I received a copy of this book from Netgalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

First in a series.

I really liked this one! The relationships are solid and there's a lot of fun banter.

It's a clever mystery with lots of surprises!

To kill a mocking girl.
I enjoyed everything about this new book.
A fun read.
Loved Quinn’s cousin Sister Daria.
Plenty of suspects and twists, Tricia wasn’t we’ll liked in the community which didn’t help very much when trying to find a killer.
I am looking forward to read more from this author.
Thanks to Crooked Lane books for my advance copy for my honest review.

Thank you to Net Galley and Haper Kincaid for the ARC to review. 
This is a wonderful first in a new cozy-mystery series! 
The characters are delightful and the I loved the twists and turns the story takes as it had me guessing the whole time.
I especially loved Daria and her lively banter. Each character was well rounded, even if some were short lived.
I can't wait for the next in the series to see what this bookbinding sleuth has to solve next!

Great debut of a new cozy series with a younger character vibe going for it! I found myself immersed in the characters’ lives and enjoyed the quirkiness of protagonist, Quinn Caine and her best friend, Daria. They have fun together! The mystery is light and character antics keep it animated and interesting. The author pens some unexpected plot surprises and some chuckles, which I also enjoyed. The 4-legged supporting characters are great! I also liked Quinn’s work in the family bookstore, and her bookbinding knowledge. I’m looking forward to future stories in this series. Tasty recipes follow the story.

I honestly reviewed a digital arc provided by NetGalley and Crooked Lane. Thank you.

I loved everything about this new cozy mystery. The setting of a smallish town in Virginia, the characters, the dialogue (so funny), and the mystery—all so much fun. I love stories that feature strong family relationships and friendships. I can’t wait to read more about Quinn. I don’t want to wait so long! Thanks to Netgalley and Crooked Lane Books for the ARC.

An entertaining and well crafted mystery. A great plot, well crafted characters and a good setting. I am looking forward to reading more books in this. Mystery fans will love this book. I received an arc from the publisher and Netgalley and this is my unbiased review.

To Kill a Mocking Girl by Harper Kincaid was an engaging read that I couldn't put down.

Ms. Kincaid has written a clever and well crafted mystery with likable characters and a small community background that was well described throughout the story. The twists and turns kept me guessing as Quinn often pursued clues that got her into trouble. However, Quinn would own up to her mistakes and I appreciated her honesty about those mistakes. Aiden, her brother's best friend and now a police detective, was swoon worthy who did not pull punches when it came to Quinn and the investigation. I was totally mystified about who the killer was until the reveal and I love that about a mystery. I'm excited to read more in the series.

I really liked this story.I liked Quinn and Aiden. I hope there is another book that mentions them. I liked Bash, Daria, Quinn's parents. I liked the town setting. It was a good read. I liked the mystery and was surprised as to who the killer was. This was the first I had read of this author and if she has more like this, it will not be the last.

A strong first installment! The author does an excellent job of setting the stage for the characters and mystery. Full of twist and turns, well developed characters, get ready to read a story you won’t be able to put down!

What a great start to a new series! Can't wait for the next one. Thought I knew who "dun it" and was surprised at the end! Fun characters and hreat quotes start each chapter. I did get anlittle sick of Quinn calling her dog "my dog baby". Otherwise a very good book. Couldn't put it down!

To Kill a Mocking Girl by Harper Kincaid is a complex murder mystery wrapped in a homecoming tale. The characters are delightful. The storyline is complex and well written. With action and emotion, the twists an turn surprise and delight. This cozy mystery has a lot of intense thriller woven in.

I was hoping this book would be a cozy bookish mystery, but it was mostly a book about romance between young people trying to become independent in their hometowns. The main character is somehow both bland and irritating. I found the book to be poorly written and unappealing--not worth the time even to skim through it quickly.

Oh wow, I enjoyed this book! Basically my fave type of cozy; hero who worries about the heroine, but doesn’t insist she quit? Check. Loving family? Check. Adorable dog? Check. Great job? Check. Just quirky enough yet still lovable side characters? Check. Super enjoyed this & I cannot wait to read more of this series!

I've read it to the finish. Which really says more about my grit and determination than about the quality of the book. I liked the first two chapters. I can recommend those. After that, not so much. It started with Quinn's dog that had to get out of the house in the midde of the night and takes her straight to the crime scene. I dislike stories with special sentient animals. Most animals are not capable of spotting crime in progress (there wouldn't be any crime if they were) so unless I'm reading a paranormal mystery, I prefer it if the main character does not own one.

