"I can see how thinking that every aspect of daily life might relate to a crime can warp your sense of self."

⭐⭐⭐⭐

Another super fun read in the Castle Knoll Files! There is something about Kristen Perrin's writing that feels like it's from another time - in a wonderful way. Both of the books in this series feel like old timey mysteries and the voices of the characters and language choices just transport me. I love it and find her writing very enthralling.

Once again, the reader gets to live in both Annie's mind and Frances' journals to try to solve the mystery. I think I enjoyed the first in the series a bit more, mostly because I was more invested in the premise, and the hint of romance might be burning a bit too slow - c'mon book 3🤞🤞🤞 - but I definitely will keep coming back for future mysteries in Castle Knoll. 

Publishing April 29th! Thank you so much to Penguin Group Dutton and Netgalley for the gifted eARC! ❤️

I really enjoyed the first book in this series, so I had high hopes for its successor. Alas, it was not to be. Some authors think that since the first book was successful, they can write the second book the same way. They then create a formula that the series follows, with each rendition being inferior to its predecessor. The readers want novelty! We don’t want to read the same book over and over (well, maybe some people do, but not I).

That isn’t to say this sequel wasn’t enjoyable. I liked seeing more of Castle Knoll & getting to know its inhabitants a bit better. I liked the flashbacks vis à vis Frances’ journal entries. I liked how the dynamic changes a bit now that Annie actually lives in Castle Knoll. Overall, this book was fun to read. However, it lacked that je ne sais quoi that made the first one sparkle. I doubt I will read any more in this series.

thanks to NetGalley for the ARC

3.5⭐️, rounded down

Annie Adams is back with another small town mystery. Using clues from her Aunt Frances’ diary and notes Annie looks into a family car crash in the 1960s. How to Seal Your Fate was a well written cozy mystery. Just a few too many characters that has you wondering who certain people are.

I enjoyed this book a great deal, but must suggest reading the first book, if you can, just to refresh yourself
within the characters and the general theme.
When Annie solved the murder of her Great Aunt Frances, she inherited the huge estate, Gravesdown Hall,
along with the surrounding forested land.
We now have ‘Peony Lane,’ formerly Ellen Jones, who could be responsible for one or more murders~ by
suggestion or prediction, Possibly her own death as well.
This is a fanciful murder, with more in the works, I’d surely think! I look forward to the next installment
along with the gang we are getting to know. Annie is becoming quite the sleuth and the Author does
a masterful job with the time periods and the rural setting.
My thanks to Quercus Publishing via NetGalley for the download copy of this book for review purposes.

***A big thank you to Penguin Press Dutton and NetGalley for providing me with an eARC copy of this book.***

The publisher has asked not to give details or descriptions of this book just yet. Once authorized, I will give my honest review of this book!

3.5 rounded up. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

An enjoyable second installment in the series. I love the small-town British setting and the multiple timelines but had a bit of trouble keeping some characters straight. I’d read book number 3, as there are several storylines left unresolved.

I've read both books in this series now and I hope there are more. They're pretty quick reads and have just enough twists and turns to keep it interesting. The dual timelines were annoying at first, but I soon came to look forward to the added information from the diaries. I will keep reading this series.

3.5 star rating

From the Publisher:

Kristen Perrin is back with the second novel in her Castle Knoll series. Annie Adams is caught in a new web of murder that spans decades, returning us to the idyllic English village that holds layers of secrets.

Present day: Annie Adams is just settling into life in Castle Knoll when local fortune teller Peony Lane crosses her path and shares a cryptic message. When Peony Lane is found dead only hours later inside the locked Gravesdown Estate, Annie quickly realizes that someone is out to make her look guilty while silencing Peony at the same time. Annie has no choice but to delve into the dark secrets of Castle Knoll in order to find out just what Peony Lane was trying to warn her about, before the new life she’s just begun to build comes crashing down around her.

1967: A year has passed since her friend Emily disappeared, and teenage Frances Adams finds herself caught between two men. Ford Gravesdown is one of the only remaining members of a family known for its wealth and dubious uses of power. Archie Foyle is a local who can’t hold down a job and lives above the village pub. But when Frances teams up with Archie to investigate the car crash that claimed the lives of Ford’s family, it quickly becomes clear that this was no accident—hints of cover-ups, lies, and betrayals abound. The question is, just how far does the blackness creep through the heart of Castle Knoll? When Frances uncovers secrets kept by both Ford and Archie, she starts to wonder: What exactly has she gotten herself into?

