★ ★ ★ .5

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Note: I try my hardest to not include spoilers in my reviews. However, spoilers and how you define a spoiler is subjective. Proceed with caution.

*A special thank you to Netgalley and St. Martin’s Press for early access to this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.*

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This was honestly such a fun read. I had such a hard time putting it down.

It was filled with quirky characters and funny moments that actually had me laughing out loud at times. I really needed something like this book. I read two fantasy books with vast amounts of world building back-to-back and I just needed something chill.

It’s such an interesting way to write a mystery. There’s the suspense, but it’s juxtaposed by comedy and… Helen. It gave off Stephanie Plum vibes (according to my mom, who I talked about it with) and Bridget Jones (according to me).

My biggest issues were that the book was way too long. At a certain point, it felt repetitive. And lord knows, I hate fourth wall breaks and there were a few— though mostly at the beginning. Alice was also annoying at times and I could not STAND Joe. He gave me the ick and I was actually rooting for Alice to kick him to the curb— sorry.

Overall, I will absolutely read the next one. It was the perfect dose of mystery and comedy and I need more Helen in my life, to be honest.

The Expectant Detectives was an unexpected delight! Alice and Joe are having a baby and decide to leave London for the Cotswolds. Hoping for a quiet last few weeks of pregnancy, they are shocked when a woman in their prenatal class as her baby there in class and the shop owner the class is held mysteriously dies, both on the same night. Soon Alice, her mischevious dog (Helen), and her heavily pregnant new friends are trying to solve the secrets of their sleepy town while battling Braxton Hicks and insomnia and food cravings.
I love that the author put so much relatable humor into the details of late pregnancy. As someone who had all my babies at my due date or beyond it, I was very impressed by Alice's motivation to solve this case! I could hardly walk!
This was a really fun cozy mystery and I'm looking forward to more!

**3.5-stars rounded up**

The Expectant Detectives is a new style of Cozy Mystery that I have certainly never read before. I found it to be charming and a heck of a lot of fun; pure enjoyment.

I love Cozy Mysteries that feature an MC and their friend group trying to solve a local mystery. A few favorites, to be noted for example, from recent years would be The Thursday Murder Club, Vera Wong's Unsolicited Advice for Murderers and The Marlow Murder Club.

All three of these books have one important thing in common, the MCs are older than we would typically find in the Mystery genre. These older, dare we call them elderly, characters are quirky, fun and provide a bit of a different perspective than the norm.

In The Expectant Detectives, Kat Ailes uses a very similar set-up to other Cozies, but her intrepid group of amateur sleuths are pregnant women, not elderly individuals.

In this story, we meet and follow, Alice. She and her boyfriend, Joe, are expecting their first child. Although not planned, they're both excited about the pregnancy and looking forward to the next steps in their relationship. Thinking their city-located flat will be too small for their growing family, they decide to move to the sleepy village of Penton. They just feel like it would be a more desirable place to raise a child. Safer and all that...

That is until a dead body is discovered at a prenatal class they have joined. They can't believe it. This is not what they thought village life would be like. Now everyone in attendance at the class is a suspect, including Alice and Joe. Together with a few of the other pregnant women, Alice begins looking into the murder herself. She needs to clear their names before this baby arrives.

Side note, Alice has a glorious dog, Helen, who could easily turn out to be my favorite character of the year. I just adored her and the joy she brought to the narrative.

I was really entertained by this story. The audiobook was so well done, the narration so on-point with the humor that it had me laughing out loud numerous times. I thought Ailes set-up for this story was creative and truly unlike anything I've read before. Alice has a dry, witty sense of humor that worked well for me. She tells it like it is. She's pretty blunt about her pregnancy and the way it is changing/affecting her body.

I also liked that it wasn't just Alice that was pregnant, she had her new friends to share the experience with, as well as to help her do some first-rate investigating.

For me, I wouldn't say the initial murder was totally compelling. It didn't even make sense to me at first how they were so confident it was a murder, like it almost felt like it could have been an accident or something. Nevertheless, I was willing to go on that journey with the characters because I was enjoying them so much. After a while, the more the ladies dug in, the more secrets and intrigue they revealed, then I was hooked.

Overall, this is a fantastic debut Mystery. It had just the right amount of humor and fun, mixed in with the actual mystery. I think the longer this series goes on, the more attached that I'm going to get to these characters and this village as well.

