Amy Webber leaves her job as a University librarian after a unhappy love affair and moves in with her Aunt and takes over the local library. When she meets her new neighbor who is determined to clear the name of his great aunt of a murder that the town believes she committed even though she was acquitted, Amy joins forces with her neighbor and they research the past. A current murder seems to point to their investigation and the details toward the past.

Interesting concept but not sure how this will develop into a series. Characters need some rounding out.

I enjoyed this book. Amy is a librarian in the small town of Taylorsford. There are murders, family secrets, a love interest, and a best friend. What's not to love? The characters are all different, but that is what makes it fun. Lots of suspects to choose from. They mystery is engaging and kept my attention. I basically read it in 1 1/2 days. Easy to read and a fun escapist read. I would read another book by this author.

This galley is the first for this author, and is an enjoyable cozy mystery. Amy is a librarian, fleeing the university library to find herself in a small town public library. There is mystery, murder, romance and a crew of fun characters. Recommend for cozy mystery lovers, and library lovers!

This was a very fun and enjoyable cozy! It had a slow start, but once I got past the first few pages, everything was great! Amy was very smart, clever and down-to-earth. Very easy to connect to, and I totally related to her, especially when it came to her insecurities and hangups. I could see a piece of myself in her.

Richard, the love interest, was a breath of fresh air. Usually cozies have the heroine hook up with some cop, PI, lawyer or something along those lines, so I was surprised when Richard turned out to be a dancer. I really liked that—it’s something new and unpredictable. He was elegant, graceful, romantic and very cute! I loved the interactions between Richard and Amy—and I loved how their romantic relationship progressed and blossomed.

My favorite thing though was the multiple mysteries that needed to be solved. It was cool how the author entwined a present mystery with a past mystery. They were both very interesting and captivating. Some elements of the mysteries were predictable—I guessed the ending/motive of one mystery, but not the other. But even so, I still had an enjoyable reading experience.

This was a great start to a new series, and I can’t wait for the next one.

I enjoyed the setting and the historical aspects of the mystery, but the murderer's motive stretched credulity and the emphasis on insta-love was a little annoying to me. Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for providing an e-galley in exchange for an honest review.

This is my kind of mystery - a library setting and a female librarian. Add to that, it's the start of a new series. An old mystery that leads Amy, the librarian, into the library archives...and a dead body. The cast of characters has people I would like to know, like Amy and her Aunt. There is a well developed mystery, humor and some romance. All the ingredients for a very well done cozy mystery.

Amy has moved to Taylorsford to live with her Aunt Lydia and work as the Library director at the local library. When her new neighbor Richard asks her help to research a murder that occurred in his house decades ago, both of them find a dead body in the archives. When they start digging deeper into both the historical and current murders, with the help of Lydia and her old friends, another body turns up. There are a bunch of shady characters who all seem plausible for the murders and Amy tries to use the evidence her research turns up to find the culprit. What follows is more suspense, more drama and the confluence of events that lead to all the murders.

This is a proper cozy mystery. It has all the entertaining elements – murders, mystery, haunted houses, romance, humor. I love the way the romance between the leads is developed and how they help each other overcome their insecurities. I loved the side characters, especially Aunt Lydia and Amy’s friend Sunny. They are both lively and cheerful and brought a lot of humor to the proceedings. The mystery is well conceived and I couldn’t guess the culprit until it was revealed. But there is one fact that needs a special mention – the male lead here is a dancer/choreographer which breaks the stereotype of the usual fictional macho hero and I really applaud the author for it.

Amy is the new library director at the Taylorsford Public Library in the small town where she lives with her aging Aunt Lydia.

While stepping into the archives to search for documents requested by her new neighbor, dancer/instructor Richard, she discovers a dead body.
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The murder is tied up with an old murder trial that both Amy's and Richard's relatives were involved in, in which a woman was accused of poisoning her husband. Amy's grandma was a witness, and Richard's uncle had written a book about the trial, convinced that the accused murderer was innocent.
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I like books about small towns in which everybody knows everybody else's business--probably because I live in one. The way Amy gets info through plain old gossip is funny and relatable.
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There are really two mysteries here: who keeps killing people in the present, and what really happened in that old murder case? Both are resolved by the end; I guessed one solution but not the other.
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The one thing that really bugged me about this book is the VERY quick romantic attachment between Amy and Richard. She spends almost as much time angsting about that--is it too fast? is he really interested? I've been burned before!--and I'd rather not, please and thank you. I know that cozy mysteries like to get their characters hooked up quickly, but this was a bit much. I guess it's good that, unlike in many books of this genre, Amy doesn't fall for the chief of police.
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Overall, I liked this book. It's a quick, inoffensive read. I'd recommend it to other people who like cozy mysteries.

