This is the third book in a series set in Chapters B&B in North Carolina.

This time round Charlotte is hosting a book club retreat focused on fairy tales and classic children's literature.It should have been a fun time - the group even dress up for a Mad Hatter's tea party - but their are angry undercurrents between the members. Then there is a death and Charlotte takes it on herself to help find the murderer.

I enjoyed the fact that Charlotte has a good relationship with the police and takes her information to them, most of the time anyway. I also like the fact that Ellen, the elderly lady who lives next door, used to be a spy and still has useful connections and hidden talents. Add to this Gavin, who is also a spy, and his developing relationship with Charlotte and you have a whole new way of looking at a cosy mystery.

A Fatal Booking is every bit as entertaining as the previous two books. I hope the author is planning more.

Charlotte, an owner of a Bed and Breakfast welcomes a new bookclub group for a week long retreat. Charlotte finds a dead body in the garden at a Mad Hatters tea party.

This was my first Book lovers B&B mystery series. I enjoyed finding out more information about her great-aunt and neighbors lives. I kind of figured out who the killer was but loved the twist. That I didn't see coming.

The main character in this series is the owner of a book-themed B and B named Charlotte Reed. Her next door neighbor and partner in investigations is a former spy named Ellen Montgomery. In this tale, Charlotte is hosting a book club that really doesn't get along. They snipe their way through each get-together. One wonders why they choose to meet. Unless they just like abusing each other. But, abuse they do.

Snipping is one thing. Murder is something else altogether. The least liked member ends up being poisoned. And because they all hated the victim, everyone is a suspect.

The book moves at a good pace, keeping the attention of the reader. A love interest is thrown in for good measure. The love interest is a spook. Charlotte's relative, who willed her the house is a former spook. That's a lot of spies in one book. But that's a minor nit.

Being a native of North Carolina, I enjoyed the descriptions of the setting of the book. Overall, this is a good, cozy mystery.

A B&B that is book themed, costumed book parties, a fabulous library and a host that loves to talk books...where do I sign up!?! Another great visit to Chapters B&B with the delightful characters that keep the doors open and the friends who visit regularly along with a full cast of potential suspects that have booked a stay at the B&B! Once again Charlotte and Ellen are on the hunt for the killer who may be sleeping in the house! A great multi-generational cast to help you better connect with the characters, a fabulous setting and a delightfully complicated plot to keep you turning pages well into the night make for an entertaining read that you'll be sure to enjoy! I know I did! While you could enjoy this book as a stand-alone, I do recommend reading the entire series to get full enjoyment and to know the characters better!

I am a huge fan of Gilbert's Blue Ridge Library mysteries series. This series did not hold my interest as much.

First of all, to answer the question that is often on the mind of people reading reviews, yes you can read this book without having read the first two. The main mystery of this book is who killed the victim and then there are subplots involving the background of the victim as well as some of the suspects. I think it would be fair to say that this book is almost a closed-room mystery. The suspects except one are all guests at the BnB. I wasn't sure who the killer was until our sleuth was sure, so this book kept me guessing.

I enjoyed the literature discussions in the book, Victoria Gilbert interweaves the right amount of book talk in the story, and who doesn't love a good (method of killing --you have to read to know, I'm not going to spoil you) murder.

Charlotte is also thinking about going back to school to teach, so that makes you wonder how the next book in the series will go. As with the first two books, Charlotte works with the town detective and Ellen the retired spy next door. The climax in this one is some action hero stuff, which is fun. It reminded me of some of Lucy Stone's adventures in Maine. (Leslie Meier cozy series)

Four Stars to A Fatal Booking by Victoria Gilbert!

Thanks to Net Galley for the digital ARC of this book, all the opinions are mine!

Very solid, enjoyable entry in this series. Another investigation run out of Chapters B&B in coastal North Carolina, with Charlotte and her amateur sleuth friends all involved. The friends play a lesser role in this one, though Ellen and Gavin have active roles.

This is a well-written book, as with all Gilbert’s work. It’s a good book for escaping reality briefly, especially for readers who have spent time on the NC coast. Gilbert does a great job evoking scene without being distracting.

"A Fatal Booking" was an enjoyable cozy mystery with some fun twists. A literary B&B, a retired spy for a next-door neighbor, antiquity, literacy, murder and mayhem.

I'm definitely interested in going back and finding the first two books of the series to see how it all started. I found the characters and setting to be truly enjoyable, and would love to visit them again.

Thank you NetGalley, Victoria Gilbert and Crooked Lane Books for providing an advance review copy.