My Review:

This is the second book in the Castle Knoll Series. I will start by saying that I thoroughly enjoyed the first book in this cozy mystery series. Although sometimes you can read a book in a series out of order, that is NOT the case here. There are many characters to keep track and there is also a duel timeline. As is always a risk for me, one timeline was more enjoyable in this book. I prefer the 1960’s story that looks back at a central incident that was also addressed in the first installment as well. This is especially true of the first half of the book. The modern day time line following Annie does pick up as the book goes on. I like that the author chose to zoom in on an incident that was sort of in the background of the first story and we get to know the characters, such as Archie and Aunt Francis better.

Unfortunately, I found much of the dialogue in the present day time line to be dull. Part of the issue seems to be the long, run on sentences. There is a specific time when Annie utters entire paragraph that is so unclear that I tried reading it sever times. I find nothing there that adds to the story.

There will be another installment and I am torn if I will I continue in the series. If the plot of the next installment catching my interest, I will probably give it a go!

Thank you to NetGalley for the free ebook in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to Dutton Publishing and NetGalley for an advanced copy to read and review! The second installment in the Castle Knoll series by Kristen Perrin will be available starting March 27, 2025!

Annie Adams is attempting to settle into life in Castle Knoll after solving Aunt Frances' murder when the elusive and cryptic Peony Lane appears. As quickly as she appears, she is murdered with implications pointing directly at Annie! Can she solve this one too before she gets hauled off?

If you haven't read the first book, HOW TO SOLVE YOUR OWN MURDER, read it first! HOW TO SEAL YOUR OWN FATE builds on the secrets and characters from before, and it's a great second installment. The way Kristen Perrin ties previous events to the current timeline via flashbacks really works and I really enjoyed this cosy murder mystery. It was the perfect read to become an armchair sleuth, which is my favorite way to experience these types of novels.

If you enjoy cosy mysteries with a bit of snark, I'd recommend checking out this series!

CW: murder

Worse than I was expecting, considering that the first book was pretty decent. How to Solve You Own Murder did a great job of balancing what we as the audience knew with what Annie is learning and what Frances wrote in her journal. Unfortunately, How to Seal Your Own Fate did a bad job at this, making it feel like we as the audience were always waiting for the characters to catch up with what we already know, which became very frustrating. There were also some blatant continuity issues? I wasn't a fan of the way the mystery played out (he killed them all with a big stick? really?) and the "journal entries" are even more ridiculous than in the first book.

Great sequel, fun cozy mystery. Just enough plot twists, love the setting. Looking forward to another book in the future.

While I enjoyed this one I have to admit I didn't love it as much as book 1. Parts of this felt really forced and a bit unbelievable.

I enjoyed the writing - the plot was okay but didn't really pull me in like the first in this series did.

thank you for the chance to read this one early!

How to Seal Your Own Fate by Kristen Perrin is a sequel to How To Solve Your Own Murder. Readers return to the English village of Castle Knoll and the same cast of characters. Annie is now living in her Aunt Frances’s mansion, Gravesdown Hall, having inherited it all in the first book. She meets the fortune teller Peony Lane alluded to in book one, having given her Aunt Frances the fortune predicting her death. Peony delivers a cryptic message and before Annie can ask questions, Peony is found murdered. The plot then follows Annie and friends solving this murder. Intertwined in this we learn more about the death of the Gravesdowns in the 1960’s, which led to Ford Gravesdown inheriting everything, and Annie goes about solving that old mystery as well.
This was very busy- lots of characters to keep track of, flip flopping timeline from past to present, and multiple murders to keep straight. I found myself getting slightly confused at times. It was an enjoyable read, but I didn’t like it as much as the first one. The solve at the end didn’t come together as seamlessly as I would have liked. I did really enjoy the scenery and learning more history of Ford, Frances and Archie, but not sure I would continue reading any future novels in this series. While this could be read as a stand alone, it will work better if read after the first one as it continues multiple storylines that were not concluded in How to Solve Your Own Murder. Thanks to Net Galley and Penguin Group Dutton for my ARC.

Disclaimer: there's really no way to talk about this book without lightly spoiling the ending of the first one (but also if you've read a murder mystery before or have even been in the next room when someone else is reading one, it's not really spoiling). You've been warned.