Victoria Gilbert has started her Blue Ridge Library Mystery series off with a bang! Amy Webber is a librarian and main character extraordinaire. She has recently left academia and is the director of the library in Taylorsford, a picturesque small town in Virginia. Amy is settling into her new job and life with her Aunt Lydia, when an elderly patron is murdered in the archives. The murder throws Amy into the heart of a decades old scandal and cover up, one which involves her family, and which she must learn the truth about in order to save her own life! Helping Amy out are her Aunt; her best friend, Sunny; and her gorgeous and single new neighbor, Richard.
A Murder for the Books is an excellent cozy mystery with strong characters, good pacing, and a mystery that kept me guessing. I wish the second book was already published, so that I could dive right into it!

A Murder For The Books is an exciting start to a new series.
I love reading books that have a brighter vibrant cover and the description definitely piqued my interest.
Amy is a librarian, living in a small town and living with her aunt.
Amy returned home after a disastrous relationship and she just wants to live a quiet life.
Even though her aunt is determined to find a love interest for Amy, she is a great character and her love for Amy is apparent throughout the story.

Working alongside her friend Sunny, Amy thrives as a librarian. When a patron inquiries about a mysterious death years ago, Amy has no idea that the simple question will set in motion murder, secrets, lies and deception.

This is a really great start to this new series. The story is well written and the words flowing smoothly without any confusion as to each individual character.
I'm looking forward to reading more in this exciting series.
I voluntarily read an ARC of this book provided by the publisher and NetGalley.

While browsing the NetGalley website, I saw a cozy looking cover with a bookshelf and a table with a stack of books (oh, and a gun). The title said something with „books“. I got curious and clicked on the image to read what the book was about. „A Murder for the Books“ doesn’t sound like my normal reading and although the book was in the category Mystery & Thrillers and was about a murderer, I requested the ebook.

My opinion
When I think about Mystery & Thrillers, I have other books in mind. Books I never read. Dark covers. „Gone Girl“ or something like that. But the description (see at the end of the article) of „A Murder for the Books“ sounds more like my usual romance/women’s fiction with a bit of suspension. The plot is also similar: a woman, working at a university library and who doesn’t look like a cover model, is cheated on by her boyfriend and moves to her aunt to look after her. A new life, new job at the local library and of course – this is where she meets a good looking man who, by coinsidence, moves at the house next door to her aunt’s. His new home has a bit of history and because of what happend in the past someone is killed. Amy and Richard investigate by using the library and archive for their research on the history and they find interesting things.

There was some cover-up in the past including water from the well in Richard’s garden and there are also some family secrets. It seemed more or less realistic to me.

What I find a bit… let’s say strange is the fact that Amy, who is only one or two years older than me, had a great-grandmother until she was 14 and her aunt is in her sixties and is described as an old woman. 65 is old?! What is my father now at 75? An old old man? I never knew my great-grandparents because they died when my parents where a child or at least young. I know that some children still have their great-grandparents, but until their youth?

All in all: it was a nice read (well, aside from the murderers and kidnapping). This book will be published on 12 december, so you have to wait a bit. There is a second book planned for next July.

This is the first in the Blue Ridge Library Mysteries. Amy Webber leaves her job as a university library to work at a small-town public library in Virginia after a break-up. Needing a little distance, she moves in with her aunt and swears off men. This becomes difficult, however, when a cute, single bachelor moves in to the house next door. Richard asks Amy to help him uncover a decades old murderer, but a much newer murder disturbs the quiet town. Can Amy and Richard solve the crime before anyone else dies?

I had a tough time with this book. Full disclosure - I caught the flu in the middle of reading this book, and it could be that extended times in between reading chapters made continuity difficult. I did enjoy the characters, especially Amy's aunt. I always like humor in my cozies, so that helped, as well. The writer crafts a good story, and I look forward to reading the next in the sequel - Shelved Under Murder, due July of 2018.