Then the police come on to the scene. All of them seem to have failed their 'taking witness statements' and 'processing a crime scene' classes. You do not start off with accussing the person who found the body of being the murderer. Not until you have some solid evidence there actually was a murder. You can ask them questions, though, to determine if they met up with the victim before or after she died. Also, you do not touch the witness unless you are making an arrest.

Quinn, the amateur sleuth, who should be the star of this story, does a rather shoddy job of sleuthing. She jumps to stupid conclusions, never even considering an alternative explanation, particularly about Trina the victim's twin sister. I'm disappointed that Daria did not act as the voice of reasonable doubt. Another example, Quinn doesn't asks until page 207 the most important question: who was with Tricia the night she died? (And then it's her cousin who pops that question.)

In all, I don't think Quinn is the brighest bulb in the box. Despite everyone claiming she's the smart one and that she always researches things. She's supposed to have a university degree;I would think Quinn knows the difference between an average based on a large research sample and one person's anecdotal evidence. (The research Quinn is griping about probably also explain that, enjoyable habits are easier to learn, so take way less time.)

Other things I did not like in the story:
* Aside from the murder there is too much drama: a hostage situation, an emergency with the dog. Perhaps some should have been saved for the next book.
* An important inconsistency: Quinn took some tire track photo's in between giving her phone to the police and getting it back. Who's phone did she use?
* The last chapter read like an epilogue (never read an epilogue I liked) and had Aiden acting all bashful all of a sudden. (And that wasn't the only personality make over in the last chapter.)

So why the two star rating? Because it wasn't actually badly written. If the things mentioned above don't bother you, you'll probably find this story quite enjoyable.

This book was a mixed bag for me. I really enjoyed Quinn and her cousin Dariah's relationship, with Dariah being a relatively new novitiate. And the murder was decently interesting. But Quinn's constant dithering over Aiden and how she knows there will never be a Q&A, it's all just a pipe dream, blah, blah, blah. Quinn is idiotic and delusional on the topic, and the book would have been much stronger without trying to make that such a big part of it. Also, the motives for the killings and the character turn-around at the end didn't really feel authentic to me.

Review copy provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

I received this ARC via Netgalley and Crooked Lane Books, in return for an honest review. This is the first novel in a new series, set in Vienna, Virginia. Quinn Caine returns home after working abroad as an English teacher and discovers how much is the same in her hometown while much is also different. Quinn works out of her parents’ independent bookstore as a book binder. She also volunteers at a local dog rescue, located at a nearby nunnery. Her rescue works brings her in contact with her cousin, Daria, who decided to become a nun while Quinn was overseas. Quinn also encounters one of an obnoxious pair of twins, flaunting an engagement ring from a man that Quinn briefly dated before she went abroad. When the woman is found dead in Quinn’s backyard and she’s a person of interest, Quinn decides that she needs to take an active role, much to the police detective’s dismay. There are several sub-plots that fill out the characters in the story. The twins are annoying; the potential love interest is developed well; Quinn has a dog with a great name. As a former resident of Vienna, Virginia, I think Ms. Kincaid did an excellent job of noting the small town feel for an area that’s rapidly being subsumed by the greater Washington area. I look forward to the next book in this series.

Unfortunately I had a hard time getting into the story.
I felt the story was fragmented and a bit boring at times.
I couldn’t relate to any of the characters, which makes reading even more of a struggle.

So sorry! I know that I am not going to be able to finish this one--small town folksy is very unappealing to me and none of the characters appear too bright.

This is a new series that takes place in Virginia. Most cozies have a theme and I am hard pressed to determine what this one was based on. The main character, Quinn, comes back after traveling and teaching english in foreign countries. This was never really developed or capitalized on. The other characters are so unmemorable I don't know their names other than the cousin nun and she was overblown. The conclusion was boring and done before. My biggest problem with the book was that while it was written in third person; the author would OFTEN use a pronoun to refer to someone who had not be named for several pages and I had to spend time trying to figure out who was being referred to. Chapter 5 began with a statement that was not attributed to anyone but then it was phrased "they both..." I had no idea who they were until multiple paragraphs later when proper names were finally given. The story took place in Virginia, which some people seem to think is the South. Many times some of the ladies were referred to as Ms. Whisper. In the South we only attribute a person of advanced age the honor of Miss and never MS. Perhaps as the series progresses it will improve but I don't think I can give a second one a try.

This book has a lot of promise: a great mystery with lots of suspects, interesting characters and complex relationships. But the transitions are abrupt or non-existent. Characters change gear in the middle of a conversation or simply appear out of nowhere. My copy of the book is a digital galley, so I’m hopeful that the version that goes to print has addressed these concerns.


I received a copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. I was not paid for this review.