Thank you so much to the publisher, Macmillan Audio, for providing me with a copy to read and review. I'm definitely looking forward to more from Kat Ailes!

Alice and Joe move to the English countryside to prepare for the birth of their first baby. They join a local prenatal class in the hopes of fitting in and making friends. Instead they end up in the middle of a murder investigation. The entire class becomes suspects in the case, so Alice and the group of moms to be take it upon themselves to clear their names. The more they uncover about the case the more Alice realizes they’re in way over their heads.

I really wanted to enjoy this one, and for the most part I did. It was a cute cozy mystery following a group of pregnant women. There were a lot of laugh out loud moments. I sadly got hung up on the author’s use of the word “dreadlock” over and over. Now I will mention I read an advance copy, so this may have changed in the final edit. Not only did I take issue with the use of the word, but there was a specific sentence that I won’t share (because again it may not have even made it into the book) but I was so offended and found it to be a huge problem. Because of the negative connotation of the term “dread” and the history of the word, I myself refer to the hairstyle as locs, but it was the sentence that really was the nail in the coffin for me.

Parts of the story felt a bit repetitive, but I otherwise was entertained and found this to be a light and easy read.

*Thank you to Minotaur Books and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest and voluntary review.

A soon to be parents move from London to the countryside- the village of Penton. Soon after arriving in Penton Alice joins a class for expectant mothers in hopes of making friends and calming the nerves she has of becoming a mother. The group begins to investigate a murder, because why wouldn’t soon to be parents hunt down murderers, to help clear their own names. Toss a commune into the storyline and an affable dog named Helen that truly steals the show and you have a fairly good cozy type mystery. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the read.

3 1/2 stars. A cute cozy mystery with some dark humor mixed in. It was different than anything else I have read. I hope we get more mystery solving from this couple. The book is from Alice's point of view but you get such fun and entertaining side characters too. Thank you to net galley and the publisher for the chance to read.

Alice and Joe have been dating for over a year and are expecting their first baby this is why they decide to take their lovable pooch Helen and move to Pennington Joe found a place an Alice can’t wait to move there she’s dreaming of nothing but country living what she’s not dreaming of however is going to her first birthing class and finding a dead body having a classmate give birth right in front of her and Joe, knowing there’s a dead body downstairs.. this is how Alice whinds up finding a new group of friends who are all expecting… Well with the exception of one. Hen poppy Elia an Alice couldn’t be more different they do however have being new moms and amateur detectives in common especially when Poppy’s wife Lenny is the The first and looks like the only suspect. This will not be the only dead body Alice fines but that isn’t all she has on her plate it seems Joe is acting different she thinks her new friends husband is cheating and the cryptic things her mother-in-law ask her doesn’t help. Once again there is so much to the story it is hard to do it justice in a review I was so happy to learn this was the part of a new cozy mystery series another genre I am new to and with stories like these I’m definitely loving them. I have never read a book by cat ales before but I am so looking forward to the next book in this cozy mystery series it is not only funny and witty but clever and intriguing. This is just another book to remind me why I am so lucky to be a reviewer for NetGalley who gave me the free arc along with Saint Martin’s press please forgive any mistakes as I am blind and dictate my review.

3.5 stars rounded up to 4

You can read all of my reviews at Nerd Girl Loves Books.

This was a fun and cozy mystery set in the small town of Penton. Alice and her boyfriend Joe move there to escape the rat race of London. The night of their first prenatal class they meet several other pregnant ladies and their partners. Everything was going well until one of the ladies goes into labor and a dead body is found on the first floor of the building. Their whole group are under suspicion, so the ladies decide to solve the mystery and clear their names. As you can expect, chaos ensues.

I listened to this book and the narrator did a great job. I enjoyed Alice and her quirky outlook on things. Her dog Helen's antics were a hoot and if there was mischief to get into, Helen was there. The other ladies added depth to the story and Alice's disdain for the local police cracked me up. Some of the twists were unnecessary and didn't add much to the story and a few storylines were left hanging, but maybe they will be addressed in book 2. The mystery was wrapped up nicely, if not a bit rushed.

I was provided a complimentary copy of this audio book from NetGalley and MacMillan Audio. All opinions are my own.

Kat Ailes has developed her characters and their community so well, every time I sit down to read THE EXPECTANT DETECTIVES, I end up laughing at the "visual" of a group of pregnant women investigating a murder and their only back up is a dog. A very good cozy mystery that I'm sure my reading circle will love as much as I do.

