The synopsis for Loose Lips, book two in Kemper Donovan’ “Ghostwriter Mystery series, said this book was perfect for fans of Richard Osman, Anthony Horowitz, Nita Prose, and Agatha Christie, and I’d have to agree. This engaging mystery can be read as a standalone if readers are new to the series.

Main character and ghost writer/author Belle Currer (pen name) has agreed to be a part of the “Get Lit Cruise.” The cruise is being organized by Payton Garrett, a very popular, bestselling author—and the ghostwriter’s long-time frenemy from back in their MFA days. The guests, all female, will receive personalized instruction from experts in five different writing genres, including Belle herself.
It’s not long into the cruise when an attendee is found dead under suspicious circumstances and several others suffer symptoms of poisoning. This locked room mystery provides many twists and turns, as well as numerous suspects and motives to choose from. There’s also a mixture of humor throughout, which makes for a compelling read.

What I most enjoyed about the mystery, though, were the characters. So many were eccentric and dramatic, adding much flavor to the story. Others were deeply flawed and competitive, but I was entertained by them all. Watching them interact on the limited space of the cruise ship brought them all to life. While I didn’t necessarily think the actions of Belle were the best choices she could make, she and her choices certainly made for good reading.

My only small quibble with the book is who gets to make the big reveal at the end. It’s not who I wanted, but it was still well crafted and made for a satisfying resolution. An entertaining and well-voiced mystery!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an electronic copy to read in exchange for an honest review.

This series is so entertaining! Weaving in an author trying to write a book amidst murder and a plethora of motives and suspects and you have one wild ride. The style is very reminiscent of Anthony Horowitz and Benjamin Stevenson. A great series that I hope continues (and sooner rather than later).

Fun Twist!

Belle, the ghostwriter, has been invited on a cruise for a group of want-to-be writers. The cruise is organized by a well-known and extremely popular writer, Payton, who is considered to be a friend of Belle. Another point to keep in mind, this is an all-women cruise, not including Payton's ex-husband and her assistant. Of course with every mystery murder takes place and we have to figure out who did it.

I do have to say I did not like any of the characters. They all seem to annoy me and our main character isn't that much better. That being said they "fit the story".

I am so glad I stuck with this series. I did not enjoy the first book, but "Loose Lips" was a redemption. I'm looking forward to the next adventure.

Thank You to Kemper Donovan, Kensington Publishing and NetGalley for the digital ARC in exchange for an honest review!

I really loved the first book in this series and to be honest I was a little let down by this follow up. This is no means saying it’s a bad book, it’s just missing that spark that the first book had. The mystery elements are well thought out and it has a very interesting ending/twist. The humour and foreshadowing was all very well done, I think maybe I just preferred some of the side characters from book one. This is a really fun cruise ship mystery, I loved the locked room aspects and the development of the relationships with some unexpected characters. I also particularly enjoyed the nod to a certain bodyguard from book one. This one could almost be a standalone because it doesn’t actually give away the details from the first book, but I would still recommend reading in order.

Thanks to Netgalley and St. Martin’s Press for this e-ARC that I chose to listen to and review.

Here is a fun and entertaining mystery that is just perfect for a winter night's read. The ghostwriter narrator of the first book in the series is back. This time she is going on a cruise (despite not really liking the sea) for a group of would be writers. This is a clue to the double entendre of the Get Lit moniker that is the name of the event.

The cruise is organized by a writer, phenomenon and self-promoter known to our ghostwriter from their MFA days. On this mostly all women cruise, Payton has brought along her wife but also her ex husband and her male assistant. The staffers on the cruise, the guests and the writers are all brought to fun (and somewhat snarky) life.

Not so many of the attendees have signed up for our ghostwriter's mystery writing class. But no matter, there will be plenty of real life mystery and murder on board.

Come along for a fun trip and feel like an insider in this quite entertaining read.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Kensington for this title. All opinions are my own.

I found the main character to be frustratingly unlikable. I wanted to like her, she was funny and snarky and I enjoyed a lot of her dialogue, but she was not relatable at all-- I often didn't understand what motivated her to act as she did-- and she didn't really have any redeeming qualities. I found myself not caring about the mystery at all, because I could not find it in myself to care about Belle or any of the other people on the Cruise.
It was also distracting how evident it was that the author was obsessed with labels. So much of the text is descriptions of what labels Belle and the others are assigning to people and objects. "The Ship's Captain is a Nerd," "The Merman Rivera is a gay male ship," "So and so is a Ravenclaw," etc etc. It took me a while to figure out why the constant stream-of consciousness that is the narrative, and the various conversations, were making me so frustrated, because for the most part I enjoy Belle's point of view (she's witty and curious). It felt like the plot was stopping and starting, stopping and starting-- reading this book was like being stuck in stop and go traffic: we just couldn't pick up momentum. But then I realized that every other paragraph included some judgement call, some labeling of another person, with internal explanation for why so and so was called that and why Belle liked people who were "nerds" (or whichever label she'd just assigned to somebody). Even when she immediately states that she likes whatever assignation she just gave someone, it still made me vaguely uncomfortable. This is probably an internal issue I have with the idea that everything has to fit in a box or have a label, but it unfortunately made me feel less and less endeared towards Belle the more that I read. And without any characters to care about I found myself less and less invested in the mystery, and in the book as a whole. I was also distracted constantly by the conversations between the (many) female characters, because they felt entirely artificial. I'm not going to say that no woman talks the way that the women in these books talk to each other, but I don't think I know any women who do.