Amy Webber finds being the newly hired director of the Taylorsford Public Library very different from her previous position at the university. However, she’s trying to forget that position, as she left crawling from the spotlight after making a scene when discovering her former partner wrapped within the vibrating strings of his lead violinist. The small town begins to waken when Amy discovers a missing, elderly patron dead in the building that houses the archives. Old tales of the town begin to surface and rumors of major development begin to shake it further. As the heat gets turned up at City Hall, things heat up for Amy when meets her aunt’s new neighbor and the two set out to get to the bottom of the mess. Amy just hopes they can do it without anyone else getting hurt, herself included.

This story is reflective of what is happening in many of the small towns across the U. S. Everyone wants a piece of the pie but at what price? As the larger cities price themselves out of the affordable living range, many are flocking to the smaller towns in search of a quiet, friendly place to set down roots and raise their children. Gilbert gives us a taste of that little piece of pie but shows us that it can be sprinkled with pits and sours. She reveals the greed and avarice that can rise from the feelings of familial entitlement. Her characters are mostly good hearted, small town folks. Her bad eggs are pretty rotten. This is a good little cozy mystery with a dark core. I look forward to more from Taylorsford and its library director. Well done.

It started in the library. I love library mysteries before i even became a librarian. Amy is a protagonist that women can related with and to. This is a solid mystery actually with some twist and turns that make you go duh. I enjoyed the mystery within the mystery also and it all tied together in the end

I enjoyed the small town and the characters. The characters were interesting and had believable hang ups without the story getting hung up around them. Numerous mysteries waiting to be solved, I am looking forward to others in this series.

This delightful cozy stands head and shoulders above the rest of the cookie-cutter cozies that seem to be flooding in the market recently. Great character development. intelligent dialog, vivid scenery description and a mystery that brings in both the past and the present. Who could ask for anything more? Me, I'm eagerly awaiting the second in the series!

Nice new cozy series. Enjoyed the small town setting and getting to know the main characters.
Goodreads

A Murder For the Books by Victoria Gilbert is a great start to an interesting mystery series. As a book lover, I really enjoy mystery series featuring librarians as the sleuth and main character. I really liked Amy Webber, a small town librarian who's trying to start a new chapter in her life after a bad break-up. She was very likeable and easy to root for. Most of the other characters were likeable as well, but other than Amy's Aunt Lydia and their next door neighbor, Richard Muir, they weren't as fully developed as I would've liked. But I hope we learn more about those characters in the next book. Honestly, I would've given this book five stars, but there were a couple of things that annoyed me a little bit. One thing was how Amy talks to herself in her head a lot while she's interacting with other characters. Sure, this is something most of us do sometimes, but Amy did it far too often. It slowed down the momentum of what was going on on the page. That's something I hope the author cuts back on in the next book. Another thing that annoyed me was how resistant Amy was to a new romantic relationship. Again, I get that she had her heart broken before, but it seems to be a running theme in cozy mysteries. Most of them start out with a single, female sleuth who bristles at the idea of going out with a man who's interested in them romantically. Life experience tells me that most women, broken-hearted or not, don't react so harshly to new men coming into their life after a failed relationship. So, it annoyed me that the author wrote Amy like that. I won't give anything else away, but I will say that I did enjoy the big reveal of who the killer was. To be honest, I kind of expected it just a little, but the other parts of the plot that went along with it I didn't expect. All in all, this was a wonderful mystery that I really didn't want to put down. I will definitely read more books in this series when they are published.

Note: I received an advance copy of this book from Netgalley in exchange for my fair and honest review. All opinions expressed are mine and mine alone.

Fun, very interesting book. Very complex mystery but not confusing. Just stayed up way past my bedtime to finish the story. Loved the complex characters and developing relationships. Awesome, fun read! Excited for more!

Victoria Gilbert makes a strong entrance in her debut novel. In A Murder for the Books she shows her talent for strong writing and story telling, scene setting, and character development. She had me with her opening sentence, which caused me to laugh out loud. I would have liked a tad more humor after that. But what keeps this from earning five stars is the stretch it takes to believe the villain's motive and the predictable romantic interest on which too much attention is paid. Ms Gilbert has all the tools needed to lift a book such as this above the level of Charlaine Harris's successful Aurora Teagarden series, to which obvious comparisons can be made, and I look forward to her employing them in her next effort.