Thank you to Netgalley, the publisher and the author, for an ARC of this book, in exchange for an honest review.
The premise of the book drew me in but once I started reading it, I just couldn’t get into it at all.
I wish the author, publisher and all those promoting the book much success and connections with the right readers.

I received an ARC of this ebook from NetGalley and Penguin in exchange for my honest review. I would recommend reading books one and two of this series back to back because there are a lot of characters to keep track of. I liked the dual timeline POV where we got Frances in the 1960s and Annie in the present day. The mystery storyline was very entertaining with a satisfying conclusion and I liked learning more about all of the characters from book one. I will happily continue reading this series!

Kristen Perrin has done it again with the second installment of The Castle Knoll Murder Mystery Series. How To Seal Your Own Fate is just as fun as the first novel. I really enjoy this little town and discovering all the secrets it holds. I hope there are more secrets to uncover in Castle Knoll in the future.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the advanced readers copy.

How to Seal Your own Fate is a mystery with many, too many?, twisty turns as it makes its way from beginning to end. As in her previous novel, author Kristen Perrin uses a fortune given by Peony Lane as a starting off point in what will be a whodunit to solve Peony’s own murder. In so many ways, it deals with characters and storylines from the first book and, since I had not read the first book in quite some time, I felt a bit lost a good bit of the time. I was also left with the feeling that if there is a book 3, it will be similar as I feel there are some storylines yet to be explored. I had a difficult time getting through this book. It should be noted that a significant amount of this book is told in flashback through Frances’s eyes, so the reader is given a dual point of view. The book was a bit too convoluted for my tastes. Three stars.

First and foremost, thanks to Penguin Group Dutton and NetGalley for providing me with an eARC for an honest review!

I thoroughly enjoyed my time with How to Seal Your Own Fate! I enjoyed How to Solve Your Own Murder, and to my delight, there is a fair amount of the same from book to book. While this may be a bad thing in some series, in this case it is actually a huge positive. The cozy, small-town British mystery vibe is one of my favorites, and that returns in spades, even more so because of the time of year it's set. Annie is still seemingly quite capable and I think seems to have improved her murder solving skills over the course of the two books, and there are so many more secrets to be uncovered.

However, I think that both the pacing and resolution of this one make it less of a must-read than the first. It feels somehow both too slow and too fast simultaneously, while also not providing a resolution that feels as intense as the mystery surrounding it. I think it could've served the novel well to either slim down the diary entries, or reformat them so that the story does not feel as back and forth and broken up.

That being said, I still had a fantastic time with How to Seal Your Own Fate. It delivers where it needs to, the characters develop relatively well, and it does a fantastic job of transporting the reader back to the small and strange town that is Castle Knoll.

Annie Adams' once quiet life was turned on its head after the death of her great aunt Francis, leaving her to inherit a grand manor in the small country village of Castle Knoll. The townspeople are already wary of Annie due to her association with the cursed Gravesdown family, and their feelings only grow after the town fortune-teller, Peony Lane, is found dead on Annie's property hours after bringing her a cryptic message. Annie believes that someone in the town wanted to silence Peony and thought to frame her for the crime. Once again, Annie must revisit Francis's meticulous files documenting the secrets the townspeople have tried so hard to hide if she hopes to clear her name.

I adored the first book in this series, so I had high hopes for this latest installment. Everything about this series feels like Murder, She Wrote, but British, and I love it. I loved revisiting this quirky small village with its shady occupants, ferreting clues alongside Annie. She's such a fun main character to follow. While she may not always think things through before acting, she's plucky and has this charm you can't help but root for. Like the previous book, we get flashbacks to Francis's past, and I loved seeing how it tied into the present storyline. There were a ton of secrets to uncover, some more obvious than others, but that's par for the course when it comes to cozy mysteries. I wasn't as invested in this mystery as the first because the formulas were similar. I would've liked to have seen Perrin shake things up a bit more, but overall, I enjoyed it and will pick up whatever she comes up with next.

The second book in this series was just as good as the first. I’m thoroughly invested in this town and the interconnected murders. This series reminds me of Downton Abbey and Castle combined-but in book format. It’s been awhile since I read the first book so struggled a bit in the beginning, but the author did a good job reminding the reader of the backstory without retelling the first book a few chapters in.

Kristen Perrin returns with How to Seal Your Own Fate, the eagerly anticipated sequel in the Castle Knoll series. Building upon the intricate narrative of How to Solve Your Own Murder, this installment delves deeper into the enigmatic history of the Gravesdown Estate and its inhabitants.

In the present day, Annie Adams is acclimating to her role as the new owner of Gravesdown Estate in the quaint village of Castle Knoll. Her newfound tranquility is disrupted when local fortune teller Peony Lane delivers a cryptic message and is found dead hours later within the locked confines of the estate. The circumstances cast suspicion on Annie, compelling her to unravel the mystery to clear her name.

The narrative seamlessly transitions to 1967, focusing on Frances Adams, Annie's great-aunt. A year after her friend Emily's disappearance, Frances finds herself entangled in complex relationships with two men: the affluent Ford Gravesdown and the enigmatic Archie Foyle. As Frances navigates these connections, long-buried secrets of the Gravesdown family begin to surface, intertwining with the present-day mysteries Annie faces.

Perrin's adeptness at weaving dual timelines enriches the narrative, offering readers a comprehensive understanding of the estate's dark past and its impact on current events. The atmospheric setting of Castle Knoll, combined with the intricate character dynamics, creates a compelling backdrop for the unfolding mystery.

