Theme Post: Cozy Mysteries

In the past year or so, I've discovered the awesomeness of cozy mysteries. Everybody has a slightly different definition of what qualifies as a cozy mystery. As a general rule, blood, gore, and sex seldom appear on the page; and often the story stars an amateur sleuth, although personally I'm not a stickler for that. For me, if a mystery doesn't make me want to sleep with the lights on, I consider it a cozy. However you define cozy mysteries, the books almost always provide a fun, interesting read, and I find myself frequently picking them up. There are literally hundreds of cozy mystery series out there, so it can be a bit intimidating trying to find a good one. As much as I love this genre, quite a few of them aren't exactly up to par. To help you weed through the extensive pile, I wrote about a few that I've read and loved. Female leads feature heavily in this genre, so all of the books in this post have female main characters. There are certainly ones with male leads I intend on picking up soon, and look out for another cozy mystery themed post where I review them.