Nia’s life implodes when she discovers her boyfriend is a massive liar. She immediately packs her bags and flees to her hometown. After high school graduation, she couldn’t wait to escape small-town life and the memories of her best friend Sienna, who committed suicide.

She’s returning just in time for the annual fall festival. The town is blindsided by the murder of the owner of the local diner, Rosie.  Rosie, Sienna’s mother, was like a second mother to Nia. Nia’s shocked that murder has come to the small town of Cinnamon Falls.

When she fled the small town, Nia damaged a lot of relationships. She broke her boyfriend’s heart, Jesse, who is now in the police force. She’s working to make amends for her past mistakes. The more Nia thinks about Rosie’s death, the more she begins to realize it goes deeper than the police realize.

While the police think the murder is tied to the fall festival, Nia thinks it’s much more personal. Can she help uncover the truth?

MURDER AT CINNAMON FALLS is the first book in a new cozy series with at least two more books planned. While this is a cozy mystery, it’s also a second- chance romance. Nia and Jesse have alternating chapters where the reader sees the viewpoint from the amateur sleuth and the police investigation. One would think that Nia and Jesse team up to solve the case together, but they do not. Nia finds help from her younger brother, her very good friend, and from surprising sources. There’s so much to enjoy in this book that I’m eagerly looking forward to the next installment.