year-round. She also spends her time reporting infractions of all the neighbor’s to the HOA board, which keeps her pretty busy.
Mia also learns that the town wants to do away with the Halloween celebrations, so she attends a council meeting and stands up against it. But when the mayor tells her there’s no budget for it, she has to figure out a way to keep it going, with the help of the townspeople who have shops dedicated to the holiday.
But after a long day at the store, Mia and her mother return home and Mia notices something is wrong with Hazel’s home. There’s a scarecrow on the porch, and Hazel wouldn’t do that. Upon closer inspection, Mia sees that it’s not a scarecrow — it’s Hazel. Now there’s a murderer on the loose, and with Mia wondering if she and her mother are suspects, she’s out to find out who killed the woman — and hopes she’s not next on the list…
This is the first book in the series, and I wanted to read something that had to do with Halloween, so this is why I chose it. The story was cute enough, and the plot was decent, but this is a pretty short book, and you can’t really ‘know’ the characters in a short book. However, since I wanted to find out the killer, I pressed on. I also wanted to know if Halloween would be saved in the town, too.
Well, I got the answer to one of the questions, but not the other. It seems the author has given us a bit of a cliffhanger — which I detest — and we have to read the next in the series to find out the answer. I don’t really mind, since I had planned on reading it anyway, but I’ve always felt that cliffhangers are a bane to the reader, and let’s face it, the author could have added several more pages and finished that, too, but chose not to. So I will reserve judgement and just rate the story I’ve read.
A charming story for the Halloween season! The idea of a whole town built around Halloween is unique and I enjoyed the concept. A fast, enjoyable, light read. Promises for more in the series. The hint of a romance and the main character finally finding the focus in her life she’s been missing and good subplots to finding the killer.
The world created in this book is so easy to live in. It’s not the most fast-paced but it’s a comfortable place to be. I wanted to spend time with these characters on each page. The mystery kept me reading. I love that the town celebrates Halloween all year. I recommended this book to readers of my newsletter and recommend it here as well. So far I am up to Book 3 in this series and plan to continue reading.