3.75⭐

It's definitely giving 'Knives Out' & 'Death on the Nile' vibes, without reaching a destination, though. Plus it's a literary cruise full of women (w/ a few exceptions).

I will always eat up a good ol' "who done it" any day. Thoroughly enjoyed!

Thank you NetGalley and RB Media for this ARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Belle has agreed to teach a mystery writing class on a weeklong literary cruise that her friend Payton put together. However, when participants start dying, it's clear there is something afoot. Overall, a great follow up to a Busy Body with a lot of twists and turns. Fans of Benjamin Stevenson and Deanna Raybourn will enjoy this one.

Mystery and intrigue on the high seas.

What a fun book! I came into this second installment without reading the first in the series, but I was able to quickly become absorbed without the benefit of a lot of backstory. The premise involves the concept of bringing a large group of women together for a short ocean cruise focusing on different genres of books. Organized by a prolific author, the main character, Belle, is invited to be a guest instructor in the mystery group. Not everyone in attendance is there to enjoy talking about books, eating the fabulous food, or enjoying the free bar drinks. One person, in particular, is bent on murder.

I loved Belle (not her real name) with her snarky personality and antisocial tendencies. Her clever banter and the many astute references to literature and other forms of entertainment were spot on and relevant and added to the narrative. I had to really work to figure out who and why with the motive, means, and opportunity. The denouement was quite the revelation and very well done.

I was lucky enough to be able to listen to the audio book while also following along in the e-book, both ARCs provided by the publishers. The narrator. Eva Kaminsky, did an excellent job of bringing the characters to life with all of her accents and dramatic flair. I’ve found that listening while reading really enhances my enjoyment of a book when the narrator is good. It was an excellent production.

I’m looking forward to another in this series and I need to go back and find a copy of the first so that I am properly caught up. I feel like I might have missed out and I typically don’t read series out of order.

Loose Lips, is the second book in A Ghostwriter Mysteries series by Kemper Donovan. in the second installment, we find the main character who is going by her ghost rider name Bella Kerr, boarding a ship. it seems our ghost rider and amateur sluethe was invited to be a guest teacher on her college friend now author/influencer Payton‘s weeklong cruise. she makes fast friends with some of her students and Dr. Joan and also has a big fan on board the ship. although the cruise doesn’t last the whole seven days it still last long enough for them to have three deaths and for our friendly amateur sloop who really is more like an amateur sluethe sidekick to get some romance and solve a crime yet again. I think it was a brilliant move to make this amateur sleuth. To be the sidekick of someone else who is obsessed with solving the crime. I find Bella’s Witt to be so funny. I love these characters. I love the way she rationalize everything even her inner dialogue. this was a fast and enjoyable read that any cozy mystery fan will love. I certainly did. It is intelligent well done well written but over way too soon. #NetGalley, #KemperDonovan,#AGhostwRitersMystery, #LooseLips,

3.5 stars
This is an entertaining and lighthearted mystery novel, but I didn't think the red herrings were all that effective. I was able to guess the murderer by about the middle of the book. For readers who enjoy cozies and don't want too much graphic violence and gore, this is a good book to recommend. The characters and setting are decently entertaining, and the writing style is easy to read, making this a good choice for a beach read. The whole plot was a bit of a stretch for me, but for readers who enjoy Janet Evanovich and her style of writing, there's definitely enough to enjoy to make it worth reading.

The highly entertaining book #2 in the ghostwriter series. The story sets our narrator in the middle of a cruise where a large group of women have paid alot of money to take writing lessons from various authors. She's less than happy with the hostess....bad feelings from their past...but the workshop is a once in a lifetime opportunity, especially since she needs the money. This book gave me the same enjoyment vibes as Benjamin Stevenson's EVERYBODY series. Treat yourself to a great mystery and see if you can solve it before the reveal.

A diverse cast of characters, ranging from eccentric to obnoxious. The plot is intriguing, and the killer is cleverly disguised. The author gradually reveals a human side to the “ghostwriter,” which will likely satisfy fans of the first book. While the book begins slowly, it quickly gains momentum and becomes an unputdownable read.

This review is entirely voluntary, and all opinions expressed reflect my personal views.

