Review of Saint Vandal’s Day by D.E. Haggerty

From the publisher of Saint Vandal’s Day

St. Valentine’s Day is THE perfect day for a wedding. Unless a vandal is trying to ruin your life that is.

Callie is finally getting her dream wedding. On St. Valentine’s Day no less. Only a vandal is determined to destroy her bakery before the wedding can occur. Anna, self-proclaimed best cupcake baker this side of the Mississippi, is not letting anything happen to the cupcake bakery. No way. Barista extraordinaire Kristie jumps at the chance to help as well. Together the three women launch a mission to find the jerk who thinks it’s okay to attack the bakery.

Will the gals of Callie’s Cakes find the vandal and save the cupcake bakery before Callie’s dream wedding is ruined?

Cupcakes not included, although recipes for all the delicious cupcakes Anna bakes are.

My review

Saint Vandal’s Day is a short, entertaining read. Told in first-person, present tense, this novella moves quickly without an overabundance of backstory thrown in. It’s unusual in the mystery genre in that there is no murder. The actual mystery is all about finding whoever is vandalizing Callie’s Cakes.

While the lack of a murder isn’t a deal breaker for me, I didn’t feel the problem to be solved was that compelling—probably because I haven’t read the previous books in the series and never found myself invested in the characters. The characters are certainly entertaining enough, but this is a story in which the plot takes center stage, not the characters.

Overall, I liked the pacing and the storyline and, for anyone who wants a short, purely-for-fun read, this is a winner.

FTC Full Disclosure: A review copy of this book was provided by its publisher.

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