HOW TO SEAL YOUR OWN FATE picks up shortly after HOW TO SOLVE YOUR OWN MURDER left off, with our protagonist sleuth Annie Adams finding her footing as the new owner of the Gravesdown estate. Her peacetime era is cut short, however, by the discovery of a new body on the grounds, and this time it's none other than Peony Lane, the fortune-teller who predicted the murder of Annie's Aunt Frances. Cue the sleuthing.

I'll say off the top that this was a fun mystery to tag along with, and I enjoyed getting to know both Annie in the present day and Frances in the flashbacks we get from her diary. Kristen Perrin has created a great backdrop in the village of Castle Knoll, and I will most likely read the next installment in the series (it's heavily teased, not a spoiler). The parts where Annie is reflecting on the parallels she feels between herself and Frances are a deft bit of characterization, and it adds depth to her growing reputation as the village sleuth.

That said, this sequel falls a bit short of the highs of the first, in my opinion. Having Frances's will as the inciting incident in the first book was a delightfully clever vehicle for putting certain characters at odds and setting up information imbalances, and you can feel the absence of such a device in this book. As well, I wasn't really sold on Jenny as a sidekick. She gets a good deal more page time this time around, but we don't really learn anything new about her, and she's almost too invested in Annie's life/doings to seem like a real character with her own interiority.

since I didn't enjoy the first book by this author, I won't be reading this one. I feel my opinion would be unfair

This was a fun follow up to How To Solve Your Own Murder but I definitely recommend reading that one first or you'll be lost. I think Perrin probably tried to fill in blanks in case someone picked this up without reading the first one but even having read it (and loved it), I was initially lost and had to kind of go back and refresh my memory. There are a lot of characters that made it hard to keep track of how they fit into the story but once you had that down, it was an enjoyable read. I love the cozy vibes and feel of the British estate and the cast of characters are good together though I never felt as connected to them or this story as I did to the first.

Loved this second installment in The Castle Knoll Files series. A perfect follow up to the first. Journal entries galore! I absolutely adored them. It was a great then and now format that seamlessly blended.

Read this if you like:
-past and present tellings
-cozy mysteries
-amateur sleuths
-large estates
-putting puzzles together

Thank you to Kristen Perrin, Net Galley, and Penguin Group Dutton for the ARC copy. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Annie Adams is finally settling in at Castle Knoll after the events that lead to Annie solving Frances Gravesdown's murder and inheriting the Gravesdown Estate. When Annie runs into the local fortune teller, Peony Lane, she is given a cryptic message about a murder that happened several decades ago. A few hours later, Peony is found dead in the solarium of the Gravesdown Estate. It is made apparent that the killer is trying to frame Annie for the murder. Annie must dig into the past of Castle Knoll to figure out what secrets Peony and the local residents are hiding.

I enjoyed delving into this mystery. The book spans two timelines and multiple murders that seem to be connected to the death of Peony Lane. Many of the original characters are back and it was great to see Annie and Detective Crane together again. The ending did leave a lot of questions unanswered regarding Annie's future and I would love to read another mystery in the Castle Knoll Files.

How to Seal you Own Fate is out April 29th.

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Group Dutton for the opportunity to review How to Seal Your Own Fate. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I don’t think I liked the mystery of this sequel as much as its predecessor, but I was happy to be back with these characters so much that it didn’t quite matter. I’ll definitely continue with this series, and it seems like there’s a lot more to uncover!

“Jenny has disappeared upstairs to phone her mum-she's one of those people who talk to their mums regularly and still somehow manage to fill hours with conversation. Not for the first time, I wonder what that's like.” I am one of these suckers :) Be an only child and live 5000 miles away from your mom - you can fill hours and hours

Annie Adams continues her journey of being Castle Knoll’s sleuth after her aunt’s passing. This time she is trying to figure out who is behind untimely death of Peony Lane inside her own apartment. Peony Lane was answer to many of Annie’s questions and now that she is gone it will be tough to figure out what happened to Gravesdown family.

I could not request this book fast enough knowing how entertaining and mind boggling the first book of the series was. Also, these events occurring in a quaint English countryside village makes it even more scandalous. I wonder what will be the topic of next book since the biggest mystery of Castle Knoll has been solved.