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Closely Harbored Secrets by Bree Baker Review

 Hello Friends :)

I hope you're all having a great summer so far, and I want to thank you all for joining me for another book review here on The Preppy Book Princess.

I've been working my way through a pretty big pile of cozy mysteries this summer, and I've been enjoying the majority of the ones I've been reading.

Today I'd like to share with you my review for another installment in Bree Baker's Seaside Café Mystery series. My reviews for the previous books in the series are linked below:

Live and Let Chai

No Good Tea Goes Unpunished

Tide and Punishment

A Call For Kelp

Now let's jump right into today's review.

Closely Harbored Secrets by Bree Baker:


Source: Libby App

Publisher: Poisoned Pen Press

Publication Date: December 29th, 2020

Genre: Cozy Mystery

Series: Seaside Café Mystery

Synopsis:


In the fifth book of the popular Seaside Café Mysteries, Closely Harbored Secrets, Everly Swan just wants to make Halloween-themed treats and specialty teas for her customers. But when it seems that she's being haunted by the phantom of a sailor straight out of a ghost story, her plans are capsized. Could this be the bitter end for Everly?

It's almost Halloween, and the small island of Charm, North Carolina is decked out for the festivities. When Everly Swan agrees to close her iced tea shop early to help her aunts host their annual haunted historic walking tour, she expects some good-natured spooks. But the night turns grave when one of the ghostly actors is found dead. To complicate matters, the victim scratched Everly's name into the ground before she died, making her a key suspect.

The murder mystery heats up when Everly's potential boo, Detective Grady, takes the case―and he definitely doesn't want her getting involved. Will their seaside romance be threatened by all the ghostly drama? But when a phantom sailor straight out of local legend starts leaving Everly threatening messages, she has to get involved... With a local election under way, ghosts on the loose, and a search for long-lost buried treasure, Everly can't help but stir the pot!
 

(synopsis from goodreads)


My Review:

I've enjoyed every title in Bree Baker's Seaside Café Mystery series, and this fifth installment might just be my favorite yet.

Everyone's favorite iced tea shop owner/amateur sleuth Everly Swan is once again thrown into the mayhem of a murder in her small town when a woman who was known to have a beef with her family is murdered during Charm's annual ghost walk. Even creepier-she's found with Everly's name scratched in the dirt beside her. Of course, Grady wants Everly to leave it alone and let him handle it, but how can she possibly do so when a stalker seems intent on sending her threats, and she's scared to go anywhere or do anything alone.

As with every installment in this series, the writing is witty and immersive, the characters are a hoot and still manage to show real growth, and the town of Charm is the perfect backdrop for a cozy mystery. In a way it's beginning to remind me of Stars Hollow with the many, many events the town throws throughout each and every season. The eerie atmosphere floating around the ghost walk definitely fit well with this one being set within the Halloween season.

I also enjoyed the fact that this one had numerous elements all taking place at once. Besides the murder, the reader is treated to Amelia's book launch party, the town election and it's subsequent chaos, Everly and Grady's relationship changing, and a lot more info about the history surrounding Everly's mysterious family.

The only thing that was a little bit less enjoyable for me was the somewhat supernatural content that rounded out part of the story. I personally could have done without it, but for readers that enjoy that kind of thing probably wouldn't have minded it.

Overall, this was another great cozy mystery from one of the genre's best, and I'm looking forward to continuing on with book six shortly.

Final Rating: 4/5.

Thanks so much for reading guys! Have a great rest of your day :)

This is not a sponsored post. All thoughts and opinions are my own. The photo does not belong to me, and all rights to the respective owners.



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