From the author of Kindle Unlimited All-Star winner Sweet Hollow Women comes a new novella featuring characters from Murder at Mistletoe Manor, Carnage at the Christmas Party, and The Port Elspeth Jewelry Making Club!_______________________________________________________Klarinda Snow is the innkeeper of Mistletoe Manor in beautiful, remote, Windy Pines, Idaho, where she brings her unique brand … Windy Pines, Idaho, where she brings her unique brand of hospitality to the tiny mountain town.
When she finds her inn unexpectedly fully booked on a snowy Tuesday night in November, it brings back memories of a tragedy years before. Before she knows what hit her, she and her trusty team of employees (Myrtle, Pierre, and her new night manager, Josephine), have found themselves back at the task of solving another mystery at Mistletoe Manor!
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While this book can be enjoyed as a stand-alone novella, if you plan to read the books in the Windy Pines Mystery series or The Port Elspeth Jewelry Making Club, it’s highly recommended you read those first, as this book contains spoilers that could affect your ability to enjoy them.
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What a wonderful, quick little cozy! I loved how things took a twist from the opening of the story. I’ve not read the other books, but I want to now, for sure! This is a standalone, so no problem if you’re like me and haven’t read the others.
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
Love a good mystery. Fun and entertaining whodunit. There are great characters. Always fun to follow a story and try to figure out the ending. This is part of a series so be sure to read the whole thing. Would recommend!
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
In The Heart Of Windy Pines was a good read. This is the second book that I have read by Holly Tierney-Bedord and I was very pleased. The characters from Windy Pines seemed established with well developed relationships with each other, while the guests seemed to become fast friends. I feel as if this aspect was key to the development of the story. While reading this story, I really felt that I was reading the manuscript for a tv show. This is a good thing in my book. The changing of scenes and locations flowed together seamlessly further impacting the feeling that I had. I believe that I will have to go back and ready the series that influenced this book.
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
There is no need to have read Holly Tierney-Bedord’s prior books in the Windy Pines series in order to appreciate In the Heart of Windy Pines. This latest installation can easily be read as a standalone cozy mystery. Klarinda Snow and her quirky staff are back, and a heavy winter storm has many travelers seeking shelter at Mistletoe Manor.
Ms. Tierney-Bedord’s characters are each interesting in their own way. I loved the staff at the inn. The visitors are unique; each guest seems to be dealing with some age-related issue, and naturally some deal better than others. The idea of The Barbershop Reindeer Sweater Oldies Quartet had me in stitches. The author’s wry humor is peppered throughout the story as well as evident in her characterizations. As is typical with most cozy mysteries, there are a lot of character and scene details, with periodic clues, and a storm of activity as the mystery is solved and the story reaches its denouement.
Set at an inn in Windy Pines, Idaho, In the Heart of Windy Pines, might have readers rethinking just how “cozy and charming” it would be to be snowbound at a country inn. The straight-forward plot and light suspense, make this a quick, holiday-ish cozy mystery read.
I loved this mystery book. The story and characters are very well written and enjoyable. The storyline grabs you interest and keeps it throughout. Looking forward to reading more from this author. I recommend reading.
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
This is a fabulous book that is excellently-written and a very compelling read. The characters, Klarinda, Myrtle, Pierre, and Josephineare bought to life wonderfully and realistically. The story is action-packed and contains twists that keep you guessing until the end. I am disappointed that there were spoilers but that was warned.
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
Klarinda has an inn full of guests snowed in, and has found herself drawn to one of them. Neil is at odds with his past and believes Klarinda may be someone he would like to know better. The discovery of a body breaks their initial connection, however, there is something that doesn’t add up. Klarinda must use her wits to figure out the truth, no matter the danger. I enjoyed the journey into the suspects’ backgrounds and recommend in the Heart of Windy Pines.
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
Fun and quirky characters keep you entertained in this cozy murder mystery. Plenty of twists and turns keep you turning the pages, suspense and mystery add to the enjoyment of reading this novella. A fairly new author to me but her writing in the stories I’ve read so far is smooth and flowing. This one can be read as a stand alone book but some of the characters are from previous stories in the series.
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
The author has given us characters that pull us in. The employees of Mistletoe Inn are each unique as well as the actual guests. When a murder takes place, Klarinda, the innkeeper, begins to investigate.
