This was such a good book. I loved the story and the writing so much. The characters were great and the story flowed smoothly. Will definitely read more books by this author in the future.

thank you net galley for sending me a copy of this fun book. This one was a cute cozy mystery. Makes you really want to be in Scotland. Thought a few things were a bit odd but the story was fun and the main character is bold and curious solid 3.5⭐️

Fateful Words is the eighth installment of Paige Shelton's Scottish Bookshop Mysteries. This installment opens with Edwin and Hamlet having left on an unexpected business trip leaving Delaney to conduct Edwin's annual literary tour of Edinburgh. The tour becomes embroiled in mystery when the inn that the participants are staying at informs Delaney that Edwin's credit card has been declined and the inn's owner later ends up dead from a fall off the inn's roof.

As with the rest of the books in this series, the author gives her readers a look inside the town of Edinburgh from numerous viewpoints. In this book, the author does an admirable job of interweaving multiple storylines and mysteries while also giving the reader a glimpse into the literary history of the area. The author also creates additional dimensions to Delaney's character as she steps outside her normal duties for the bookshop and interacts more with the town and its people and legends. The multiple mysteries also serve to add layers of suspense and misdirection as the story unfolds into a surprising but cohesive conclusion as to culprit and motives that led up to each of the mysteries contained in the story.

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley and St. Martin's Press and am leaving this review voluntarily.

When Edwin, Delaney Nichols’ boss at the Cracked Spine bookstore, leaves town on business, Delaney is called upon to guide his yearly literary tour around Edinburgh. But on the first night of the tour, at the inn where the tour group is staying, the manager falls, or is pushed, off the roof, and killed. Then, one of the tour members disappears. Delaney follows the clues around Edinburgh to get to the bottom of this mystery.
This was a very intriguing mystery that kept me guessing until the last page. Delaney is a great amateur suit who works with the police. The police are seen as intelligent, hardworking individuals and not silly or robotic. I loved reading about Scotland and learning some of its history. I will definitely read this series again. Thanks to NetGalley and St Martin's Press for the opportunity to read this advanced reader's copy. This review is my unbiased opinion.

I love my adventures in Scotland with our friend Delaney. I wish we had a bit more of her bookish voices in this one but I love solving mysteries and spending time with her and with Tom, Edwin, Hector, and all of our friends at the Cracked Spine. This time we get to get a closer look at Edwin's famous tours.....it makes me want to travel to Scotland and see all of these sites.

I girl bossed too close to the sun and grabbed too many NetGalley requests. Now here we are still waiting for a review. Well, here is what I have right now.

This was sadly a DNF for me. I could never get into the story. I’ve read others in the series but this one just lost my interest and couldn’t get back into it.

When Edwin, Delaney’s boss at the Cracked Spine bookstore, leaves town on secret business, Delaney is called upon to guide his yearly literary tour around Edinburgh. But on the first night of the tour, at the inn where the tour group is staying, the inn manager falls—or is pushed—off the roof of the inn, and killed. Then, one of the tour members disappears, leaving a trail of puzzles in her wake.

I’ve read all but one book in the Scottish Bookshop series and am hooked! I absolutely love the characters and the setting. Delaney, the main character, is someone you will grow to love and admire. Being from Kansas in the United States and having to moved to Scotland and working in a Scottish bookshop has me being envious of her experiences. The author, Paige Shelton, does a great job of including lots of twists and turns in the storyline and the mystery is well developed. This is definitely a series to put at the top of your to-be-read list. You will be flipping through the pages quickly and anxiously waiting to discover the next clue.

Thank you to NetGalley and Minotaur Books for my advanced review copy. All opinions and thoughts are my own.

For more reviews, please visit my blog at: https://www.msladybugsbookreviews.com/. Over 1000 reviews posted!

The best part about reading this Paige Shelton series is that I am completely immersed in the book. While I’ve never been to Scotland (yet!) I feel as if I am there. This author is so talented at writing her stories that the reader becomes part of the story. I can see the setting so vividly in my mind as I read, and I’ve come to know and love these characters.

As an English major, I was thrilled with the premise for this book. I was happy to follow along on the literary tour, and then subsequently to try and figure out what happened to the missing tourist.