A funny and heartwarming story with an engaging mystery element.
Were some of the situations a bit over the top? Yes! But this made for a perfect lighter mystery read.
Helen, the dog, was so mischievous and brought another level of humor to the story.
All in all, a cute read to relax with.
Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher and author for the opportunity to read this book for my honest review. All opinions expressed are my own.

Dollycas's Thoughts

Expectant parents Alice and Joe, and their dog, Helen move out of the city to the small village of Penton for a simpler life as they prepare for the arrival of their first child. Neither are really ready to be parents but it's too late to turn back now. Knowing no one, they sign up for a prenatal class being held above Nature's Way, an organic shop, selling wind chimes, dream catchers, things made from hemp, and other "weird hippy" stuff.  Shortly after the second class begins one of the participants goes into labor and delivers the baby on the spot. While everyone is distracted by the birth the owner of the shop downstairs is murdered and the entire class are suspects in his murder.

Alice makes quick friends with expectant mom Poppy, but soon, new mom, Hen, and still preggers, Ailsa are traipsing around the countryside trying to find the killer with some assistance from "beautiful" and "exceptionally stupid" Helen also known as "Legally Blonde of the dog world". They soon find the sleepy town of Penton has many secrets that people are not willing to reveal including a curious prior death that has gone unsolved. Will the expectant detectives be able to solve two mysteries? Or will they just find themselves in a whole lotta trouble?

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I had a hard time getting into the story at first because Alice and Joe moved to Penton with very little planning. The house needs work, they take forever to unpack, their furniture doesn't fit, and they haven't brought much for a baby that is due very soon. Alice seems oblivious about what is happening around her and has no clue how her life is going to change when that baby arrives. And Joe isn't any better. Being a mom of four and a grandparent of six this made me a little crazy but I tried to remember back to when my first child was born, but nope, still crazy.

But I set that aside and kept reading and started laughing. Helen the dog steals the show. If there is mischief to find, she will find it. But it wasn't all fun and games when one adventure takes a scary turn. You know the dog is extra precious when your friends invite you somewhere and they clearly tell you, "Don't bring Helen!"

Truthfully the story is full of laugh-out-loud moments that had nothing to do with the dog including a special delivery from the prenatal class instructor and her lessons.

Ms. Ailes put forth a mystery with a lot of moving parts that took the expectant detectives to some interesting places including a commune, a birthing celebration, a gong bath, the newspaper archives, walks in the woods, and some pretty gardens too. Tying the new mystery to an old one did give the story some depth. It had the expectant detectives jumping to some faulty conclusions but Alice did find a clue that helped all the other clues fall into place. She also found a note that opened a whole new can of worms. I was able to hone in on the killer before Alice but I didn't have all the details right until it was all spelled out.

The Expectant Detectives turned out to be a very entertaining read so I am glad I stuck with it. Tickling my funny bone got me engaged and then the story kept my attention. There were a couple of pacing issues and a bit of repetition but not enough issues to stop reading. Plus I needed to know how everything came together at the end.

Now I am interested in how this series is going to continue as all the expectant detectives become new moms. Dead Tired is set to be released on June 4, 2024. I will need to see how Alice is handling all the things motherhood is throwing at her and I assume another murder.

𝚁𝚊𝚝𝚒𝚗𝚐: 3.75⭐️
𝙶𝚎𝚗𝚛𝚎: Mystery/crime📚

𝙼𝚢 𝚃𝚑𝚘𝚞𝚐𝚑𝚝𝚜:
A fun and lighthearted mystery

𝚁𝚎𝚊𝚍 𝚒𝚏 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚕𝚒𝚔𝚎:
Cozy mysteries
“Only Murders in the Building” vibes
Pregnant amateur sleuths
Small town
English countryside setting
Character driven reads

𝚃𝚑𝚒𝚗𝚐𝚜 𝙸 𝚕𝚒𝚔𝚎𝚍:
The dog- love a good dog sidekick

𝚃𝚑𝚒𝚗𝚐𝚜 𝙸 𝚍𝚒𝚍𝚗’𝚝 𝚌𝚊𝚛𝚎 𝚏𝚘𝚛:
Her bringing the dog everywhere but never watching after him!
The ending wrapped up a little too quickly for me

When a very pregnant Alice and her boyfriend Joe move from London to the Cotswolds, their idea of village life is changed when a body is discovered during their prenatal class. Alice and her fellow soon to be moms can't resist doing some detecting.

