The story takes place in exotic Ocho Rios, Jamaica. I’ve always wanted to go there, but until I do, I’ll visit vicariously through this fun cozy mystery.

Sean and Sara will soon be celebrating their One year Anniversary and this will also be their first Velentine’s Day as a married couple.

Their plans will have to be put on hold when they receive a phone call from Meredith, their dear friend Jimmy’s new girlfriend, that he’s disappeared. They drop everything and fly to Ocho Riosto find him.

Sara and Sean are both former police officers and now own their own private investigation company and put these talents to work as soon as they land. All is not sunny and welcoming in Jamaica and they have to move fast to save Jimmy, protect Meredith, and stay alive themselves.

When I reached the finale and discovered the culprits, it came as a complete surprise. I’m wondering if their story was told in a previous book from this series.

This is the eight book in the McKinley Mystery Series but I had no trouble reading this before the other books. The author focused on this mystery and introduced the characters in a way that made them quickly become familiar and easy to engage with.

Sean and Sara are still in the newlywed mode and share some sweet moments. They are a bit gushy with their endearments, hence the mention of the newlywed mode.

I came away from this happy with the ending and eager to go to the beginning and get to know the characters better. To explore how they came to be where they were in this book.

A fun, fast read, that will bring me back for more of this series. ( )

This cozy mystery is Book 8 of the McKinley Mystery Series. It is a stand-alone novel within the series. Valentine’s Day is Murder begins when Jimmy Voigt suddenly disappears in the middle of dinner with Meredith, a woman with whom he had travelled to Jamaica for a holiday. Jimmy is a friend of Sean and Sarah McKinley, ex-cops turned private investigators. When the local authorities can't find anything, Meredith calls the McKinleys for help. The McKinleys immediately fly down to Jamaica to investigate Jimmy's disappearance.

This was a fun romantic cozy mystery set in the beautiful resort area of Jamaica. There was lots of action and danger as the McKinleys searched for Jimmy's abductors. Plenty of twists and turns in the plot led to the surprise ending.

I liked that the romance portion of the novel was clean.I empathized with Jimmy as he struggled and debated with himself about whether or not to involve himself in a relationship with another woman after his divorce with his wife Clara.

This is the first book in this particular series that I have read and I enjoyed the characters of Sean and Sara McKinley. They are quite a funny and loving couple. I would enjoy reading more of these books in the series to get to know them better as I found them quite intriguing.

I would recommend this book for cozy mystery readers. I gave Valentine’s Day is Murder four stars out of five.

Thank you to the author for providing a copy of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review. A positive opinion was not required. All thoughts are my own.

This review is published on my blog Shelf Full of Books http://kathrynsshelffullofbooks.blogspot.com/2015/02/book-review-valentines-day-... ( )