In this second installment in the Castle Knoll Files, audiences join Annie once again when a body has been discovered in her home. This time the body is that of Peony Lane, the infamous fortune teller who set Annie's aunt Frances' life into a paranoid tailspin so many years ago. Readers are drawn through a similar experience in which we alternate between aunt Frances' journals and Annie's present-day investigation in order to identify the killer.

3.5 stars - For me, this book was a bit of a letdown. I remember really enjoying the first novel in the Castle Knoll Files, but this one didn't seem to grab my interest, and I'm not entirely sure why. One of the things that I struggled with is that I didn't remember a blessed thing from the first book. I don't know if this is my fault or the author's, but I couldn't even tell you the name of our main character, let alone who the murderer was from the last book. If I were going straight from the first book to the second, I would have had a much more clear experience. I certainly don't want the author to spoon-feed information to us or play back some kind of "previously on" scenario, but I do feel that we were a little dropped into the mix and just expected to know a lot. As far as the mystery goes, this one felt a little convoluted for my taste. The intertwining between the past and the present again also didn't seem to work as well as the previous novel. Overall, this one just wasn't my favorite, and I'm not entirely sure why.

Thank you to Netgalley for the ARC and my honest review of this book.

If you liked the first book from Kristin then you are going to like this book. Thankfully for me I liked the first book 😂.

The only issues I had with this one over the first book is that the plot and the ending were not as strong and it is the reason why this is a 4-star and not a 5. Whole this was an issue I don't think it takes away from the joy you get from the book.

Also the duel POV is wonderful and really helps expand the story more.

Highly recommend book #2 and can't wait to see what the author has in the future

How to Seal Your Own Fate
By Kristen Perrin

This book is a follow-up to How to Solve Your Own Murder. It is a typical rather low key British murder mystery. This tale takes up where the previous book leaves off with the same protagonist, Annie, who has inherited the Gravesdown estate by solving her Aunt Frances Gravesdown's murder.

In this book, there are other fortunes to be told, other murders, both old and recent, to be solved. While entertaining, it is very similar to the previous book. Thus somewhat less suspenseful. And it is not a book that should be read standalone. If you haven't read the first one, you will not "get" parts of this one because you don't have the backstory.

This book is a quick and easy read, but I would not recommend it if you have not read its predecessor.

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC.

thank you NetGalley for the ARC!

i always worry about sequels and if they will live up to the first book. but i felt like this one built upon the first one really well.

i enjoyed:
the way the original story expanded upon the first book.
learning more about Archie and his secrets.
less Saxon!!!! yay!!!!

i didn't enjoy:
i'm not sure if it was because this is an uncorrected proof, but several times it seemed like pronouns were swapped and it made the story a little hard to follow who Annie was referring to in those moments.

i thought this book was really good and kept me interested in the story. i also think this book left a lot of room for book 3 and 4 to provided more background on Castle Knolls/the Gravesdowns/Frances

overall, i enjoyed it very much and look forward to the next in this series!

3.9/5 stars

I loved the first book in the Castle Knoll Murder Mystery series and couldn't wait to read the next Annie Adams installment. And it didn't disappoint.

Annie and the original cast of characters is back again. Just a few weeks after her Aunt Francis' death, the infamous fortuneteller, Peony Lane, turns up with a new fortune (or rather an old one), it sets into motion a chain of events that has Annie using her observation and sleuthing skills to solve another murder. And this time she's a suspect.

The way Kristen Perrin alternates between Annie's antics and the secrets Francis kept hidden in her diary lends tension to the story and kept me guessing who the murderer really was. I do wish we'd gotten to see more of Annie, her relationships, and her growth in this book, but I enjoyed the way the pace of the story and can't wait to see what comes next for her and the rest of the Castle Knoll crew. I have a feeling we'll be seeing more of them based on how this one ended. And I'm definitely looking forward to it.

Thank you to NetGalley and PENGUIN GROUP Dutton for providing this book for review.

I was fortunate enough to receive this book as an ARC from NetGalley!

How to Seal Your Own Fate follows Annie Adams at it again solving another mystery in Castle Knoll! More secrets are revealed through the past to present, through Aunt Frances’ diaries. Will Annie solve the mystery in time or will she find herself in the same fate as Aunt Frances?

In my personal opinion, this is a new favorite mystery book series of mine! Loved the two timelines, characters, and location! A great cozy little mystery! (Also, a slow burn side romance that I am so here for!)

I would recommend this to those who love cozy mysteries but, also for beginner mystery readers! Can’t wait for the next installment!

