Welcome to Litsy!

I read the whole thing but can't explain why, even to myself. I did not like this.

#WhereAreYouMonday
I'm in Yorkshire, as what's left of a rather horrible family gathers to play what promises to be a horrible game.
@Cupcake12

This was just okay for me. I do love locked room mysteries, but I just didn‘t care much about any of the characters.

#christmasinjuly
#bookspinbingo - got a 5th bingo! 😄

12 keys, 12 clues and the 12 days of Christmas to solve the murder? The prize is the family home called Endgame House. This a a dark, intense locked room mystery. The MC, Lily, is dealing with memories from her mother being back in the family home. There were quite a few characters, all with their own back story. Some characters dot play fair so will they all survive Christmas? A clever murder mystery and perfect for armchair detective work.

Cool setting and I liked the game, clues, hidden keys etc but I did pick the culprit early.

Added to my TBR, courtesy of my 17y/o daughter!

Meh. This was ok but quite predictable and the purpose was a bit over the top flowery and descriptive.

Here‘s my #bookspin for Jan!

#20in4 #promptmaze #wintergames #snowangels

Not what I thought it would be, but I respect it for what it chose to do, insofar as it tackled heavier themes than I thought. With murder being in the title, I expected there to be death, but not this level of meditating on the trauma of loss, fresh and old, the grieving process, mother/daughter relationships, toxic or absent family situations, and how they can shape people. 1/?

Happy Jólabókaflóðið. Have a Merry one. 🎄❤️📚

My view while reading this book: A+

The book itself: Solid B?

I liked the setting and I liked the clues in the game, but I knew whodunnit WAY early on. 🤷🏻‍♀️ Good atmosphere, no suspense.

#GhostsofXmas

I liked this mystery, but I wish I'd read it in print because there's a LOT of cousins to keep track of. It's a slower mystery, but I enjoyed the clues and the game, and of course, all the muuuuuuurder.
#WinterGames #GangstaWrappers @Bookwormjillk @Clwojick @StayCurious
#WGWordseach 3030 pts

It was ok but I found it confusing at times and didn‘t really enjoy it all that much.

This audiobook was definitely a so-so listen for me. It started out interesting - a bunch of cousins competing in a game to win their relative‘s mansion while one of them also searches for answers to her mother‘s murder - but it became hard to keep all the characters straight and to figure out who was siblings with whom. It wasn‘t too hard to figure out the twist either. Not bad but nothing special either. 🌟🌟🌟 #wintergames #SantasBookshELVES

I really enjoyed this gothic feeling, kinda spooky but make it Christmas, ode to Agatha Christie mystery. Perfect to balance out the holiday romances, this has a solid storyline, strong characters, and great pacing. Highly recommend! #wintergames #restinggrinchface #wordsearch point total: 3,970

Just not the vibe I‘m looking for.

I solved it!!!! Okay 70% of it 🤣 great read for the #wintergames word search but I‘m rating it so-so.
MC makes a lot of questionable decisions for someone so smart.
#USS #UglySweaterSquad

Interesting. Not your typical Christmas book

Happy #WinterGames start day. #ReindeerGamers @LiseWorks #DailyPhotoChallenge #day1 #RedCover. Easy prompt this one and plan to read it during the games.

Completed my July #DoubleSpin. Kind of like And Then There Were None at Christmas with family members instead of strangers. There seems to be a lot of hate for this book but I enjoyed it. 🤷🏻‍♀️ Maybe I am just a sucker for (bad? lol) puns.

🩷🎄#ChristmasInJuly

Humbug!

That's my first square down on my Beat the Winter Blues Bingo! #btwbb

I've given myself until the end of March to get a Bingo.

Still plenty of time to join me 😊

This whole book was a load of crap, but festive, irresistible, cosy crime crap!

Lily goes back to her childhood home / mansion to play one last Christmas Game. Her (dead) Aunt Liliana has left a bunch of clues that will show who murdered Lily's mother (yes, I know, don't think about it too hard). Whoever wins the game, gets the house.

Then her cousins start dropping like flies.

Puzzling, silly, clichéd, cheerful, Christmassy crud.

⭐⭐⭐

This was a good solid read, set in a house, family members are asked to return to their childhood home and compete in a game. The winner gets the house. And of course murder happens.

My favorite thing about this book was the mini games! Lots of fun finding the anagrams and titular lines 🎄also, the small ones in our house finally finalized their Santa requests 🎅 here‘s hoping everyone gets their just desserts 🧁 nothing like murder for the holidays

I wanted to like this, but it didn't work for me. The "clues" mostly required knowledge of the characters to make sense of them, which the book didn't really provide. By the end, it got so ridiculously over the top that I caught myself rolling my eyes at the book. The puzzles were clever, but in the end it felt like the story was hung on the scaffolding of clever clues, bad sonnets, and word games, when it should have been the other way around.

