This was a really fun read! Thanks to NetGalley for lending me an eARC! I have not read the first book in the series, but the necessary gaps are filled in easily as the story unfolds and it worked just fine as a stand-alone. If you are considering reading both books, I would definitely suggest reading them in order, as this novel’s recollections are certainly spoilers for the first installment. 

All that aside, this was a cozy little mystery. I liked that the story wasn’t trying to pull off a past-her-prime-spinster storyline with a 21-year-old or the nonsense that’s sometimes pulled. While the book is progressive in its attitudes, there is period-typical racism and sexism from supporting characters. Aside from those issues, the book does have a bit of a fairy tale vibe, as the cover suggests. Some aspects of the story are a bit charmed and idyllic, but it was fun to watch the tale unfold and figure out whodunit! I’m not sure if there will be another installment after this; I would check it out if there is, but I wasn't left on the edge of my seat impatiently waiting for a resolution or revisit.

Once Upon a Murder by Samantha Larsen
Release Date February 20, 2023
Publisher Crooked Lane Books


Characters: 5/5
Plot: 4/5
Pace: 5/5
Overall Enjoyment: 4/5


“Miss Tiffany Woodall must sleuth the slaying of a footman to clear her beloved's name in the second Lady Librarian mystery, in the vein of Deanna Raybourn and perfect for fans of Bridgerton.”

Miss Tiffany Woodall is at it again…. But this time she stumbles on the frozen body of the very handsome and very vile, Mr. Bernard Coram. To make matters worse, he was found by her on her very own doorstep. There is no time to find emotions here because the justice of the peace has found his murder suspect. It is none other than Tiffany herself. Now it is a race against time to figure out if it was the woman he had an argument with or Samir, who he blackmailed earlier. Who would have killed Mr Coram? There were many people that despised him. But why place his body on that of Tiffany’s doorstep?

I will be honest, I read the first book in this series and loved it. This one does not even come close but that does not mean it is not a good book. The author is brilliant when it comes to keeping the reader enthralled in the plot and interested in the characters. The beginning did not really keep my attention but I just could not stop reading. I had to find out who the killer was. And you will want to know as well. The best part, short chapters.

4 stars

Thank you to NetGalley as well as the author and publisher for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for my unbiased and honest review.

This was such an exciting read and made me anxious to read more of this series. Everything was very well-paced and reading about the previous characters made me feel very warm and nice. Other characters were complex and captivating.

I am grateful to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for the advanced copy of the book.

This is lovely. I hadn't read the first one but really enjoyed this. I will be going back to read #1.
Often humour in historical romance is very overdone, this author has a light touch. There was A LOT of mention of menstruation which was a bit odd.

The Big Bad Wolf gets his comeuppance!

Decade old secrets shock as familial connections entwine and devastate as we come to learn it's rather a small world after all.
The tide turns for vile Bernard Coram, the handsome, young, former footman as Tiffany stumbles across his dead body on her doorstep. With suspicions, prejudice and hidden agendas swirling, it fast becomes a race against time to find the true culprit before the falsely accused becomes collateral damage.
ONCE UPON A MURDER, might have very mixed reviews and I'll admit I didn't have that instant connection I enjoyed in book 1...mainly due to the seemingly less polished, slightly more blunt writing style displayed in the first few chapters than throughout the rest of the book...but I soon became compelled to keep reading and so glad I kept with it. Quickly being reminded why I loved the characters as they pulled me in once again by the like and desire I had for Tiffany and Samir to achieve that much deserved happiness together against the odds.
As a result, I really enjoyed my return to Astwell Palace and Mapledown and being slapped by the unexpected as Tiffany starts to make roots as she pangs for motherhood, thanks to the sparks of romance that cultivated hope in book 1. Reading it entirely in one day as no sooner had I put it down I found myself drawn straight back into picking it up again. Those sweet moments with the little duke, Captain Beau, the intermingled adventures and delightful odes to literature infused in the lessons they inspired, the turmoil of fighting prejudice, misconception, racism and unpicking the dark, hidden pasts buried within the villagers, all added tension, drama and intrigue. While a community of unlikely friendships formed that injected humour, warmth and kindness into the mix. To create a mystery that challenges your moral compass in many ways as you fight the desire to seek and piece together the clues to the culprit's identity whilst dreading finding out who it is as you come to care more for many of the accused than the shameless murder victim himself.
A tale that merges the fun and sweetly endearing with the puzzle of a 'whodunnit' and the heartache of an 'if only'.
Intrigued and keen to read the next installment...hoping for a book 3!

This on was a miss for me. I had a hard time connecting to the characters. The plot felt like it could have been tightened into 20ish chapter rather than the 30 plus that it had.

