This one was just...not good. Hardly no mystery or investigation involving the murder in this installation. Book #6 is set during Christmastime and Lake Eden’s celebration and Christmas buffet. And don’t worry, every single recipe served at the buffet is provided at the end of the book, taking up almost 30% of it. There just wasn’t a lot of substance to this one and I’m honestly surprised it was published as part of the series.

Hannah Swensen is back in her first Christmas special! It all should be simple and very cozy to think about it. The holidays are here. The tree is up. Hannah is preparing and baking sugar cookies at The Cookie Jar. And they are ready for a potluck and taste testing of the cookies and desserts for the Lake Eden Cookbook. Out to be one of those fabulous Christmas parties. Oh, and someone got killed there. The murder weapon being Hannah's mother's antique cake knife. Great party, huh?Well all in al...

The more I get into this series, the less I like Mike. He needs to be kicked out!

"Luck doesn't have anything to do with it. Intimidation is an art form, and don't you dare forget it!" It's Christmas 🎅! Hannah is preparing for the annual banquet at Eden Lake, and everyone in town is expected to come. Except, that is, for recently divorced Martin Dubinski's new wife: a tall, gorgeous Las Vegas dancer whom he met and married on a whim just a week before. When the "exotic" beauty gets killed in the parking lot, and everyone is locked in with the excuse of keeping safe from the s...

Release Date: October 1, 2005 Genre: Cozy MysteryThis is my favorite cozy mystery series and I can never get enough of Hannah Swensen and the murder mysteries she always seems to get involved in! In this installment, it is christmas time and everyone is gathering together to test out the recipes that are being used in the Lake Eden Cookbook. But when someone goes missing, and then ends up dead it is up to Hannah and the police to find out who did it before the killer strikes again! This book

Hannah Swensen can whip up a batch of cookies as fast as she can solve a murder! This book wasn't as long as the others, but I enjoyed it. The last 2/3 of the book was all recipes. However it was a great novella. Andrea had her baby... Yay! There was another murder... But it wasn't really a murder... And Hannah solved it! Again!! Seriously she could be a cop, she figures it out before Mike every single time.Mike is still a jerk. I wish Hannah would quit giving him chances. Norman is so much bett...

This is my first book of Joanne Fluke's. It might even had been my last, if I didn't get the other book free as well (when I volunteered at the library's yearly book sale). Gosh it was awful! I found the characters lacking personalities, and I was really shocked with the reactions or I should say lack of reaction of some of the people, including the main character Hannah, when the victim is murdered (can't say who it is). The reason I picked this book was basically because, I thought it was real...

I usually enjoy the crime/mystery genre. And I'm okay with reading something light. This just wasn't worth it, though.What bothered me most was that Hannah seems unhappy with Mike, one of the men she's dating. He's rude, takes credit for her work, and he's sexist. I expected her, in the end, to tell him to get lost. But no. She just sucks it up and takes it. Um, hello? Self respect? Hannah has none, apparently. I guess the fact that he's a handsome guy means more than how he treats her.And the s...

This was a disappointment. As with others I thought I was getting a whole book instead of a novella. The mystery felt forced, perhaps if she'd had an entire novel to work with Fluke could have rounded the characters out a bit more. Hannah was pushier and more controlling that ever. Mike was total jerk,but he is always a jerk, it was just more emphasized in this one. Mike's jerkiness made Hannah seem very shallow. He's rude, overbearing and sexist to her but because he is tall dark and handsome a...

Story was fine. Way too short. I thought it was a full book. I finished the actual story 60% through the book and the remaining parts were recipes and commentary. I was a little disappointed. Maybe I should have looked at it more before buying it, but then again, it's part of a series, so you gotta read em all, right? I understand short releases to keep your audience happy, so it doesn't stop me from reading more. I will keep going... there's only what, 15 more to go? About Me For thos...

