The Christmas Appeal

If you liked The Appeal, this is a great peek into the lives of the Fairway Theater players. It's is a novella sequel to the amazing first book. The format is in the same style, detectives are reading over emails of everyone involved in a mystery and trying to figure out what the mystery and its solution is.

This format is great because it makes you feel like one of the detectives, plus it's also really easy to read. At times it feels like reading a reality TV episode, since you get to hear everything they're up to, what they say behind each others' backs and so on.

Knowing that something will go wrong the whole time (since the detectives are told so at the very beginning) really puts you on edge to try to see when it's gonna happen. However, I do think this is focused on the interpersonal relationships and the troupe drama more than the mystery for most of the book. And there's plenty of drama! So much backstabbing, gossiping, ulterior motives, and everyone wanting to be in the limelight... It's all delicious!

I do wish the mystery was a bit more involved but I suppose it makes sense with the length of the book. As well as the cozy vibes.

This is the perfect fun Christmas read with a sprinkle of mystery and lots of drama, especially for fans of The Appeal or epistolary books.

Thank you so much to Atria Books and Netgalley for the eARC!