Shakespeare's Christmas

BLUF: Don't start the series with this book.

In hindsight...

This is the first Shakespeare book I read in the series due to it fitting a reading challenge I was participating in. I wouldn't advise reading this out of series.

Essentially, our heroine, Lily Bard, revisits her hometown in order to participate in her sister's wedding. Two things scar what should be a joyous time: Lily has not been home since she was raped/tortured seven years ago and there has been a murder that shakes her quiet hometown.

Okay, I admit, claiming murder is a gross underestimation of the true action that occurs in this book. Like all good murder mysteries, this murder unwraps itself into something much more sinister and intriguing. This story kept me guessing until the end – a perfect mix of suspense and foreshadowing that keeps the reader guessing.

The problem for me with this book was that Lily seemed very cold and antisocial. It's easy to attribute this to her incident in this town, but it makes it very hard to feel any sort of attachment to Lily if this is the first book you pick up in the series. I felt very detached and apathetic toward Lily..

In the end, this is an okay standalone, but I feel like I would hold an entirely different perspective (and rating) if I had read this series in order.

Good mystery. I liked seeing Lily interact with her family and using her cleaning skills to gather information for her boyfriend Jack. I look forward to reading the next book in the series, Shakespeare's Trollop.