Much thanks to Darci Hannah, Tantor Audio, and NetGalley for allowing me to listen to a free eaudio ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I didn't know what this book was about going in, I just knew it was a Darci Hannah mystery, so I was very pleasantly surprised to learn there was a paranormal element! Yay ghosts! I loved the murder mystery and the ghost mystery and how they intertwined.

Bunny is a likeable lead, and Granny was fine, but the guys need work. Giff was written extra, but Charlie Albers's portrayal of him was over the top. And Brett---I don't know the first thing about him. He was overshadowed by Giff's personality and everything else going on. There are supposed to be romantic vibes between Brett and Bunny, but hell if I felt any chemistry between them. For a while I thought Bunny had something going on with the detective, but that was wrong. So Giff needs toning down and Brett needs development.

Overall I'm looking forward to more of this series!

I am a huge fan of Darci Hannah’s mysteries and was so excited to get a new series from her but unfortunately the audiobook version does not do her writing justice.

An ex celebrity chef joins a ghost hunter and a psych medium to host a new tv show that brings fabulous meals and ghosts together. And their first episode is to be filmed at the mysterious Bramsford Manor,

It started off so strong!! It set up an excellent tv show premise and I really loved the characters and the mystery surround the manor, the spirits and the unfortunate present day murder. However this narrator did not execute the story very well. Firstly she didn’t differentiate between the characters very well and there was ALOT of characters, I found I had to relisten often because I was so confused on who was speaking. The timelines also had me mixed up as well as who was alive and who was a spirit.

The writing itself also had confusing and what felt like unnecessary plot points.

Overall, if you’re gonna read this try the print version. And while it’s a good concept for spooky season any other time of the year I would recommend her other series more.

This was a really fun story but I have one big issue!!

I am thankful to have gotten the ALC for free from Netgalley and Tantor audio so I can leave my voluntary review.

What’s the issue? The narration! Now I’m tasked specifically with reviewing the audio book so I would be remiss if I didn’t mention how hard this was for me to get through. The narrators natural voice was lovely. I would be able to listen to it all day long, however when she puts on other characters voices it makes it so hard to listen to for me. They sound like caricatures and it completely takes me out of the story. The issue is that they are several characters so it’s constantly in and out of these bizarre unnatural vocals happening.

It honestly completely ruined the book for me. Had I been rating it on my enjoyment as a whole I would have given the book a 2⭐️ rating but I felt that wasn’t fair as the story itself from what I gathered was delightful. It was a perfect story for the fall season so I fully intend on purchasing the book when it comes out on September 24th as I want to
Fully enjoy it!

My rating system since GoodReads doesn’t have partial stars and I rarely round up.

⭐️ Hated it
⭐️⭐️ Had a lot of trouble, prose issues, really not my cup of tea (potentially DNF’d or thought about it)
⭐️⭐️⭐️ Meh, it was an ok read but nothing special
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Really enjoyed it! Would recommend to

A Fatal Feast at Bramsford Manor by Darci Hannah is book one in the Food and Spirits Mysteries series. This was a fun way to kick off a series and I really like the foundation that has been set for future books. The audiobook was very well done. I really liked the narrator's voice for this role. I love a good cozy mystery and this definitely delivered on the cozy aspect. Sadly, I did think the plot was slow and predictable. However, I did enjoy this none the less and would recommend fans of cozy thrillers give it a shot.

Thank you to the publishers and netgalley for this arc in exchange for an honest review.