This debut is a strong start to a new series by the author of the Cat Got Series. Please see my detailed review on www.reviewingtheevidence.com

A good start for a new series, engrossing and entertaining.
It's well plotted, the mystery is solid and the cast of characters is fleshed out and well written.
I look forward to reading the next instalment in this series.
Recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine.

A cute cozy mystery! A good start to a new series. This would be a great book for any cozy mystery newbies or long time lovers of the genre!

Apple Cider Slaying is the first book in the A Cider Shop Mystery series.

Some forty-seven years ago Winnie Montgomery’s grandparents purchased an apple orchard and had been moderately successful, but since Grandpa Smythe death almost three years the orchard has been losing money. Winnie who works days as a waitress and attends the local community college studying Business Management. Winnie decides that the orchard needs to stay open past the apple season and decides to, in addition to apple cider, gourmet apple ciders, food items, and other items. Winnie uses her business management courses to devise a business plan to take to her bank to secure a business loan. The loan officer finally agrees to come out take a look at what Winnie wants to do to rehab a barn, as they are passing an apple cider press the body of Nadine Cooper, Granny’s nemesis and neighbor, stuffed in the press. The newly appointed sheriff feels that Granny had reason to murder Nadine. When Winnie reports various vandalism events around the orchard and what she considers attempts on her life, he says that she is fabricating these events to clear her granny’s name. She now sets off to prove her granny’s innocence.

The story is well-plotted and written and has interesting and believable characters. There were plenty of twists and turns that kept me guessing until the end. The story reads at a nice even pace.

I’m looking forward to the next book in this interesting new series

Set in a small town in the Blue Ridge Mountains of West Virginia, Apple Cider Slaying is the first book in the Cider Shop Mystery series. And it’s a great start!

Winnie and her Granny Smythe are trying to save the family orchard by persuading a local banker to fund a loan to open a cider shop in their barn. But when Granny’s nearest, and definitely not dearest, neighbor, Nadine, is found dead in their cider press, the new, and hot, Sheriff Colton states that Granny is suspect number one. Immediately after arriving at the crime scene, the Sheriff says this to Granny, “You’re free to go, but I’d consider getting a good lawyer.” Worrying that the Sheriff won’t look further than her Granny, Winnie is determined to prove her Granny’s innocence by finding the real killer.

This book is chockful of descriptions of small town life in rural America. The residents of Blossom Valley are gossipy but also kind and look after one another. You can picture the beautiful fall countryside in your mind easily. It is a wonderful and relaxing escape to a completely different lifestyle for this born and bred Southern Californian.

Winnie is motivated. She is extending the selling season of the orchard by booking fall bus tours to taste samples and have a hay ride to see the property’s inner workings. She also sells her Granny’s jams and pies to the locals and the tourists from their existing fruit stand. To help with expenses, Winnie works as a part-time waitress while attending community college to acquire a business degree. She uses her business education to create a business plan to turn one barn into a cider shop. To do so, Winnie needs to convince local banker, Sherman, to give her a loan. Too bad he was touring the property with her when she found Nadine.

I really enjoyed Apple Cider Slaying. It was a nice relaxing fall evening read visiting Winnie and her friends and family. The Sheriff and Winnie seem to have a mutual attraction that hopefully will grow in subsequent books. Winnie’s method of using local gossip to lead her investigation is innovative. The killer’s identity totally blind-sided me because the clues were carefully hidden among numerous red herrings. If you would like to spend a few hours, saving a family orchard, defending a Granny from murder, and visiting the residents of Blossom Valley, pick up this book. You won’t be disappointed. 5 stars!

Thanks to Kensington Books and NetGalley for a copy in exchange for my honest review.

Winona Mae Montgomery (Winnie) and her Granny Smythe are doing their best to keep the apple orchard going after the death of her beloved grandfather. If only they could have customers year round, but it costs money to expand. Winnie has to convince the local bank that her business plan is sound. So she arranges multiple tours to visit on one day, the same day the bank representative will be coming to hear Winnie's new proposal for a gift shop and more.
What she doesn't plan is for the bank representative to walk into the Press area and discover a dead body, the body of her Granny's arch nemesis. So dies Winnie's plans to impress and expand.

One of the best things about a new series is getting to know the personalities of the main characters. Winnie pretends to be stronger than she is to protect her Granny and their dream. She has good friends, and along the way ends up with some adorable kittens. Throw an ex- boyfriend into the mix and some shady business deals and you have the makings for a spicy cozy.

I look forward to seeing where this takes us.

As a debut in this series, Winnie's past is well explained. Her mum's 'antics', her breakup with Hank, Winnie reminiscing Grampy and much more. Also, the adorable ginger-coloured darlings added quite a charm to the story. Meet Kenny Rogers and Dolly Smythe, the adorable kittens who save the day.