This was a fast paced cozy mystery with humor. Alice was a very likable main character though a bit on the ditzy side. Her dog Helen was quite a scene stealer. Overall this was a good, light read and I'm looking forward to the follow-up book. Thank you to the publisher for my e-copy of this book.

THE EXPECTANT DETECTIVES by KAT AILES is nothing short of a pure delight to read (and listen to)!

Soon-to-be parents Alice & Joe, and their somewhat trouble-making dog Helen, just moved from London to the sleepy town of Penton. They expected a fresh start in the quaint countryside town and the quiet that comes with it.

What they didn’t expect was murder.

After attending their first antenatal class, a body is discovered on the first floor of the building. It’s clear to Alice - and her new-found pregnant friends - that everyone who was there that night is a suspect…and one of them just might be a murderer. With incurable curiosity and some time on their hands until their babies are born, Alice, Poppy, Hen and Ailsa start to investigate.

Enter town secrets and a questionable commune. Suspicious spouses and a persistent detective. A lot of history is unraveled with good humor and hijinks on top. And Alice and her friends unintentionally put themselves in danger, while also learning way too much about the absorbency of paper incontinence pants.

This book is laugh-out-loud funny with dashes of dark humor and sarcasm, while also weaving in some more serious and emotional moments. It’s charming, peppered with so many memorable characters and, at its core, a well crafted mystery. And happily the first in a new series!

While not quite a cozy, but not salacious, the banter and wit between the women reminded me of the chemistry of the Sex and the City foursome as well as the the ladies of Marlow Murder Club. If you’re a fan of found friends + amateur detecting + the comedy and tricky siituations of the Finlay Donovan series, THE EXPECTANT DETECTIVES is for you.

Huge thanks to @stmartinspress & @minotaur_books for the eARC and to @macmillan.audio for the audio ARC which gave me the advantage of doing a mix of both. And a massive shout out to Kitty Kelly whose narration was so spot on - mixing emotion, humor and the perfect deadpan delivery of “Don’t bring Helen.”. Sweet, sweet Helen 🤍

Y’all this debut by @k.ailes is fantastic! It is a hilarious British murder mystery full of twists and surprises. I find comedic crime novels hit or miss; however, Kat knocked it put of the park with this one. It’s set in the English countryside and follows a group of pregnant women as they take up the hobby of amateur detectives to take their minds off their impending births. I really loved this read and I’m excited to continue reading about this group in Kat’s next book, Dead Tired!

Thank you @minotaur_books and @stmartinspress for allowing me to read this book in exchange for my honest review.

(This same review was also shared on the Barnes & Noble website)

I really enjoyed reading this book! There were parts of it that kind of annoyed me, but overall, it was a fun reading experience. It reminded me a lot of the Finlay Donovan series because it was a scatterbrained mom getting in way over her head in a murder investigation. So if you enjoyed that series, you’ll probably like this book.

I was totally intrigued by the whole concept of the book. A group of pregnant women on a mission to solve a murder that happened during their prenatal class? Sign me up!

There were so many quirky things thrown in that I thought gave the book a lot of character. The main character, Alice, and her boyfriend move to a small country town in England. While making friends, she finds that this town is a lot more “hippy” than she’s used to. Little does she know, it is actually home to a whole hippy commune! All the hippy things, such as gong baths, birthing ceremonies, herbal dispensaries, and goddess temples intrigue Alice as she is swept up in the investigation.

The only thing that really bothered me about the book was Alice’s character. She was meddlesome, awkward, and didn’t seem to have any social understanding. Her friends constantly told her to leave her dog at home, yet she would bring him everywhere. She brought him to her friend’s immaculate home, which she messed up, the police station, and to the hippy commune - even when expressly told not to. This just really rubbed me the wrong way. She was also 39 weeks pregnant and seemed to give little thought to the safety of her unborn baby while running around chasing a murderer. She just came off as selfish and unaware to me.

However, the story was super entertaining and I was sucked into the mystery. Was it enough to overlook the annoying main character? Maybe. Overall, I give it three and a half stars for keeping me interested!

The Expectant Detectives by Kat Ailes is her wonderful debut novel. Alice and her partner Joe move to the village of Penton to get away from London weeks before their first baby is due. When a dead body is found during their pre-natal class the idyllic town starts to seem not the same.

