I love a good cozy and mostly pick decent reads based on their brief overviews. However there are times that a book doesn’t meet the mark and this is one of those times. It just drags on, doesn’t have a solid mystery because you figure out whodunit easily. Sadly I have a list of a few authors I pass on and the list just received an addition.

Summer Merriweather is a Shakespeare professor spending her summer in England, researching a scholarly paper. Her visit ends when she gets word that her mother passed away.

Summer returns to Brigid's Island, NC, for the funeral, and suspects the diagnosis of a heart attack is incorrect. She also finds threatening notes that her mother received and starts receiving notes addressed to her.

Was Summer's mother, Hildy murdered? Summer and her Aunt Agatha decide to investigate with the help of Hildy's beloved book club since the local police aren't interested.

This was a great read. My only problem was keeping all the character names straight. I was okay by the end if the book.

Thanks Netgalley and the Publisher. A really good cosy mystery story with great characters, location and storyline. I enjoyed it.

Brigid's Island, North Carolina has lost one of their most likeable residents. Hildy Merriweather, owner of Beach Reads known for their romances and cozy mysterys will be missed by all but one. This one person is the person who murdered her. Her daughter, Professor Summer Merriweather, Shakespearean literature professor at a Virginia University in Stauton, Virigina, swore she would not return to Brigid's Island after she graduated from high school. However when she received news of her Mother's death, she knew she must return for her Mother's funeral and to handle all other matters. When the death is attributed to a heart attack, Summer knew this couldn't be true since Hildy was one of the healthiest individuals anyone could know. Trying to convine the Chief of Police that Hildy was murdered. It doesn't help since Summer had jilted her son who was her fiance, an he was left at the altar. Summer has made it her mission to find the person who murdered her Mother while deciding what she was going to do with the estate and especially the Beach Reads bookstore.
The characters in this book are wonderfully developed as well as the plot. You will feel the pull to love Summer and her frustration of not just dealing with the loss of her Mother but also her career.

Would have been a great story if it weren't so predictable and a bit unbelievable.

Wanted to really love it but was a bit disappointed.

Little Bookshop of Murder by Maggie Blackburn is the first in a new series of cozy mysteries set in a coastal town in NC.

Summer Merriweather is the main female character that has come home to help take over her mother's bookstore after her sudden death. Of course, things are not as they initially appear, and Summer has to recruit some of her mother’s friends to help solve the mystery and find out what really happened to her mother.

I do love myself a good cozy mystery, however there were several “rough” aspects to this first installment.

The plot had promise, however the mystery of the culprit was not hard to figure out. The main female character, Summer, was quite uppity, and I was not impressed with her spout-age of her Phd numerous times. She seemed to simmer down towards the end of the book, though. The ending was also a little unsatisfying, but not in a good way. I understand about the time- appropriate cliff-hangers in books, however I was not too impressed with this one.

With all that being said, it still was not a bad book, I liked the cast of characters and the location, and I will read the next book in the series to see if things shake out and settle down. It definitely has potential.

3/5 stars

Thank you NetGalley and Crooked Lane Books for this ARC and in return I am submitting my unbiased and voluntary review and opinion.

I am posting this review to my GR and Bookbub accounts immediately and will post it to my Amazon and B&N accounts upon publication.

I typically can get myself in the right mindset for cozy mysteries, but unfortunately this one just did not work for me. The writing just felt very elementary and I struggled to actually complete the book for this reason. Appreciate the chance for an early read.

Little book shop murder.
I always love to read the first book to a new series.
Summer maybe a Professor in Shakespeare but she needs to get down from her snobby perch and look around the book shop and read new genres .
Saying all that I did enjoy this book .
I don’t know about any twists but I did guess who it was that killed Hildy early on in the book .
It was a bit of a shock at the ending to find out about her family and it did leave a few loose ends , hopefully to be revived in the next book, which I will definitely look out for..
Many thanks to Crooked Lane books and NetGalley for my advance copy for a honest review.

Rating:⭐️⭐️
The last four books I have read have been books about books. So, I was very happy to continue the momentum with this mystery from Maggie Blackburn. Unfortunately, it did not work for me. I couldn't care less about the main character Summer, I feel I did not have enough information to establish a connection with her.

I also felt this book was written like in a rush, repeating sentences and ideas over and over again, so much that at one point I had to double-check I wasn't re-reading a previous page.

And don't even get me started with the "TWIST" because there is none! The end was so obvious and predictable. On top of that, the last "event" that is revealed in the last pages of the book does not have any relevance to the story... it felt like the author knew the twist was quite poor and she needed something to "shock" the reader.. but... it did not work!

* I was provided an advanced copy of this book by Crooked Lane Books via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review*

I enjoyed this book. It's well-paced, except in some spots where the characters repeatedly go over the same information. The characters are likeable but the main character is a bit of a book snob but she changes her mind about that in the end of the book. The mystery was good, although I did guess the killer around the middle of the book, it was still kind of a surprise how she is caught. I would definitely read more from the author. #LittleBookshopofMurder #NetGalley

I struggled to get through this book which I got as an ARC from netgalley. As a whodunit, it failed because the who seemed obvious without any plausible reason. The protagonist Summer was very scattered and annoying - for anything and everything, she was going on about how she was a PhD in Shakespearean literature all the while not following any logical train of thought. What does a PhD in lit have anything to do with solving a murder or knowing business spreadsheets? All the interactions between the characters also seemed stilted as if everyone was always in a hurry without actually getting anything done and people's characters and behaviours changing with no reason. The last few pages were a whirlwhind of the author trying to tie all loose ends without really building up to a conclusion - the last random revelation was particularly soap drama annoying. I usually don't mind cozy mysteries with zany characters without too much logic, but this book stretched the limits and I didn't really end up liking the characters either.

I received a free copy of LITTLE BOOKSHOP OF MURDER (Book 1 of the Beach Reads Mysteries) by Maggie Blackburn in exchange for an honest review. Summer Merriweather, a Shakespeare professor, is summoned home to Brigid’s Island, NC, after her mother, Hildy, unexpectedly dies of a heart attack. Following her arrival, Summer finds herself running her mother’s bookshop Beach Reads, which sells only romances, a genre which Summer deplores. After finding multiple written death threats among her mother’s belongings and doing some research on heart attacks, Summer asks the police chief to investigate her mother’s death as a possible homicide. The chief, bearing a bitter grudge against Summer for a past mistake, dismisses Summer’s concerns. Summer enlists her mother’s close group of friends and book club members to help her figure out what happened to Hildy. Meanwhile, Summer consoles herself with snuggles from Hildy’s parrot, Mr. Darcy.

I thought this was a good start to a new series. I would definitely read the next book. I recommend this book to fans of cozy murder mysteries featuring bookstore, unusually cuddly birds, alternative religions, and frustrated dreams.

#LittleBookshopofMurder #NetGalley

Oh dear. I do like a good cosy but unfortunately this wasn't for me. I didn't feel that there was much substance to the plot, the murderer was a case of -really? and the ending was , to me a tad unbelievable and I just didn't get it. The Shakespeare quotes felt out of place in an overly American book.
I was disappointed as it's nice to have a break from thrillers and suspense now again
Thanks to Netgalley for an advanced copy