I really enjoyed How to Solve Your Murder, the first book in the Castle Knoll Files series. The cast of characters is mostly the same for book 2, and this story is set in motion by another fortune that was told by Peony Lane. Lots of twists and turns as we ride along with Frances trying to solve several suspicious deaths in the 1960s and Annie doing the same in present day, and Annie becomes a suspect herself. We get more background on the Gravesdown family, Archie, and Frances. We also get more of Annie's deepening friendship with a certain detective inspector. I'm looking forward to book #3!

Many thanks to NetGalley and Penguin Group Dutton for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

I was interested in where the story would go with a second novel. While the characters were interesting, I am not sure it was strong enough for a second book. So much time was spent in the past that Annie often didn't feel like the 'main character' to me.
If you really enjoyed the first book, and the story flipping in time back and forth, you'll like this one too.

Hours after meeting the infamous local fortune teller Peony Lane, Annie finds her dead inside the locked Gravesdown Estate. Someone went to great lengths to ensure that Annie looked guilty and Peony stayed quiet. And as Annie starts digging the secrets are of the past won't stay buried.

Why I started this book: Requested the ARC because I was very curious how Perrin was going to have a second story after Annie solved her aunt's murder and inherited the estate.

Why I finished it: The first half of this story was cracking, I was hooked and eager for more. And it wasn't until the reveal, that I felt let down. I had my eye on a different suspect the whole time and was more than a little sad that he wasn't the killer.

This book was good. Hard to not like Castle Knoll and Annie. I loved the first book, not so much the second. I found myself getting bored a bit. I would still recommend it, just didn't love it as much as the first.

A thrilling, one-of-a-kind tale full of heart and surprising twists! I couldn't stop reading this book because it's a fantastic combination of fantasy, adventure, and self-discovery.! I adored the mystery in this book and couldn't put it down!

Annie Adams is back! And she is using her amateur sleuth skills to solve a murder another murder at Gravesdown Hall. Annie returns home from a stroll around her property, she finds Peony Lane, the fortune teller, dead. Since Annie is a suspect, she attempts to solve this murder quickly, by reading her Great Aunt Francis’ diaries and reviewing her files.

I enjoyed the use of a non-linear timeline in this book. Kristen Perrin switches between Francis’ diary entry and present day with Annie. The reader gets to reacquaint themselves with characters from “How to Solve Your Own Murder” and meet some new ones. As always, Annie has her best friend Jenny at her side.

I have really enjoyed both books in the A Castle Knoll Murder Mystery series. Annie’s heart is always in the right place, however, she doesn’t always end up on the “right” side of the crime. The way this book ends, I am expecting there will be more!

Thank you to NetGalley and PENGUIN GROUP Dutton for providing this book for review.

This was a tough read for me. I thoroughly enjoyed the first book and looked forward to this immensely when a sequel was announced. Unfortunately, this book really didn’t live up to its predecessor.

How to Seal Your Own Fate kicks off with a new mystery in the present with Annie Adams, now the owner of Gravesdown Hall after solving her great Aunt Frances’s murder in book 1. The victim this time is the mysterious Peony Lane who told the fortune at the center of Frances’s life and death. It’s clear from the outset that Peony’s murder is tied up in events from 60 years ago and the story jumps back and forth between chapters set in the present and chapters focused on Frances’s life in the past. While this method of storytelling made a lot of sense in the first book, which centered around Frances’s fortune foretelling her eventual murder, in this book the jumps in timeline and protagonist just leaves the reader feeling unsettled and unsure which timeline/storyline is actually of value to the mystery. Clearly Frances didn’t solve the mystery if there are open questions in the present, but equally unclear is how Annie could hope to solve the mystery without the knowledge Frances possesses about the past.

This leads to a major issue I have with this book - the writing style of Frances’s timeline. While it’s a major plot point in the present that Frances kept copious diaries and investigative files on everyone she met, the chapters from her point of view don’t read as excerpts from her diaries, but rather first person narration threaded through with an omniscient narrator voice. I think we’re supposed to assume Annie knows teh information we’re gleaning as readers from Frances diaries, but Frances’s chapters are filled with literary flare, descriptions and details no one would include in diary, and omissions that seem equally absurd if these are private journals. These chapters would seem better connected to the present if it were clear that they are diary entries Annie is reading and if they were written more as journal entries than prose.