Apple Cider Slaying had such great potential but... I cannot really point out what but as I read through, something seemed missing. The character portrayal is good and so is the plot. The mystery is good too and the identity of the perp was unexpected. Maybe there were too many things going on and that is what made this story a teeny-weeny bit less enjoyable??

As a debut in the cozy series, Apple Cider Slaying has managed to capture my attention and I am looking forward to reading the next book in this series.

2.5 stars
I really wanted to like this book. Autumn is my absolute favorite time of year, and having grown my own apples and made cider and applesauce for years, I was expecting great connections. However, it didn’t take many chapters for me to realize that the writing was not going to be able to deliver. The prose is wildly inconsistent and filled with cozy mystery cliches. The audiobook narrator makes the whole thing worse by reading so slowly and over emoting so much that it just prolongs the agony. I am glad to be finished with Apple Cider Slaying and moving on.

Sigh.

This book had such great potential. Unfortunately, it doesn't live up to that potential at all. Imagine taking every cozy mystery you have ever read and all of the tropes that are used to write said book and put them all in ONE book and this is what you get with this read. It is a jumble, fair to poorly written for most of it and when the reveal happens, you go "WHAT?". Add in a potential love triangle and it becomes a hot mess. I will not be reading any more of these should they be written.

Thank you to NetGalley and Kensington Books for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This is the first in this wonderful new series by author Anne Lindsey. This is my first book by the author and I look forward to reading her other series . Thank you to the publisher and to Net Galley for the opportunity to review. My review opinions are my own. Review is cross posted across review platforms.


I love cozies set on farms and this one is perfectly described by the author. I loved everything about this new series. We are welcome to the lovely Blossom Valley, West Virginia, home to Smythe Apple Orchards, Winnie and her Granny run this family farm. It is a long time family run beloved twenty-five-acre farm and family business. They are very close and have a unique close bond. It is struggling and Winnie is desperately trying to save the farm. Winnie makes a famous cider and Grandma helps with the day to day operation and products. Winnie decides to try to get a loan in order for them to stay open all year long and defray the cost of running an orchard. When the bank manager visits a body is found . Unfortunately her Grandma is top suspect so Winnie steps up to save her Grandma and find out who the killer is.

I absolutely loved this book. Winnie and granny are likable and I love their close relationship . They are both devoted to the farm no matter what it takes. The description of the Apple farm is done to perfection and this reader could practically smell the apples having spent a lot of time on a apple farm in my youth. So I can attest that the farm is indeed written authentically . I loved the sleuth and all the twist and turns that kept me guessing. The supporting charcters add depth and are enjoyable additions to the series. I look forward to the next in series and revisiting the apple farm with Winnie and her Grandma. Very well done to the author.

Apple Cider Slaying is the first book in the Cider Shop Mystery series by Julie Anne Lindsey. I really enjoyed this story, and I am looking forward to reading the new additions when they come out.

As far as cozy mysteries go, this is definitely up there with the best. The characters are interesting and well developed . The plot gives the reader little hints along the way about who the killer is, but there is definitely more than one suspect! Everything is neatly wrapped up by the end in a way that makes sense, and while there is a spark of romance, it doesn't involve people ending up in bed together on the first date.

All in all, this is my kind of book, and it is definitely worth 5 stars.

West Virginia Apple Orchard Cozy Mystery
This is the first book in a new cozy mystery series. The story is set in a West Virginia apple orchard than is struggling financially. The story has all of the good feels with a small town, rescued animals, and a good looking sheriff who is also a Marine Vet. The plot is done well and has good twists in the story. I can't wait for the next book to come out. I received this ARC book for free from Net Galley and this is my honest review.

Apple Cider Slaying is the first in a new series by Lindsey. Winnie Montgomery is helping save her Granny Smythe and the family apple orchard in West Virginia when Granny’s long time nemesis turns up dead. Winnie must not only save the family business, but save Granny from a murder rap.

As much as I love cozy mysteries and had high hopes for a new series, I couldn’t get into it.

Fans of writing that’s heavy on narrative exposition may love this book, but I can’t stand it. I felt like it was just too much, and the rest of the story was just lost to me.

I know books are subjective because they can affect different people in different ways. If you’re a fan of cozies, you should give this a try. It just wasn’t my cup of tea.

