A very cute and cozy mystery set in small town Enigma, GA where our FMC (Madeline) comes home to take over her Aunt Rose's bookstore after her passing. Chaos ensues, including multiple fires and a murder. But... who done it??

Overall, I liked this but didn't love it. It definitely grasped me in the beginning and I was very intrigued, but the plot lost me in the middle. I also wasn't the biggest fan of our FMC, but it def kept me guessing and the audiobook definitely made you feel like you were in small town GA

Congratulations to P.J. Nelson, @harlequinbooks, @dreamscape_media, @stmartinspress, and @minotaur_books on today's release of 𝗕𝗼𝗼𝗸𝗲𝗱 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗠𝘂𝗿𝗱𝗲𝗿. ⠀
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I read this over the weekend and thoroughly enjoyed this southern cozy debut novel where we will meet Madeline Brimley who returns to Enigma, Georgia and discovers she's inherited a bookstore. She also discovers her small hometown holds deadly secrets. ⠀
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When she gets word that her beloved and eccentric Aunt Rose has passed and left her with an equally eccentric bookstore housed in an old Victorian mansion - she’s immediately faced with unexpected challenges. ⠀
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The gazebo in the backyard is set a blaze, and she begins to receive threatening calls to burn the whole house down if she doesn’t leave immediately. Ignoring those threats only brings more tragedy with another fire, a murder, and a cloud of suspicion falling over her and many in the town. ⠀
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If you enjoy cozy mysteries and light, quick reads - you’ll enjoy this. This book was chosen as an Amazon Editor's mystery pick for December and is quickly becoming beloved by indie booksellers. ⠀⠀
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Thank you to @NetGalley for also giving me the opportunity to listen to this on audio before release. I feel like the narration of #HallieBeeBard truly added to my reading enjoyment!
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You can pick this up today at your favorite place to purchase books.

A southern cozy mystery. I found it a tad bit confusing, and I wasn't really connecting with the characters.

I think that cover is really cute and I liked the audio narrator.

After being away from her hometown Madeline is surprised when her aunt leaves her her bookstore. Everything seems fine and dandy until a young girl turns up murdered in said bookstore. Madeline begins playing detective in search of Tandy’s murderer.

This is such a cozy murder mystery with that hometown southern feel to it. The audiobook hones in on that feeling as we meet characters with their cute southern, sweet accents. P. J. knows how to draw you into the store as we meet the people the different people and possible suspects in town. I enjoyed how we are following Madeline around as she amateurly investigates to figure out this mystery. Not only does she find out who the killer is, she finds out secrets, small town gossip, a little bit of chaos, but also, she finds her place back in her hometown.

This was an easy read/listen and I really appreciated having the audiobook along side to get the feel of the people. I will say I had an inkling of the killer but the way the different scenarios were thrown in, I just wasn’t quite sure I was right. I liked how it kept me guessing!

I have been into cozy mysteries this year and I was excited to read this one, especially with the title and the setting of a bookstore. I found it entertaining enough but I struggled at times with the characters. The MC is very annoying and unlikeable and I found it hard to connect with her. I found she also acted in a way that made no sense to me. I didn’t really like any of the side characters either and found them not very realistic. It felt like it could have been better, but I still had fun reading it.

I did a mix of audio and print and the audio book and as superior, the narrator really good. Gets an extra half star for sure.

"Maybe that was Enigma. The lies were so big because the town was so small."

There are many lies to unravel and secrets to reveal in the aptly named small Southern town Engima. It's what is so entertaining about P J. Nelson's debut cozy murder mystery, Booked For Murder (Book 1 of An Old Juniper Bookshop Mystery Series).

When Madeline left Engima she thought she'd be returning as a successful actress but that remains an elusive dream. Now she's entering Aunt Rose's Victorian mansion mourning the loss of her career and her Aunt. Looking around she has to smile. The mansion still serves as the Old Juniper Bookshop, where "each room was allegedly dedicated to a general genre— the dining room was supposed to be the mystery section, but there were also two cases of poetry..."

Before Madeline can decide if she'll keep the bookshop or the mansion, the historical gazebo out back is torched to ashes. Then the threatening phone calls start, promising her mansion is next to burn if she doesn't leave town. Before she can call the police there's a fire in the house. As the smoke clears a dead body lies on the floor and Madeline is suspect number one.