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
Clarinda thinks she may have finally met her match in Neil. So naturally he gets tangled in the latest murder investigation- and is not as divorced as he might have led her to believe
Hearts collide and accidents and deliberately less than nice people pop up too.
An exciting psychological thriller and adventure
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
Favorite Quotes:
Stop. Stop with the dad jokes, he silently begged himself as he trudged up the stairs. Like his heartburn and tension headaches, they’d become another constantly recurring infliction he couldn’t shake.
She’d been blonde and plump, only five feet tall, button-nosed and red-cheeked. The poster child for being underestimated.
She had that comfortably, happily hungover feeling that comes with spending time with someone special. When their presence still seems to be a part of you, even a day later.
And, like many an old man who still thought he was young, he fancied himself to be a bit of a Liam Neeson-type of undercover badass. Even when he was just running out to the hardware store for new weedwacker strings, he liked to act as suspiciously as possible.
My Review:
This tale was a continuation of the Windy Pines cozy mystery series, and although I have only read one of the previous installments I had no difficulty following the story. The quirky cast of characters including the Barbershop Reindeer Sweater Oldies Quartet carried over and expanded considerably with a new group of rude and oddly behaving guests to Klarinda Snow’s inn, the Mistletoe Manor, and the site of a murder in the last installment, which couldn’t have been good for her business. Poor Klarinda, stumbling upon a frozen corpse, yet again.
The storylines were slowly built with sudden bursts of significant activity, secrets, and revelations. Clues and clever sparks of amusing levity were randomly disbursed with a few hidden like Easter eggs. The overall tone of this tale was more leaden than the last, due to the malaise and rather dispiriting personal issues the visitors were experiencing prior to and during their stays. To my great relief, the author wisely provided a quickly devised yet satisfactory ending to conclude the story on an upbeat, as I must have my HEA lest I begin filling the air with a tirade of invectives while stamping my little foot in pique, and surely no one wants to see that. 😉
In the Heart of Windy Pines #3 – I do not know where I found this book but it turned out to be a sample. I would have enjoyed reading this but it is hard to do with a one chapter sample. The story started off well and Myrtle the innkeeper was a trip. 3*
UPDATE Dec. 16, 2019: I found a copy on Booksprout and decided to read it. Both the mobi and epub files had formatting problems; the title and author’s name headers and page numbers were mixed in with the body. Changing formatting in my app did not solve the problem. Added to the fact, there are more problems with the body, an enter stroke after every single word in sentences.
Where Mistletoe Manor was actually worth reading, this book is not. The writing style follows more along Port Elspeth instead of Manor. I read four chapters and could not skim the rest. The writing was not up to par. I have several other books by this author that I will delete. One OK out of three does not encourage me to continue. The newest book should always be an improvement over the previous books; it is called learning the craft of writing. The sample and this book did not match. I change my rating from three to one star. I found this book on Booksprout. 1*
Murder at Mistletoe Manor #1 – This is my first read by this author and I am surprised. The writing and the storylines are better than I expected. The main characters work well together. The innkeeper is a bit smart mouthed to her guests but she and Myrtle are a perfect fit. The murderer is easy to figure out but the story is still interesting. 3*
The Port Elspeth Jewelry Making Club – I had two of the three recommended books to read before In the Heart of Windy Pines, spoilers. This book is not worth skimming, which I did for most of it. The book is silly, boring and rambles on forever, the characters are flat, the dialogues are stupid, and the writing style is vastly different from Mistletoe Manor, which had no profanity. The lesbian relationship is too heavily stressed given the storylines; guess the author wanted to be exceptionally PC. The murderer is easy to figure out. The cover of the book is nice, the reason the book interested me. This is a fine example of “don’t judge the book by its cover”. 1*
I have fallen in love with this Windy Pines series and with Holly’s stories in general. In the past few days, I have read all of the books connected with this series. I love the fun, somewhat quirky characters and can’t wait to see what they are up to next.
Klarinda just wants to run her inn and enjoy a nice quiet life, but that’s kind of hard to do when dead bodies always seem to turn up. Sound like a hoot? It definitely is!
Holly is a fairly new-to-me author but I have discovered that I really like her storytelling style. She has now been added to my must-read list of authors.
Pick up the Windy Pines series if you’re looking for a delightful, fun mystery—you will not be disappointed!