If it seems in this review that I’m mostly focused on Frances’s portion of the books, that’s because her portions are far and away the more interesting. Annie is not nearly as compelling a protagonist and even after two novels, it’s unclear who she really is as a person and what the author has in store for this character. Presumably if she continues writing in this series Annie will continue to solve crimes always connected to Frances and the past, but as Annie professes to be a writer (and past photography student), it’s very strange that she’s allowed to meddle in murder cases as often as she is, even if she has a future romance with the local inspector as the books hints.

Overall, this book was a disappointment after the promise of the first. I would have liked to see more of the book set in the present (this book spent about 60/40 time in the present versus the past), more character development for Annie, and less tangles of the mystery in the past with constant mentions and links to past fortunes. 2 stars for book 2

A fun sequel to How to Solve Your Own Murder. I loved being able to continue Annie's story of inheriting a mansion and all of the secrets held in the village. Highly recommend!

This is book two of the Castle Knoll mystery series!

We return to the small rural town in England, where the main character, Annie, has finally gotten a chance to settle into her new home after the events of the previous book.

Despite her hopes of some peace and quiet, she is found by the local fortune teller and overall mysterious woman, Peony Lane, who shares an unsettling message.

Not too long after Annie’s encounter with Peony Lane, she is found dead in Annie’s solarium.

It becomes clear to Annie that someone is trying to frame her for murder while ensuring Peony Lane is silenced, but why?

The parallel story in this book takes place in 1967 and follows Annie’s aunt, Frances, and her relationships with Ford Gravesdown and Archie Foyle—two men in town. Frances loves a good mystery and when she teams up with Archie to find out more about the mysterious deaths of three members of the Gravesdown family that occurred in town, what she discovers is a web of lies and deceit.

The two stories collide towards the end of the book in the present day, as Annie discovers more about not only Peony Lane, but items in Aunt Frances’ old house that give her clues to the past.

With plenty of characters returning from the first book, the second book in the series was just as delightful. I do wish that Detective Crane had made more appearances, as I enjoy the chemistry between him and Annie, but overall this was another great installment in the series and I look forward to reading more!

Thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for a review.

This is the second installment in the Castle Knoll series and overall it’s a fun, enjoyable read. Like the first novel, it has a cozy vibe and we as the readers are once again along for the ride as Annie solves a present-day murder that happens to be linked to a past mystery.

I think that the first book did a better job of bouncing back and forth between the present and past (via France’s journal entries), which made it slightly difficult to keep track of some of the newer characters/their motivations here. I also struggled to remember some of the characters from the first novel that were reintroduced.

That being said, I did enjoy reading this and it was fun to see Annie make her way through a new mystery. I loved the dynamic of her and Jenny as a crime-solving duo, and would’ve loved to see more Rowan Crane too! Maybe in the next one. ;)

Thanks very much to the publisher and Netgalley for the eArc in exchange for my honest review!

Oddly enough for a mystery, what appeals to me is not the plot. Instead, I adore the characters and setting for the series, which more than makes up for some weaknesses in the plot

An exciting, unique story with tons of heart and unexpected turns! This one is a great blend of adventure, fantasy, and self-discovery that I couldn’t stop reading.

It was so nice to be back in this little series and back reading Kristen Perrin’s writing. I really feel like these books compare to the vibes of Agatha Christie! I couldn’t put this book down and I loved the mystery!

This was another engaging murder mystery in the Castle Knoll Files.

I do think I would have benefitted from rereading <i>How to Solve Your Own Murder</i> before jumping into this one, to better remember the characters we were previously introduced to, their relationships and motivations. In general they are an interesting collection of folk from a seemingly idyllic English countryside, one of whom offers the possibility of a future romance for our main character, Annie.

This time, it's the intriguing figure of Peony Lane, the fortune teller who set Great Aunt Frances on her life's course of trying to solve her own murder before it occurred, that gets caught up in the middle of the action. What might she have to do with the Foyles, Sparrows, as well as the Gravesdowns of yore? And why do these crimes always seem to come knocking right at Annie's door?

Alternating chapters between Annie's current timeline i(n present tense POV) and young Frances's diary entries got a bit confusing to me, as both included many of the same characters and events, making it difficult to keep straight who already knew what in their respective investigations. And the particulars of this mystery wind up being quite convoluted, and at times a bit of a stretch.

That being said, I was still definitely entertained by this contemporary whodunnit, and would happily read the next installment of Annie's adventures in investigating secrets in order to solve crimes.

My review has been posted to Goodreads, and will be published on my blog (jessicacrawfordwrites.com) on April 15th, and to my Bookstagram account around that same time.