Sleigh Bells and Slaughter by Alina Jacobs [Review]

Sleigh Bells and Slaughter (Christmas in Harrogate #1) by Alina Jacobs
Format: ebook
Source: borrowed through Kindle Unlimited
Disclaimer: As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.
Date read: January 8, 2025

Christmas in Harrogate
1. Sleigh Bells and Slaughter - Paperback | Kindle
2. Holly and Homicide
3. Crime and Candy Canes

Alina Jacobs
| Website | Amazon |

Synopsis (Goodreads):

Christmas is bad enough without all the music, frantic shopping sprees, and holiday parties. So many parties… with people you couldn’t stand in high school and definitely can’t stand now.
Top of the list? Patty Harrison. She made my teen years miserable and, now that we’re adults, she’s trying to get me banned from the Christmas market.
Even so, I’m not going to commit literal murder.

But when Patty is found dead in the fiery inferno of my shed, I’m not going to pretend to be sad either.
Just because I look like Wednesday Addams’s cooler, more dangerous older sister, everyone assumes I did it—including Captain Luke Reynolds, the firefighter tasked with solving the mystery of the arson and murder.
He’s everything terrible about Christmas, all in one tall, huge, muscular package.

No, not like that! I have more self-respect than to drool over a man who’s convinced I’m a murderer. Too bad my only alibi is my cat, Salem, and he’s not talking.

As someone who detests Christmas and counts down the days until Halloween, I’m not inviting Luke over for milk and cookies to appeal to his protective nature and beg for help.
Nope, I’m oiling up my brass knuckles, clearing my name, then retreating to my witchy cottage to wait out the yuletide season.

But what if I end up right in the real killer’s lair?
All the better!
Christmas needs a little spooky, and what better way than solving a murder?

Thoughts on Sleigh Bells and Slaughter: Lilith is more of a Halloween lover and Luke is ALL IN for Christmas and SOMEHOW these two end up crossing paths. Actually, the somehow part comes from Lilith shilling her spooky Christmas wares at the Christmas market because a girl's gotta make enough money to pay the bills and all that. Truthfully, the path crossing came when Lilith's shed burned down at said Christmas market and Luke came to put out the flames.

The fact there was a dead body in her shed? Not great. But Lilith knows she didn't do it and the police force doesn't seem like they're going to investigate too deeply. So she sets out to figure out who offed the mean girl trying to relive her glory days. Not because she liked Patty, but because she's not keen on being blamed for something she didn't do.

Luke is also doing some sleuthing. Partly to make sure Lilith doesn't get blamed (because he liiiikes her), but also partly because he's a good guy who's good at his job.

More than a few suspects (because it turns out very few people liked Patty), secrets, lies, more secrets, a firefighter who likes to look on the bright side, and a lady who embraces her spooky side with everything inside her. But, yeah, maaaaayyyybe there's a little room for a sunshine-y firefighter in her life beside the spooky. Maybe.