Joanne Fluke - Chocolate Chip Cookie Murder: Candy for Christmas

In my edition of Chocolate Chip Cookie Murder, there was an additional story within it called Candy for Christmas.  This short story follows the events of Chocolate Chip Cookie Murder but before the rest of the other books; there is a letter prior to this short story in the book where Hannah writes to Joanne Fluke where she requests her biographer (Fluke) to write about something other than the murder investigations Hannah becomes involved in.

This is just going to be a short review of the story as it isn't a full book so I'm not going to rate or recommend it to anyone as it's a story found in a reprint of the first book.

Favourite Characters: Candy

Favourite Part: Candy loved to shop and she couldn't seem to shop smiling.  They'd gone out the front door of The Cookie Jar and into the next building over.  There were party dresses on the mannequins in the windows, and Hannah has said they were going to buy something for her to wear to the party tomorrow night. 

Good Points: The letter; the story

Bad Points: Too short

Candy for Christmas is a short story centred around the Christmas season in Lake Eden and begins with Hannah discovering that someone is sleeping in her bakery at night and leaving before Hannah arrives for work.  Hannah finds out that this person is Candy, a teenage runaway with a photographic memory, who can recite a number of recipes by heart that she donates to The Cookie Jar.

I loved how this opened with the letter from the main character to the author of this series and implying that Joanne Fluke is Hannah's biographer, documenting Hannah's life finding the many murder victims.  It gives a different spin onto the series, as well as a fictional book, and brings a sense of realism to the character which is interesting.

Rather than focusing on the murders that Hannah inadvertently becomes involved in, I found the fact that this story differs from the others really appealing as it brought a different spin on the same character and shows a caring side of Hannah for someone other than her friends and family.  This new type of story puts a spin on the already established world of Hannah Swensen.

Candy is definitely my favourite character in this book because she causes the theme of the series to change and shows a different side to the normal set of characters.

The only downside for me with this story was how short it was.  I would have loved this story to go for a bit longer because I was just getting into it when it abruptly ended, leaving me wanting more from this new type of story and I was left unsatisfied.  I hope that Joanne goes on to write more stories about Hannah that don't contain murder because it was nice for something different.

Candy loved to shop and she couldn't seem to shop smiling.  They'd gone out the front door of The Cookie Jar nd into the next building over.  There were party dresses on the mannequins in the windows, and Hannah has said they were going to buy something for her to wear to the party tomorrow night.

This was my favourite part of the story because the reader gets to see Hannah's world from an outsider's perspective while the first book goes straight into this world that Hannah is used to and lives in already.

Other Books by Joanne Fluke