I’ve been a fan of Ms. Shelton for a long while, so I was thrilled to read this book. Looking forward to the next!

Thank you to Netgally, the publishers, and Paige Shelton

When I requested this book I was unaware that it was apart of a series, one that requires you to read the previous books for this one to make sense. I am unable to read all the previous books along with this one before the publish date. Therefore, I will rate this a fair 3/5 stars and will adjust the rating and review when I am able to read all the books in the series along with this one.

Delaney has to sub for Edwin on his once a year invitation-only 4 person tour of Edinburgh. There is an immediate problem when Edwin's credit card is rejected at the hotel. Delaney uses her card, but wonders what is wrong as Edwin is VERY rich.
The tour members seem to click and enjoy each other until one of them disappears from a restaurant. As it turns out, the woman wasn't the person who was supposed to be there; she had sent an email cancelling, but it went unread due to Edwin's unnamed emergency.
It turned out, Edwin's money had disappeared and his card compromised. He had gone to London to get his attorney(s)? to find an return his money.
Several murders are connected to the hotel, Edwin's missing money and the missing woman.
Working together, Delaney and her husband, Tom, along with the people at the Cracked Spine and her friends at the police manage to find the culprit.
I really enjoy the relationships Delaney has built since coming to Scotland from Kansas. They have truly become family.
The descriptions of the city make you feel you are really there.
As always, Paige Shelton gives us a wonderful read.

Scotland - I’m not sure why it looms so high on my list of places I want to visit, but it does. And this book reinforced my desire to go there. Fateful Words is the eighth book in the Scottish Bookshop Mystery series, and I felt the author provided enough backstory for me to jump right in and not feel lost. In addition to a good mystery, you get a virtual tour of literary Edinburgh!

Delaney works at The Cracked Spine, owned by Edwin, who is quite rich and has a lot of non-book collections which Delaney is cataloging, such as antique monocles. She’s from Kansas and has married a local man, Tom, who owns a pub nearby. Every year Edwin gives a custom literary tour of Edinburgh to four handpicked fans. This year, however, he is called away to London at just the wrong time and Delaney has to fill in for him, which makes her very nervous. Why Edwin has been called away provides part of the book’s mystery, but then there’s a suspicious death, a disappearing tour participant, and more.

I was happy that Delaney didn’t seem to put herself in danger, as so many amateur sleuths do - and then she did, near the end of the book. There’s also a big reveal near the end of the book - why do the bad guys always need to talk so much about their crimes?

Thank you to NetGalley and Minotaur Books for the opportunity to read an advance readers copy of this book, although I was rather late to it. I bounced between the ARC and the published audiobook, courtesy of my public library. The narrator, Susan Boyce, did a good job with the various voices and accents.

This is book 8 in the Scottish Bookshop Mystery. I jumped into it without having read any of the others and had no problems getting to know the characters and setting. Delany works at a used bookshop in Edinburgh, but she is originally from Kansas. Her boss, Edwin is scheduled to lead one of his famous book tours of the city but asks Delaney to fill in for him. But there is a death and a missing tour member. While Delany has to figure out what is happening, she also has to learn to trust her skills in leading a tour in an unfamiliar city. Great local characters.

I was originally given this story through Netgalley as a kindle read, but after reading the previous story as a audiobook I really wanted to continue the series in that format. So I waited for the book to be released and purchased the audio book.

Delaney's boss, Edwin is long known for holding book tours of Edinburgh. But when this latest tour is scheduled to start Edwin is urgently called out of town and Delaney is asked to step in and run the tour. Of course there is a suspicious death and things just get worse.

I have really enjoyed this book series and will continue to read it, probably through audio format.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an ARC of this story. All thoughts an opinions are my own.

My first experience with the Scottish Bookshop Mystery series, I have mixed feelings about it. I enjoyed the characters, the way they're written. The author has a nice style & I read the book in 2 evenings. I've read about some of the tour sites before so I had a picture in my mind of the locations, that was a nice touch. A problem for me is the whole thing is so complicated. There are 4 plots going at one time that are eventually tied together but the relationship is tenuous at best. Knocking out a couple of incidents would have helped the flow. The ending just didn't wrap up nice and neat, I think there were still issues and could have been addressed in more detail.