For fans of the first installment, How to Seal Your Own Fate offers a deeper exploration of the characters and mysteries introduced earlier. Perrin's skillful storytelling ensures that both new and returning readers will find themselves engrossed in this intricate tale of suspense, legacy, and the enduring impact of family secrets.

Annie Adams is a fish out of water in the small town of Castle Knoll. She is trying hard to settle in but intrigue just seems to follow her. Lucky for her she can rely on her best friend and a handsome police detective to help her investigate. This book has all the quirky characters one would expect from a small town British murder mystery title. The story is interesting and keeps the reader guessing along with the main character. I would recommend this book.

Every bit as good as the debut, with even more unraveling of the past. I didn't see where this series could go after the first murder was solved, but since there are drawerfuls of secrets, I now see that this idea has legs. The dive into the past really recreated mod England--I felt like I was there.

I love this series so much, and this second installment did not disappoint. I really enjoyed getting to revisit these characters and this setting. I can't wait to see what comes next!

I was so glad to see Annie again in this second edition. When Peony Lane, the person who handed great-aunt Frances her fortune all those years ago, seeks Annie out and asks to tell her fortune, Annie refuses. She's seen how one fortune derailed Frances' life, and she's not about to let the same thing happen to her.

But when Peony Lane is later found murdered in the solarium at Gravesdown Hall, in a position where the killer would have had to pass Annie and her friend Jenny while they had lunch, Annie can't help wishing she knew what fortune Peony had been referring to.

With more of Frances' journals to lend a hand, Annie is once again getting herself in trouble and too involved in the investigation. Something Detective Crane repeatedly asks her to stop. Though if Annie is going to look into something anyway, it might be good to have a detective at her side. In an uncertain collaboration, and with possible feelings in the background, the case once again takes them to Gravesdown family secrets and their mysterious past.

Continuing to learn about Frances and her life is something I love about this series, and boy were we in for some surprises! Of course I'll be picking up the next book, because the town of Castle Knoll has a lot more secrets to be uncovered, and a past worth investigating.

For as much as I loved the first book in this series, I was disappointed by this one. Starting with the good, I enjoyed the dual timeline and getting inside Frances' head a bit.

But the mystery was convoluted, there wasn't enough quaint English village atmosphere, and I was left with a LOT of questions at the end. I think it would've made a great short story (Castle Knoll 1.5 or something like that) as it felt a lot like the continuation of the first book's plot, but expanding it into a full novel made it overly complicated. Also, I wasn't quite sure what role the Jenny character played. She was just kind there?

Two women, two timelines, two mysteries, book two of the Castle Knoll Files is a treat for mystery lovers.

Kristen Perrin does a great job weaving the then and now storylines into one compelling mystery. I kept going back and forth deciding which one I enjoyed more but they are both so integral to the plot that I never picked a clear favorite.

Secrets and diaries revealed in a wonderfully paced manner…grab some cream tea and dive in.

This was a fantastic follow up to the first in the series and I definitely cannot wait to read more!

I recently finished Kristen Perrin's "How to Solve Your Own Murder" in one sitting, so I was eager to have the opportunity to read the sequel, "How to Seal Your Own Fate."

After solving the death of her Great Aunt Frances, Annie Adams is adjusting to her new life in Castle Knoll when tragedy strikes again. The infamous fortune teller Peony Lane is dead inside her house. Now Annie must once again work to solve a murder that appears to have been decades in the making.

This book carries a lot of the charm from the first book, and I appreciate the interesting back and forth between Annie and Frances. However, I did find the plot to get a bit too convoluted at certain portions of the book and with so many characters, it can be difficult to sometimes track who is doing what. With two storylines, the timelines can often get muddled. Also, while the dual timelines is a unique storytelling device, it does make it difficult to fully develop either character. Often, the side characters, such as the Foyles, felt a bit more developed than Frances and Annie.

Nonetheless, I could easily see another book in this series as Annie continues to unravel Frances' secrets and I would happily find myself reading another adventure in sleepy Castle Knoll.

Thank you to NetGalley and Quercus for an advanced copy of this book.

This second book in the Castle Knoll (Gravesdown) series has Annie pulled into another mystery of long past and current murders. Are they connected? And why is another fortune told by Peony Lane involved? As Annie investigates she knows she's getting close to the truth when suddenly all the clues point to her and she realizes she's being set up. I love that this book builds so well on the last one and I'm left to wonder just how many secrets exist in this small rural town?

I admit I liked the first Castle Knoll mystery more, but How to Seal Your Own Fate was still a fun read. The plot felt a bit messy, and I had a hard time following all the leaps and turns and assumptions made. Even when I did follow them, many felt like a bit of a stretch, so that the solution didn't feel quite as satisfying as I'd've liked. It's still an enjoyable read & premise, though, and I'll certainly read the third in the series if/when it comes out!

Thank you to the publisher for the advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for letting me access this book!

I was pleasantly surprised by how much I liked the first book and equally enjoyed the sequel. As others have mentioned, because the cast of characters is the same as the previous book and still includes flashbacks to Frances’ youth, it reads better when you read this one immediately after book 1. It’s still enjoyable, but I was a bit lost for the first bit of the book simply trying to remember who was who and whether I was supposed to know some of the characters (other than the new chief inspector Marks, you have met or heard of everyone else). The mystery in this one involves multiple crimes and at times became a little confusing trying to parse out which connections were real and which were red herrings, but in the end everything was wrapped up well and set things up nicely for another book.

I really enjoyed this book! The mystery kept me engrossed and I loved getting to know the characters even more this time around! I can’t wait to see what is happening next at Castle Knoll!