*I was graciously given an ARC of this book via Kensington Books on NetGalley. All thoughts and opinions are my own.*

This is the first in a brand new cozy series set in West Virginia. Winona Mae (Winnie) Montgomery is trying to help her Grandmother (Granny Smythe) save the Smythe Family Orchards. Winnie’s Granny and Grampy ran the orchards and Grampy was the business behind the Orchards and Granny was the cook etc. Grampy passed away three years ago and Winnie has learned the Orchards are in trouble as Granny is not strong on the business side of things. Winnie has been working on her business degree while waitressing and helping Granny run the orchards. She has started some new events that she is hoping to keep the orchard open longer in the off season and open her own Cider shop. Winnie and Granny are running tours on Black Friday and she has invited Mr. Sherman from the bank to see how successful this event is while asking for a loan to set up the new cider shop. Unfortunately what Winnie and the banker find is the dead body of Granny’s neighbor in the cider press. Since Granny and Nadine Cooper never got along (turns out no one got along with Nadine), the new sheriff automatically makes Granny his number one suspect. Well this does not sit well with Winnie and she begins investigating on her own. Well she immediately begins to get threats and soon she and Sheriff Wise (Colton) begin to kind of work together to find a killer. This is a solid mystery and I love the way the town comes together to help Winnie and Granny at Winterfest. Looking forward to the next installment.

I haven't been reading cozy mysteries lately because I've been finding most of them to be repetitive and boring. Same small towns with an overly sure of herself heroine who only likes things her way and it's open to anyone else's. Sometimes I find one that's different and sucks me in. This book was not one of them. Another mystery where the mystery took a backseat to endless talk about the how great it is to live in a small town where life is simpler. Winnie was very annoying and overemotional most of the time. I struggled to gain interest in the mystery. There was nothing really distinct about this story to keep me interested in the next book in the series.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading Apple Cider Slaying. It was a wonderful mystery that had me guessing up until the end! I loved the relationship between Winnie and her Granny. This was the perfect book to read and get you in the cozy holiday mood. I am so excited to read the next book in the series to see how these characters develop. :)

APPLE CIDER SLAYING, the first book in the brand new Apple Cider Shop Mystery series by Julie Anne Lindsey, is as cozy as books come. I was instantly transported to the orchards as protagonist, Winnie Mae Montgomery, helps her Granny Smythe prepare for the first Annual Christmas at the Orchard. Winnie is determine to save the orchard from financial ruin and uses all her marketing savvy to bring in customers year round. I couldn’t help but become invested in seeing how she was going to accomplish it nor could I help becoming anxious when it seemed they would lose everything.

Ms. Lindsey does a commendable job creating lovable characters and adorable felines. Who can resist the rescue kittens named Kenny and Dolly? Or the handsome new Sheriff in town? Winnie is especially admirable. She is kind and loving, and her work ethic should be a standard to hold in high regard. Not only did she attend community college to finish her marketing degree, she works as a waitress at the Sip N Sup, plus works at the orchard to help her granny. Winnie also dreams of opening her own cider shop at the orchard, which takes planning and tenacious determination to find a way to make it happen.

The author’s descriptive voice captures the sights, sounds, and flavors of not only the orchard, but the locals who live in the Blue Ridge Mountains of West Virginia. She peppers the pages with humor while creating a tightknit community of folk in Blossom Valley. They epitomize what a community should be. The story had a good pace with lots of action and the murder mystery held twists and turns that kept my attention. I didn’t even have the villain on my suspects list but the clues are there and it was fun to go back and see how I missed it. A suspenseful reveal had me turning pages faster and faster until I read the very last page. A well-done first in a new series that is one of my new favorites this year!

Set in small town West Virginia, Winnie and her Granny own an apple orchard and Winnie dreams of opening a cider bar/town gathering space. As a cozy, of course there's a murder plus plenty of threats and a handsome cop.

The characters are first-rate and I soon became attached to these delightful people. The plot itself was interesting and fun.

This was a top-notch series debut, one of my favorite series debuts of the year.

I'd highly recommend to those who love cozy mysteries. I am very eager to read more in this series and from this author.

The perfect autumn season cozy mystery! This book was just so good and so fun too! I loved it! It had the perfect blend of fallish things mixed with chriatmas and hoilday goodness. The charactera were hilarious and so fun to read about especially Granny Smith and the setting of the farm and orchard gave it the best atmosphere I wanted more when it was over and hope there are many more in this series! What a debut!

This new series is off to a great start. Winnie is trying to bring new revenue to the family orchard run by her grandmother. The Smythe Orchards in Blossom Valley, West Virginia has had financial problems and Winnie is looking to snag a loa from the local bank. Things are going well at the moment with lots of visitors to the property, all enjoying the cider and other attraction on offer. seems like the perfect time to take the loan officer on a tour and show off her plans. One thing not on the list of things to see? The corpse of her grandmother's nemesis, Nadine, firmly wedged and very dead in the cider press. That's one way to not only say goodbye to any chance of a loan and to the family orchard but the police are focusing their attention on Granny as the killer. Not if Winnie has any say in the matter.
The mystery was well crafted and had me guessing as I encountered the expected twists and turns. The rest of the cast includes Colton and Dot, Winnie's best friend and, because this is a cozy, there are some sweet kittens added to the mix. Winnie comes across as both sensible and smart, a character I will enjoy following through future mysteries. I will add this series to my ever growing TBR list. The next entry, Pulp Fiction, is due out April 28, 2020.