Murder’s No Votive Confidence (Nantucket Candle Maker Mystery #1) by Christin Brecher

I am on a lucky spree (Finger’s crossed) and seem to be clicking with the books that I am picking up. Now, most people who read on a regular basis would know how hard it is for such a thing to happen repeatedly and how happy it makes someone when it works out.

I picked this book because it is the first in a new series, something that always has potential even before reading it solely because it heralds an entry of new and possibly interesting characters. This book lived up to its role and puts us right in the middle of a very ‘happening’ wedding. Stella Wright is the local Candle Lady. It is a reputation she has built on her mother’s beginnings from travels far and wide. This wedding is a golden opportunity to ensure that she gets more orders since the entire wedding is candle themed. Unfortunately, one of the wedding party is found dead two days before the wedding and this puts a lot of things into jeopardy.

There is no dearth of suspects since the behaviour of the victim seems to have been reproachable, and one of the locals is quickly arrested. Stella has access to the hotel rooms because of her work at the wedding and the need to prove that the arrested man did not commit the crime. She is supported by the people around her, especially an old frenemy- Andy. Andy and Stella gave me Anne & Gilbert vibes (from Anne of Green Gables-LM Montgomery) and although they end up at different places by the end of the book I have hope for them in the series. I suspected a few of the diversions in the storyline as certain revelations were made but the only downside was that I am used to not feeling for the victim in these cozies but I had to feel for Simon once all the revelations were sorted. This put a pretty big damper on the read, which might have been the author’s intention since it changed the tone of the narrative.

The writing was light, concise and revealed a lot of emotional bonds between the various characters mentioned and I would love to visit them all again.

I received an ARC thanks to NetGalley and the publishers but the review is completely based on my own reading experience.

P.S:: Here is another glowing review for the book by Rekha