❤️ I do! Last year my goal was 200. This year I‘m aiming for 250.

💜 I‘m only 5 books shy of my goal! I‘ve read 195 so far.

💙 Unfortunately, we just canceled our extended family holiday breakfast plans. I‘m really excited for our family‘s celebration though!

Thanks @Yuki_Onna for the tag! @Eggs

@BookwormAHN feel like playing?

#wondrouswednesday @Eggs
Thanks for the tag @The_Penniless_Author 😊💕

❤ Yes, on Goodreads

💜 *Looks shifty* Erm... 56 out of 80 so far. As long as I read 24 books in the next 9 days... should be OK?

💙 At the moment I am not feeling in the least bit festive, so probably having a good old Christmas sulk? ✌🏻😇 Hopefully the smell of Xmas Dinner will lure me out of my Humbug state of mind.

I picked this one up as it sounded like a perfect winter cozy evening kind of book. I really enjoyed it. It was a little bit predictable but not too deep that you couldn‘t follow along. I‘m currently reading another of hers and enjoying that too so far

I liked this one, kept me turning the pages. Love a group of people trapped in an English country house. #seasonsreadings #tistheseason

Cozy and warm on this snowy night. Got my book, my tea and football. Go Bills💙❤️🏈#tistheseason #happyholidays #GoBills

Eh. Maybe it would have been better when reading it, because I heard the author left anagrams throughout the book.

The story itself was a bit all over the place. Thought a Christmas murder book would work for me, but didn‘t really care for this one.

#winterreadathon

I sent some of my Litsy holiday cards out this morning and received my first two in the mail. So cute!

I listened to the tagged book today as I cleaned my office up and made this little book tree.

B&N got me again with their BOBO.

This was pretty fun for me! I liked the Christmas details and the little mysteries sprinkled in that the characters were solving. The big mystery was also good and the setting and characters gave me a bit of an old school mystery vibe.

This is a book I should have enjoyed. I loved the idea of the book and wanted very much to enjoy it. But, there was very little that I found to like about it. Unfortunately, what could have been a fun take on several Golden Age of Detective Fiction tropes was instead unnecessarily complicated, frustratingly cryptic, and utterly depressing. #NetGalley #PoisonedPenPress

I thought this was a Christie-esque murder mystery set in a Scooby-Doo-House. It was flat characters, weird metaphors to create anagrams, puzzles the reader can't solve, a predictable outcome, typos,...

Who writes "obvs" in their prose?

#ARC #NetGalley #MountARC

#SuperSeptember @Andrew65

#SuperSeptember #readathon @Andrew65

Early morning train reading. First in person "professional support" meeting since 2019. Feels weird, especially since we're normally four people going and this time I'm all alone.

Murder mystery that's due to be published in the US this autumn.

#NetGalley #ARC #MountARC

Putting tagged book back on the TBR pile - I will pick it up around the Holidays - 🌲

Make a great day everyone - 🙂

Thanks to all the teachers from toddlers to University and beyond...enjoy your summer break...you've earned it!

#ThinkPositiveBePositive
Thx for the tag @Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks

Make a great day everyone 😊

#WondrousWednesday @Eggs

1. Not that I recall
2. Stephen King books are the ones I have probably re-read the most (although I don't often read a book a second time) -right now I read “How to Babysit a Grandpa“ for my grandson before nap time (so that is read at least once a week 🙂)
3. Read, spend time with family, read , get work done on house, read , get garden in order, read ...

I tag @lauram @Christyco125

Make a great day everyone - 🌞

Reminded me of our trip. @Oryx @scripturient

Big old house full of secrets & hidden rooms (✔), a treasure hunt game to win the deeds to said house (✔), squabbling relatives all wanting to inherit (✔), snowstorm cuts them off from the outside world just as the murders begin (✔). Unfortunately it was only half as good as it promised, mainly down to the insipid MC & obvious plot. Still it was set at the perfect time of year to read now, & I did enjoy it enough to finish it. 3⭐

5,816 pts

Celebrating Jolabokaflod. But my father-in-law doesn‘t really understand the silent component of family reading time. 🙄

I really enjoyed this book though it did feel a bit rushed at the end and the 'twist' was telegraphed quite early on and wasn't much of a surprise

5 Christmas murders for you all.
1: the killer in the snow
2: twelve motives for murder
3: the Christmas murder game
4: Death on the trans- sobering express
5: A cotswold Christmas mystery

#crimemonthly #recommendation #murder #mystery #realcrime #death #merrychristmas #reading #books #read