The Expectant Detectives was an interesting who-done it. I enjoyed unraveling all the different possibilities and back-stories of the characters. The fact that many of the characters were expecting a baby made for some funny, relatable, and memorable moments in the story. I loved the setting of the town of Penton, its residents, and the British humor in the story..

The Expectant Detectives by Kat Ailes is a great mystery filled with interesting characters with a satisfying conclusion. I am looking forward to the second book in the series! I recommend.

I was given a complimentary copy by the publisher and not required to write a positive review.

An entertaining group of pregnant women are thrown together in a pre-natal class when the group is distracted by one of the members going into labor and a murder happens in the building It’s a complicated story, but at its center are 4 very different women who decide to investigate the murder and become friends. The women are refreshingly real and often quite funny.

Alice and Joe are having a baby. They don’t thin London is the best place to raise their ray of sunshine, so they find a place in the Cotswolds to rent. As they both work from home, they can move where they want, so they found an inexpensive place in the small village of Penton and paced up everything they owned.

Mere weeks before the baby is due.

Almost as soon as they get to Penton, they have their first prenatal class. The class is held upstairs from a natural supplement store, and is an early clue for Alice that there are a lot of aging hippies in the village. The man who owns the shop tried to get Alice to give up her antacids (full of chemicals!) for his slippery elm bark. She turned him down, but she realized that the lifestyle she knew in London may not be all that compatible with Penton living.

The class didn’t change her mind, as one of the other pregnant ladies is the young woman who had given Alice dirty looks earlier in the day for her plastic bag. But through the class, Alice and Joe learn a lot about the upcoming birth (whether they feel ready for it or not). And maybe more importantly, they have met some friends who are also about to have babies, so they will have things in common.

As Alice and Joe work to get settled in their new home, and their dog Helen takes on the Cotswolds (she’s a bit wild, so she loves the country), they also start to face the reality of having a baby together. They hadn’t been dating very long before they got pregnant, so there are still some bumps in the road to becoming a family. And then they go to their second prenatal class. And everything breaks loose.

One of the mothers goes into full labor in the class, and the baby is coming fast. An ambulance is called, but the others in the room know that there is no way they will make it in time. Childbirth plays out in front of them in technicolor, with Alice being given the job of mopping up. Fortunately a very healthy baby is born, but when the ambulance arrives, the paramedics ask about the dead guy downstairs.

It turns out that the old man who owned the herbal store was murdered. And Alice wants to figure out what’s happened.

Maybe it’s the boredom of maternity leave. Maybe it’s the anxiety of changing so much about her life at once. Or maybe it’s her love of crime shows. But Alice is determined to find out what’s going on in the hippie town of Penton. And when also-pregnant Poppy’s wife Lin is accused of the crime, she joins Alice in the amateur investigation.

The two women waddle through town, to the local commune, and through the outlying woods with their dogs, finding clues, meeting locals, and trying to put the pieces together in a way that adds up to murder. But will they figure out who the killer is before they turn their sights to the women?

The Expectant Detectives is a fun debut mystery novel with delightful characters and truly unique detectives. These women are strong and smart, and they are not intimidated or discouraged (much). The blend of life changes for Alice and the murder investigations makes for a complex story, and the slow reveals of Penton’s history are intriguing.

I loved The Expectant Detectives. I loved that Alice found herself caught between the worlds of the big city she left behind and the new countryside life she’s trying to establish. Her relationship, the upcoming birth of her child, and the murder all blend together into a compelling story with lots of heart and humor. I hope to see these characters again, because this is a group of friends I’ll want to keep visiting with time and again.

Egalleys for The Expectant Detectives were provided by Minotaur Books through NetGalley, with many thanks.

I just giggled my way through The Expectant Detectives. Oh was this book just so fun. It is the story of a pregnant woman, Alice, who moves to the Cotswalds with her boyfriend and ill behaved dog and instead of resting the last few weeks before giving birth, she becomes involved with other moms she met in her prenatal class in the investigation of a murder. These women were hilarious and so quirky, the mystery was well concocted and kept me guessing until the end and the dog stole the show. I loved how the murder investigation and suspects all fit together but how along the way, it was lighthearted and funny. I did the audio and the narrator really pulled off the humor in a perfect deadpan way. Thank you so much to @macmillan.audio for really entertaining me.