I applaud voice actress Hallie Bee Bard performing so many quirky characters; especially the often unhinged Madeline. Not trusting the young sheriff, who she used to babysit, to solve the case; she plays amateur sleuth with the help of her Aunt's BFF Philomena the professor, Episcopal priest Gloria, and even Cannonball the cat saves the day.

There's a hint of a budding romance with a hot contractor, a surprising love story, and a couple of twists that are worth booking yourself some time for this cozy mystery.

I received a free copy of this book/audiobook from the publishers via #NetGalley for a fair and honest review. All opinions are my own.

This was a fun cozy mystery.
It takes place in the small town of Enigma, Georgia. Our main character Madeline has returned to her hometown when her aunt and childhood caretaker dies and leaves her her bookshop/house. Madeline immediately gets a threatening phone call telling her to leave. When a college student who was close with Madeline's Aunt Rose, Tandy, stays over because she has had a fight with her roommate, she ends up dead and the house ends up on fire. Madeline takes those threatening phone calls very seriously after that.
I think this was the definition of a cozy mystery. The plot was a little slow moving (not in a bad way) and it took place mostly in this cute small town bookshop. Madeline was curious and determined to figure out what happened to Tandy. Even though she didn't know her for long, she really connected with her. Madeline has some old friends and makes some new ones and everyone was easy to remember.
The audiobook narrator was great, she really made me believe I was in this small town and really gave life to the characters.
The story wrapped up nicely. The culprit was believable, and I can't wait to see what other adventures await Madeline and friends!

Booked for Murder
by P.J. Nelson
Narrated by Hallie Bee Bard

I received an ARC of this audiobook through Netgalley.

Narration: 4.5 stars

This is a cozy-mystery adjacent book. It is part therapy, a smidge of romance, a lot of amateur sleuthing, and a heck of a lot of small town charm.

I really fell in love with the settings - a small town bookstore in a mostly defunct small town with a bunch of interesting people.

If you listen to this book only for the episcopal Father Gloria - you will not be disappointed. She’s my new hero!

I enjoyed this book so much. I highly recommend it to lovers of bookstores, theater, small towns, amateur detectives, and a mystery that you will feel as bound to solve as the main character!

Oh, I really enjoyed this cozy mystery, as Madeline returns to the town she grew up in and practically ran away from when she was younger to stay in the house (and bookstore) her aunt left when she died, things start to happen to make her leave. From the fires to the death of a character (which I have to admit made me very sad) we go looking for answers and we are pointed to several suspects, I tell you I had my eye on one and I got a big surprise at the end when everything was resolved.

I liked the story, although it left me with some holes with Madeline's story as such, but I feel like this is going to be a series of several books, so I hope to have answers in the next ones. For a debut book I think the story flows very well and the characters are well formed.

The narrator knew how to express herself very well, I understood her perfectly and she caught me with her voice and not only that but in the different ways she changed her voice for all the other secondary characters it all flowed very well for me.

📌I received an advanced listening copy of this audiobook through netgalley, and this is my honest opinion/review of it.

This story focuses around Madeline, a woman in her early thirties, who takes over her aunt's bookstore. It seems like people are interested in that property as she receives several threats telling her to move out.

In terms of murder mysteries, this one felt average in my opinion. I wasn't really surprised by the murderer. It was a super cozy mystery for the most part, besides a few darker parts.

I did enjoy learning about her Aunt Rose's past and I was very happy that Madeline forgave Aunt Rose's old partner and that they learned to overcome some obstacles. Thank you to Netgalley, Dreamscape Media, and P.J Nelson for an ARC of this audiobook. This review is my own honest opinion.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an arc/alc of this book.

This book was only mediocre in my opinion. It is entirely possible that I just wasn't in the right mood when I read this story, and I may try this book again in the future, but for whatever reason, I couldn't find myself interested in this story and my mind kept wandering. With that being said, I may try this book again at a later date.

Moving back to Enigma, Georgia to take over her aunts bookstore was no in Madeline Brinkley’s long term plans, but now it seems more like an escape. A welcome escape until she’s confronted with threatening phone calls, a burned down gazebo and the death of a new friend. Unwilling to be intimidated, Madeline takes it upon herself to find the culprit, stopping at nothing to get to the truth.