#FatefulWords #PaigeShelton #AScottishBookshopMystery #netgalley #MinotaurBooks #bookshopmystery

I love this series and this was no exception. It's always fun to be back with some of my beloved characters. I really liked how Delaney had to step up and give the tour that usually only Edwin did and her thoughts on how she thought she wasn't going to be able to live up to Edwin's story telling, then of course the murder mystery is always fun. :)

I received this book as an ARC from NetGalley.

This is an interesting mystery with wonderful characters. I would love to visit the Cracked Spine Bookshop! When Edwin, the owner of the Cracked Spine has to leave town mysteriously, Delaney has to conduct his famous yearly tour of Edinburgh. The reader also gets to go on a terrific tour of the city! There are many twists and turns in the mystery as the characters wend their ways through the old city.

I look forward to future books by Paige Shelton.

I've not been writing professional reviews for a while now, but I will say I found this murder mystery both engaging and entertaining. You will enjoy it.

Edwin, the owner of the Cracked Spine bookstore in Edinburgh, leaves town quickly for some secret business. This leaves his second in command, Delaney, in charge of the bookshop just as a group arrives for Edwin's highly regarded book-related holiday tours. Delaney is a bit out of her comfort zone as she hasn't run one of these tours before and now must scramble to figure out all the locations plus manage some unique guests. Just as she meets with the tour group, the inn manager falls to his death from the top of the inn where the group is lodging. To complicate matters further, one of the tour guests subsequently disappears and Delaney is also still trying to figure out where Edwin has gone.

I liked that the action picked up quickly in this book, which made it a quick read with lots of twists and turns in the plot. This is the first book in the Scottish book shop series by Paige Shelton that I have read. Despite this being the 8th book in the series, I didn't find it difficult to jump into the story as you don't need to have a lot of background on the characters to enjoy the mystery. I especially liked the location and how the historical and literary connections are woven into the story (i.e., the concept of the book-related tour).

Thanks to NetGalley and the author for the ARC copy of Fateful Words. It's a great weekend read.

The best thing about this book is the sort of travelogue that is detailed as Delaney (main character and bookstore archivist) leads a tour around Edinburgh, Scotland. The reader is treated to a bit of history and some descriptive language about various literary sites in the city. Delaney, as a relatively new Scottish transplant originally from Kansas, is forced to take over for her boss (a wealthy bookstore owner and native Scotsman) in providing a promised tour to four lucky foreigners. Edwin, her boss and the expected tour guide, has been called away for some hidden reason just as the tour is meant to commence.

The tour is interrupted by a variety of events, both suspicious and violent. As the group of travelers visits Edinburgh's historical and literary sites, identity theft, assaults, and murder take place in the background. As she has in the previous books in the series, Delaney manages to insert herself into the investigation of these acts and ends up in peril. By the end of the book, the ends have been sorted, the villain apprehended, and the major players mostly accounted for.

Prior to this book, I have enjoyed the series and looked forward to each new installment. FATEFUL WORDS is the eighth in the series, and it feels a bit phoned-in. The formula for the series has worked in the past because of the manner in which awareness of it has been obscured by Shelton's ability to transport the reader to the Scottish locale. However, this book never really moves beyond the surface level in characterization, plotting, or descriptive language. Consequently, I didn't feel the connection with the characters that I have in the past, and I was less than fully invested in the outcome of the book.

I am hopeful that when book nine in the series is available, Shelton will have returned to providing more depth in both plot and characterization. This one could have used more development.

"Fateful Words" centers around The Cracked Spine bookshop in Grassmarket, a section of Edinburgh, and the special guided tour that the owner, Edwin MacAlister, gives to four selected individuals each year. However, this year, Edwin is unexpected called away, and the task of leading the tour falls to Delaney, one of the employees. The tour gets off to a rocky start, and problems continue to mount, which may or may not be connected to the bookshop and/or one or more of the tour participants.

The author does a good job of keeping the reader guessing. The book starts off with a focus on Edwin's myriad collections and the efforts of his employee, Delaney, to catalog them. I was expecting the collections to play a prominent role in the mystery, but the role they play is not what I expected. In addition, the author keeps you guessing whether certain characters are involved in the criminal conspiracy at the heart of the story (identity theft), and what their roles may be. I also enjoyed the discussion of Edinburgh literary history.