Title:	A Marry Christmas Murder
	Author:	Stephanie Blackmore
	Published:	September 24, 2019, Kensington
	No. of Pages:	304
	Cover Price:	$7.99 Paperback, $6.89 Kindle

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Marry Christmas Murder is the fifth novel in the Wedding Planning series by Stephanie Blackmore. Wedding Planner Mallory Shepard is overwhelmed when her best friend, Olivia, moves up her wedding from the spring to three days before Christmas, especially since Mallory is helping with a huge fundraising event sponsored by Olivia’s family. Olivia’s family is in real estate and is trying to establish a presence in this small town of Port Quincy. To complicate things, Mallory’s mother has decided to move to Port Quincy, and is trying to get a job as a stager working for Olivia’s family. The head stager is murdered at the fundraiser, and because she gets the job, Mallory’s mother is a suspect.

Cozies are a lot of fun, and this cozy has a different twist, in that the protagonist is a wedding planner. Mallory is well-developed as a character, and is very likeable. The supporting characters are also good, and readers will feel they are reading a drama about real people. Blackmore is an excellent writer and storyteller, and most readers who read this novel will want to return to the earlier novels in the series to read them and enjoy them too. There is also some building suspense, which is an integral part of a good mystery.

As any good culinary mystery, this novel contains recipes, unfortunately, only two, but the cookie recipe is excellent. The other is for a cocktail that won’t be deadly like the one in the book. All told, this is a fun mystery and a fun series that cozy lovers will enjoy.

Special thanks to NetGalley for supplying a review copy of this book.