HIGH HEELS AND HOLIDAYS

Author: Kasey Michaels ISBN: 0758208820 12/2006 CHICK LIT Publisher: KENSINGTON

Mystery author Maggie Kelly is getting ready to celebrate her first Christmas with Alexandre, Viscount Saint Just—her once-fictional, but now all too-real sexy hero and boyfriend. But her romantic Christmas plans go haywire when murder decides to deck the halls... Bad Tidings We Bring! There's nothing I'd rather be doing this time of year than singing Christmas carols while I trim my tree, and snuggling next to my man Alex while we watch "It's a Wonderful Life" for the umpteenth time. But this season, it seems some Grinch with a really bad sense of humor is delivering packages of rotting rats and death threats to me. To You and Your Kin! Sure, I'll admit not everyone loves my novels. But why can't this sicko just go to the bookstore and get a refund? It's Christmas, buddy—not Halloween! But then a fellow mystery author turns up dead, and me and Alex aren't so sure anymore that the murderer is just a disgruntled reader... Bad tidings for Christmas-and a Murderous New Year! Now we're scrambling to solve this mystery before yours truly doesn't live to see the New Year...

RRAH's THOUGHTS AND PONDERINGS:

I tried to come up with one adjective to express my thoughts of Ms. Michaels' HIGH HEELS AND HOLIDAYS. I couldn't.

One word just wouldn't do it!

Imaginative, refreshing, clever, hilarious are just a few of the words that quickly come to mind.

And although I stepped into the middle of the Maggie Kelly mysteries series (this novel is the fifth), I found I wasn't too confused due largely to a real creative prologue. Of course, I've missed evolving character development and apparently a lot of fun from the previous novels, but basically I was able to follow—and enjoy—HIGH HEELS AND HOLIDAYS.

Vibrant, zany Maggie Kelly and staid, sensible, totally delicious Englishman Saint Just are perfect foils for each other in this fast paced, energy-charged, wickedly funny mystery.

The ensemble of wacky secondary characters, the creative suspense and Ms. Michaels' incredible comic timing talent all add to the atmosphere of mayhem in HIGH HEELS AND HOLIDAYS.

The previous novels in this series are now on my "must have" list.

Ms. Michaels is an Original...

and HIGH HEELS AND HOLIDAYS is a real charmer.