Another murder mystery at Chapters Bed and Breakfast. A book club with tumultuous relations visits the inn with deadly results. Charlotte, along with Ellen and friends, assist in the investigation, resulting in some bumps and bruises of their own. A number of happy announcements follow the capture of a very callous criminal.

A Fatal Booking by Victoria Gilbert is the third book in the Booklover’s B&B cozy mystery series. In this engaging story, the author has managed to bring together an amateur sleuth with her older neighbor and friend who was a spy in her younger days. The literary-themed Chapters Bed and Breakfast (B&B) is the main focal point and the story is set in and around Beaufort, North Carolina.

Charlotte Reed inherited the B&B from her great-aunt Isabella Harrington and left a job teaching high school English to run it. A last minute cancellation opens the B&B for a last minute request. An illustrator and jewelry designer who also taught at the same school calls for a week-long literary event focused on classic children’s literature and fairy tales, and Charlotte is happy to take the reservation. When one of the guests is found dead during a costumed tea party, Charlotte and neighbor Ellen Montgomery are once again working to solve the mystery while keeping Detective Amber Johnson informed as they discover helpful information. The victim had plenty of enemies and many of them were in the book club.

Charlotte has an inquisitive mind and is a likeable character, but there were a couple of times when she noticed something that should have been investigated but didn’t do so despite her craving for excitement and danger. The characters are well developed with a charming mix of personalities ranging from likable, intelligent, and independent to quirky to annoying to deceptive. One additional positive is the inclusion of diverse characters which isn’t often done in cozy mysteries.
The book has the right mix of humor, suspense, historical questions, and suspense in a contemporary mystery. However, the pace seemed somewhat slow in the beginning as characters were introduced and the background established. After the mid-point, though, the tempo increased, and the ending was a highlight. There are several potential suspects and enough twists and turns to keep the reader interested. Will you guess who the killer is and why they did it? Several themes run through the story line including murder, business practices, racism, friendship, and a bit of romance, plus a few others that would be spoilers.

Overall, this was an entertaining and fun novel. I look forward to seeing what is next for Charlotte and her friends. Readers of cozy mysteries set in the south with a focus on books will likely enjoy this series. The series is best read in order to see the character growth and the friendships develop, but this novel can be read as a stand-alone.

Crooked Lane Books and Victoria Gilbert provided a complimentary digital ARC of this novel via NetGalley. This is my honest review. Opinions are mine alone and are not biased in any way. Publication date is currently set for June 07, 2022. This review was originally posted at Mystery and Suspense Magazine.

I received an ARC from NetGalley and Crooked Lane Books in exchange for an honest review.

This novel is part of a series of novels set at Chapters, a B and B located near New Bern, NC. The main character, Charlotte, is a former teacher who inherited the B and B which is full of books, history, and literary inspired rooms. She and her neighbor, Ellen (a former spy), are amateur sleuths who find themselves solving murders rather regularly. The setting is unique, but the plot is not. The writing is good, but the novels tend to drag on, and there are too many coincidences, like the fact that the week just happened to be available, allowing the contentious book club to have their fatal gathering in the first place. The characters are pretty one-dimensional, as well, and the guilty party is fairly obvious.

In this particular book (SPOILER), Charlotte announces at the end that she wishes to return to teaching, which gives the author a chance to change up the locale, but, as an English teacher with 22 years of experience, I can say emphatically that that is NOT a realistic scenario. Teaching in NC public schools is not a dream job. I will leave it at that.

My final take: the book is okay, but not one I would recommend or read again.

Solid 3.5 Stars. This was a cozy read and I enjoyed it, I haven't read the first 2 books, you definitely don't need to in order to enjoy the story. Comparing it to other cozies I've read, I like the added layer of spies and espionage, I like the setting being in a bed and breakfast and a book themed one at that. I felt like there was some disconnect from that theme, perhaps because the main character was a teacher and seemed to prefer that career the B& B having a bookish theme doesn't really pop out. I also feel like the police are very one dimensional in this book, they just kind of pop in at the end to say nice job, and while the main character goes through a lot of effort to contact the police regularly with information the conversations are brief and one sided most cozies tend to use the police as a soft antagonist to yell at the main character to stop investigating things they shouldn't, or even as a cohort, allowing and encouraging them on. This department seems to be literally phoning it in, acting more as a security detail.