Why was a quarter of the book just recipes??? Also I think at this rate no one will be alive in the town except Hannah and her family. This kind of seemed like a novella rather that one of the longer ones. Please god I hope Hannah chooses a man soon because it’s been going on for too long.

I am not going to finish this book. I started reading it because, as I said in my last review, I'm trying to read a bit of everything so that I have a better idea of what our patrons are interested in. This book is just a bit too silly to keep reading. If I had one more day off of work for the holiday, I would have stuck with it, but leisure time is too short during a work week to keep reading this. There is too much inane dialouge. If I wrote down everything I said and slapped it in a novel, wo...

I gave this book four stars after some debating. I finally decided that I liked the characters and the basic thought process behind the book itself a lot. Enough that I want to read the rest of the series sitting on my TBR shelf. However, if I was rating it on mystery alone, I'd definitely have to go lower.For me, this book wasn't about the mystery so much as the quirky and fun characters. What can I say, small-town Minnesota pot luck? I mean how do you go wrong? I've been there, doing the churc...

I really love the older Hannah Swenson books. This book was a locked room mystery with everyone in Lake Eden at a Christmas party at the community center where someone got murdered, but there was no apparent escape of the killer due to the blizzard. Christmastime in Lake Eden sounds pretty fun, and despite the blizzard, the people of the town made the best of it while Hannah and her sisters and friends worked behind the scenes to help Mike discover the killer who he said had to be there in the b...

The problem is with this book is that it was TOO SHORT!A fun, easy read mystery. I like the fact that the author:* does not feel like she needs to make it gory or gross with the deaths that occur* doesn't resort to promiscuity or sexual innuendos* does show a strong, independent, smart woman as a main character * shows fun family dynamics with siblings and parent relationships* makes it fun to peak into the lives of small town residents

I think I keep reading these because they are really easy reads. They're like popcorn books, you can just read them quickly and easily, without thinking. I like the main character. She's a bit tactless and interesting. Another review (on another book in this series) mentioned that she seems a lot older than she is and I agree. She's just turned 30 in this book and she strikes me more as a woman in her 60's or older. It might be the small town angle the author seems to like. I'm surprised no one

Sugar Cookie Murder (Hannah Swensen #6)by Joanne Fluke (Goodreads Author)Paperback, 352 pagesPublished October 1st 2005 by Kensington (first published January 1st 2004)The holidays are the icing on the cake for bakery owner Hannah Swensen. Surrounded by her loved ones, she has all the ingredients for a perfect Christmas until murder is added to the mix... When it comes to holidays, Minnesotans rise to the occasion and the little town of Lake Eden is baking up a storm with Hannah leading the way...

Oh, I was sold on this one from the moment the green-eyed monster reared its ugly head and Hannah was having a bake-off with the police detective’s ex-girlfriend. So cute! This was perfect to read in between getting my pies ready for Thanksgiving… it got me into such a holiday baking mood. Hannah and crew are having a potluck dinner for the entire town, and this is just another thing I love about Joanne Fluke’s writing… when she does a Christmas book she goes all out 5-reindeer on it, and it’s s...

Book # 6 in the Hannah Swenson series has our heroine / amateur sleuth coordinating the Lake Eden Christmas Potluck supper. Everyone will be bringing the dishes they’ve offered for inclusion in the latest community cookbook, and Hannah’s mother has offered a beautiful antique cake knife to cut a very special cake. This is Minnesota and a snowstorm isn’t about to keep the residents of Lake Eden away from the Community Center, so the place is packed. But before the desserts are even set out on the...

I struggled with deciding what to rate this one. It is probably about a 2.5. I found this book extremely unbalanced. There is less than 200 pages to the story since the last half of the book is filled with the recipes for Hannah's cookbook. The first 90 pages of that is filled with Hannah preparing for the potluck dinner and everyone in Lake Eden gathering at the community center and eating their meals. After the first 90 pages, the body is finally discovered and the rest of the book is about Ha...