The Ghostwriter returns in another wildly funny and intriguing mystery, this time aboard a cruise ship filled with aspiring writers! Fresh off the celebrity bestowed on her by the book she wrote about the last time she got involved in a murder (Donovan’s previous book, The Busy Body), she agrees to teach a course on writing mysteries for a literary-themed cruise. The premise: 300 women, all fans of the writer who organizes this event, set sail—in January—for a cruise to nowhere. The women who sign up are mildly interested in writing and very interested in drinking, but after only one day at sea the page turns to murder. The Ghostwriter is, once again, self-deprecating and sarcastic, and her interactions with the other writers, the staff aboard the ship, and the aspiring creatives are compelling. This is a quality mystery, thoughtful and twisty, with a marvelous ending. Highly recommended! Thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for the ARC and the opportunity to provide an honest review.

Thank you Kensington Publishing for my free e-copy via NetGalley. My opinions are my own.

Our anti-heroine ghostwriter/mystery writer has reluctantly agreed to facilitate workshops on her old friend Payton Garrett's literary cruise event in the north Atlantic. She expects the ship full of (almost) exclusively women, the day drinking, and the feelings of inadequacy. What she didn't expect was an old frenemy and a murder. And when one murder becomes more, can our writer unmask the murderer before it's too late for her too?

Can I just say how this book is written so well that it didn't even connect with me that we don't really know the narrator's name? She's living behind an image, because she hates herself and because it's how she makes her living. And we learn more about why she's so self-destructive, lonely, and unhappy, and why she wants to stay that way (the first book in the series explored "how" but not "why"). She orbits powerful women that she seems to be jealous of, and hates herself for that too. Also, the way that Kemper breaks the fourth wall is just as gracefully done as in Benjamin Stevenson's Ernest Cunningham series, but in a different kind of unique way. By reading from the first-person limited, we don't necessarily know much more about who that person really is inside than if we were reading about her from someone else's observations and that is tricky to pull off. It was a dark, foreboding book with lots of foreshadowing (both explicit and more subtle) and curious clues dropped along the way. I read this one hoping that it would be more redemptive than the first book, and I almost was disappointed. But in the end I wasn't, and I am now hoping there'll be a third..

Trigger warning: murder, violent death, drug abuse, suicide, blood

Belle -the ghostwriter- finds herself solving a real life murder on a cruise ship that's got a writing seminar promoted by her old pal Peyton who is surprised when Flora, who is suing her, shows up. Phew. It's a nicely paced locked ship cozy that while the second in a series can be read as a standalone. The characters are sometimes a bit over the top but the cattiness is also entertaining. Thanks to netgalley for the Arc. Light and fun.

This was such a great addition to the series-- love the ghostwriter and her complicated past, and loved the newest addition. Pacing was tight, characters were memorable, & as always loved the narration. Can't wait for more of these in the series-- reminds me a lot of the Benjamin Stevenson books.

What a charmer! LOOSE LIPS by Kemper Donovan is a locked room mystery on a cruise boat... that's full of writers and their fans. It's the second book in the Ghost Writers series, but – shh! – I haven't read the first one yet, and you don't have to either. This is a bottle episode type of series, so there are a few references to book one, but the mystery and plot stand alone. LOOSE LIPS is lighthearted, fun, and thoughtful with references to the pub industry and classic mysteries. I tore through LOOSE LIPS on a long plane ride and I think it makes a great vacation book – lots of fun, easy to pop in and out of, and a satisfying conclusion.

4..25 stars
Loose Lips is the fun follow-up to Donovan's excellent book, The Busy Body. This time, "the ghostwriter" has successfully written a mystery inspired by the events from the first book. She goes by her pen name of Belle Currer and will be one of the instructors on an exclusive literary cruise organized by an old college friend. Belle will need to use some of the mystery-solving clues she's learned from her writing to solve a real-life crime when one of the cruise attendees dies under suspicious circumstances.

Donovan has a unique and engaging way of telling a story, and this is a fun read. The cruise is filled with interesting characters, most of whom become suspects in the crime. After a while, I had an idea I might know who the killer was, but I still enjoyed finding out what would happen next and if my theory was correct. I loved the ending, which will be especially meaningful to those who have read the first book. 

I received an advance copy of this ebook for review consideration from NetGalley and Kensington Books, but my review is voluntary and unbiased.

The second in the Ghostwriter Mystery series, (the first being The Busy Body), our ghostwriter is back and this time she's going cruising! (Literally, she's on a cruise). Anyway, this is a locked room mystery with many suspects, motives and quite a few murders that seem to keep happening. The ghostwriter is on the Get Lit! cruise to teach the mystery course, but she can't seem to solve the mystery. This is a funny cozy mystery series for anyone who enjoys Richard Osman and Alan Bradley. Do yourself a favor and read The Busy Body first in order to get acquainted with the ghostwriter. You won't be disappointed.

*Special thanks to NetGalley and Kensington Publishing for this digital e-arc.*