Thanks to Netgalley and Crooked Lane Books for the opportunity to read and review this title. This is the 3rd book in the Booklover's B&B Mystery series and the first in this series that I have read. Charlotte own Chapters, a literary themed B&B in Beaufort, NC. A friend from her former career as a teacher books the B&B for a weekend Book Club getaway, and things go away when one of the guests is murdered on the property.

I found the characters likeable and am intrigued by their history. Ellen, Charlotte's neighbor is most intriguing. I like the feel of the setting, a small southern beach town. I love the idea of the B&B.

I worked out the identity of the murderer pretty quickly, but the ride was still enjoyable. I will likely check out the rest of this series.

The opinions expressed and mine alone and are given freely.

Owning a B&B is awesome. Having a lot of the rooms based on books is even better. Having your boyfriend be a spy and your next-door neighbor a handler, interesting. The mystery was a little less because I felt I figured out who they were right off the bat. I enjoyed meeting the new characters as this was my first time reading this series. I am willing to give it another try

Thank you Crooked Lane Books and NetGalley for the advance read.

Fun murder mystery set in a charming bnb! I had never read this series before, but enjoyed getting to know the characters and do some sleuthing. I would definitely recommend starting with the first book.

This is a good series. I cannot get past the spy subplot. It is a huge detraction for me. Other than that, the book was very good. I hope the spy subplot ends, and soon. Still a fun read though.

Charlotte Read is a widowed former schoolteacher who has inherited her great aunt's literary themed B&B. She is hosting a former colleague's book club for a week-long event. At the Alice in Wonderland themed tea party luncheon one the members is found dead in the B&B's gardens. It turns out that Stacy Wilkins is not very well liked and everyone in the book club has a reason to kill her.

Charlotte is going to need the help of her fellow sleuth and next-door neighbor (who was a government operative in her younger days), her new beau who is a current one and her group of irregulars to solve the crime before she is the next victim.

This is a fun fast-paced read that I couldn't put down. I highly recommend it to any cozy mystery lover.

I was given an ARC by #NetGalley and #Crooked Lane Books in return for an honest review.

This is a good series about a woman who owns a B&B. She and her older neighbor often get involved in murder investigations at the B&B. The characters have grown on me as the series has continued. The settings of the B&B and the resort town both sound appealing. The plot was twisted and clever enough that I didn't figure out who did it before it was revealed. I hope there will be more books in the series in the future.
I received an Advance Review Copy of this book. All opinions are my own.

I’ve been a big fan of Victoria Gilbert’s Blue Ridge Library series from the start (currently at book #6) but I’d somehow missed this series, the Booklover’s B&B Mysteries, until I spotted this one. A FATAL BOOKING is the third instalment, so I quickly caught up on the previous two (BOOKED FOR DEATH and RESERVED FOR MURDER) to be fully up-to-date.

In keeping with what I’ve come to expect from Gilbert, the Booklover’s B&B Mysteries have a big, found family cast, a beautiful setting and a lovely way of blending historical intrigues into the current day mystery. I really like that these books combine a lot of cozy mystery ‘genres’ – the B&B running and the booklover literary connections along with historical glamour and political spies. A nice plus of this series is the casual inclusion of queer characters and characters of colour in a genre which trends very straight and white.

To take A FATAL BOOKING on its own for a little bit…

I thought this was the strongest book in the series so far. The main characters are well-established and their relationships with each other feel well-grounded. The supporting regulars are becoming more and more fleshed out, and the ‘guest stars’ for this instalment are fresh and intriguing.

The mystery is well done, and I liked the progress of the investigation, the way all the suspects felt viable and the level of detail (nothing gory though, of course) with which Gilbert explains and explores how the poisoning might have occurred.

I’ve loved catching up with the Booklover’s B&B Mysteries so far, and I’d recommend doing so, but you could also read A FATAL ATTRACTION mostly as a standalone if you preferred. I’m a bit disappointed that now I’ll have to wait for the next one, but looking forward to picking it up when the series continues.

Charlotte, Alicia, Ellen & Gavin are all back, this time with a Fairy Tale theme retreat taking place at Chapters B&B. This cozy mystery series is an enjoyable one. I believe the story could be a stand alone, but do enjoy reading it in order.

One of the more unlikeable guests winds up dead in the garden during the Mad Hatters Tea Party, and Charlotte is on the case. This story flows much better than the previous, and I found it more enjoyable. Some twists and turns, until the killer is revealed. The story ends with a promise of more to come from the characters, and I look forward to the next one!

Thanks to NetGalley and Crooked Lane Books for the advanced copy to preview in exchange for an honest review.