I am always looking for a good mystery and was intrigued by this book. I wasn’t disappointed. I really enjoyed this book from start to finish and liked the characters a lot. There was a good assortment of personalities and quirks, but the main characters were all great together. At times the sleuthing skills were a little bold and in your face, but I think that was part of Madeline’s charm. She’s definitely not subtle and not as good of a sleuth as she thinks she is, but I enjoyed it nonetheless. I don’t know if this is going to turn into a series or if it’s a one off, but I’d be interested in seeing more. If you are a mystery fan and want some good laughs along with your mystery this is a good book to choose.

Another series where unlikely characters got together to solve a murder. My standards are really high for this theme as I'm not used to read The Thursday Murder Club or Finlay Donovan stories. This one was a good palate cleanser, but nothing that swept me off my feet.

Madeline took over her aunt's bookshop after she passed away. She wanted to get away from that town so bad that coming back felt like a punishment. She thought about selling the store, but also she was bind by the law that she had to live in aunt's house and work at the bookstore for 6 months before she could do anything. This would have been okay if it was only that. Gazebo arson, murder, and threatening messages came after to turn Madeline's life into living hell

If you are interested in murder mysteries tied to specific location and people, you'll like this one too. I enjoyed it, but also I have read so many like this.

Thank you so much Dreamscape Media for the ARC!

As far as the audiobook production itself, that was very well done! The narrator was easy to listen to!

I'm a huge fan of cute cozy mysteries and they usually hit the spot for me.

Unfortunately, something was missing for me in this one. I think it just felt a little slow and I kept waiting for it to hook me and it never did sadly.

I do love the cover and the premise of a mystery at a bookstore, but I feel like a lot of this was basic tropes that have been done many times before, especially with the inheriting from a family member, etc. \

I wish the author sucess!

Great start to a new series with an idyllic setting and fun, quirky characters. My only complaint is that the murder victim and the aunt that leaves Madeline the shop are characters we’ll never really get to know; they seemed like fun characters. There is a slight hint of the paranormal in this one but not enough for it to be classified as a paranormal mystery. Maybe we’ll get to know Rose after all in subsequent books. The mystery was well-developed and was intriguing, with plenty of red herrings to keep you guessing until the end. In the audio version, there are a few moments of upspeak that take away from the mood, particularly one speech that Madeline gives to the fire investigator but other than that, the audio is well done and kept me invested in the story.

Love love loved this one!! I’m new to the mystery genre and I think this was the perfect book to get my toes wet. I loved the audio narration, the characters, the whole story. I’ll definitely reread this one!

ADORED this read! I listened to the audio (Thank you #Netgalley!) and the narration is wonderful. The southern accents are spot on and the small town, in everyone's business vibe was thriving!

It was a quaint mystery, not overly dark, and the characters are lovable. I am glad it is going to be a serious because I definitely want to know about these characters!

I really enjoyed this one! The narrator is a new favorite of mine, she is excellent with accents, different voices and portraying emotions. This is a great start to a new cozy series- it has a quirky cast of characters, a small town, a cat and a mystery, actually more than one mystery! I will definitely be eagerly awaiting the next in the series and I highly recommend this one to my fellow cozy lovers.

I’m always on the hunt for a new cozy mystery series to get attached to and BOOKED FOR MURDER (An Old Juniper Bookstore Mystery) was just the one to add to my list.

Like with most cozies book one really sets up the series, you get the location info, back history of the main character, introduction to supporting characters oh and of course the crime. This debut did a great job of delivering to the reader what to expect in future books

Madeline arrives in a small southern college town where she inherits a bookstore housed in a old Victorian mansion from her eccentric Aunt. But someone doesn’t want Madeline there and she runs into challenges just minutes after arriving.

I really enjoyed the characters, there were a few unexpected twists I was not prepared for which made the pages keep turning. I’m looking forward to book 2!

Thank you Dreamscape Media

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📚Cozy Mystery
🐈‍⬛Small Town
📚Grief

I thought this book was very cozy and I do love that there was a murder mystery going on. I think it was too cozy for me. If you love small town vibes, this book is perfect because the small town is very prominent.

The main character inherits a bookstore from her relative in her hometown. She recently decided that acting is not for her and she moves back.
Weird things start to happen along with a murder that takes place. As she’s trying to fit back in with her hometown and also investigating who the murderer is you get a sense of belonging and found family.

I think the narrator did a good job for this one. I preferred her normal voice narrating the accent that she gives for the side characters was kind of offputting for me but overall, I think the narrator did a good job. I would definitely recommend this book to people who are looking for a cozy murder mystery and who love small town.