While I wanted to like the characters, something just didn't connect with me.

I did like the concepts of the story and I appreciated the diverse representation. I hope this book finds it readers!

Thank you to the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this book.

From the cover design and description, I thought this looked and sounded like something I would enjoy.

This was lovely - it felt very cosy and comforting to read. It felt quite Christiesque to me, and initially it reminded me a little bit of a Miss Marple book. I really warmed to Tiffany as a protagonist, as she seemed a very kind and compassionate character. I also felt the author wrote in a way that made me care about the characters and what happened to them, and I became quite emotionally invested in the story. Since I liked this book a lot, I would be interested in reading more books featuring Tiffany as a protagonist.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for a free copy to review.

The second installment of Tiffany's story starts with our main character literally stumbling over a body. That scene is quickly overshadowed by the charming way Tiffany interacts with the child Duke, the son of her employer. I wish those sweet scenes were even more numerous because there are a lot of awkward, abrupt moments in this story.

While it's refreshing to have a historical that isn't set during the 1800s (the Regency and Victorian periods seem almost ubiquitous these days), there are points are incredibly modern that pull you out of the story. Time and again, I kept coming back to "This is 1785?" The author definitely found some historical details they liked and put them in here (shoe pattens, selling your wife at a fair), but there is a lot that feels very modern in this story. As with the first book, there's the insertion of praise for Methodist evangelism that seems shoe-horned in during a wedding.

I wish the author slowed down a bit when it came to character development and writing scenes that should have been emotional. For example, Tiffany professes her love to Samir suddenly, he rejects her just as suddenly, and they continue walking to a destination. She only pauses to react hours later.

When the sequel ruins the first book…

I’m going to prefix this by saying I really enjoyed the first book, it was fun and quirky and the heroine was so strong. She took her dire situation into her own hands and triumphed. She found the love of a great man with integrity who supported her throughout. I was extremely excited to read more about these two great characters but alas it was not to be.

In the second book, without revealing spoilers, Tiffany was a meek mouse and Samir was a lying, equally meek, milksop. I envied the dead guy, because I would have loved a knock to the head to forget much of this.

The plot was messy, character details didn’t jive with the first book and the twists and turns were nonsensical much of the time. I ended up disliking both mains at the end and couldn’t care less about their HEA. If ever a second book was not needed it was this book. I was and am very disappointed.

I wish Tiffany could dress up as her brother and take me back to the first book.

I thought I would love having more time with Tiffany and Samir but this story took all sorts of wrong turns. There are new facts about old characters that make very little sense. Someone sold his wife at a fair, another’s wife left him and went to live with a blacksmith, everyone seems to be everyone’s half-brother, brother-in-law or stepson. Such close connections and scandals would not have been so easily forgotten in a small community.

The worst was ow drama which distracted me so much that I forgot all about the murder mystery. It also confused me because Tiffany and Samir were a delightful couple and deserved a perfect hea. They got it eventually, but I was too tired of this story to fully enjoy it.

I’m giving this book 2,5 stars and rounding it up mostly because of my love for the first one.

Thank you Crooked Lane Books and NetGalley for the chance to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

A lady librarian is determined to find out who really killed a footman, whose body she found near her home. The man she loves is charged and in jail, but she knows he didn't do it.

In this second Lady Librarian mystery set in Georgian England, Tiffany Woodall, 40-year-old spinster, has taken over her half-brother's work as librarian to the Duchess of Beaufort. On one frigid morning, she leaves her cottage to walk to Astwell Palace for work and trips over the body of a dead man half-covered by snow. Despite the multiple injuries on the man (including smears of blood from a blow to the back of his head), she recognizes him as Bernard Coram, the former footman who had been dismissed by the Duchess five months earlier. And due to his proximity to Tiffany's cottage, she comes under suspicion and must clear her name -- as well as discover the true cause of Bernard's demise.

While I liked the first book in the series, this second one was even better. Tiffany has clearly found her place in the world in this book, enjoying her tasks both as librarian and as temporary governess to the six-year-old duke, Beau, and she has developed the confidence and independence needed to jump into investigating the crime laid at her doorstep. She is, as before, assisted by bookseller and constable Samir Lathrop (who has secrets of his own), and the Duchess proves once again a reliable ally in Tiffany's work. Many local neighbors appear as potential suspects, and the plot keeps weaving from one possibility to another until it reaches a satisfying conclusion that ties off multiple threads. I finished it in one day, eager to find out how justice would prevail.

Will there be more in this series? I don't know, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed. 4 stars.

Thank you, Crooked Lane and NetGalley, for providing an eARC of this book. Opinions expressed here are solely my own.