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.

The sequel to "How to Solve Your Own Murder" proved to be just as good as the first book. I really enjoyed the first book and was looking forward to how Perrin was going to continue to evolve the story. Perrin did a great job! I was hooked again, after the first few chapters I was so focused on the mystery I wanted it to be solved. I ended up reading the whole book in 1 sitting. She does a great job of mixing the future and the past via the journals and present tense story-telling. I will say this one added "new" faces (not really new cause we met all of them in the first book) that made the story more interesting and included more people in the town. My only drawback was that the first book heavily implied some sort of romantic entanglement between the FMC and the lead detective, and nothing happened to further it in this book except for some slow burn/yearning moments. I wanted there to be just a little more, so hoping the next book can get us there. Again, overall fantastic book that I did not see the ending coming.

This book is hands down one of my very favorites of the year! It was truly so spectacular and I had such a good time reading it. I couldn't predict any of the twists, and the storyline kept me on the edge of my seat. I sped through this read within 2 days, couldn't get enough.

This story is the second of the Castle Knoll books, which follows Annie and her journey through solving the Castle Knoll secrets. The first book, How to Solve Your Own Murder, dives into the murder of Aunt Frances who had a fortune fortelling her death. This next book delves deeper into Frances history and her journey to the women she became, and it was reallly nice having the dual perspective between Annie and Frances. I love the cast of characters and I thought they all were so intriguing and I am so excited to see what happens next. The development was just so good between everyone, I can't wait for the following books to come out hopefully someday!

The BIGGEST thank you to Netgalley, Kristen Perrin, and the Penguin Group for the advance copy in exchange for an honest review!

Another murder has occurred in Castle Knoll! In order to figure out who committed the murder, Annie will first have to solve the mystery of a decades old crime.
This is a really cute cozy mystery. I loved the first book in this series and am happy that the second book allows us to get to know some of the characters from the first book even better. The mystery is well written leaving the reader guessing up until the final pages as to what happens.
I do feel like there were brief moments where the pace lagged a bit, but that may have been necessary in order to add details that will help develop the whole series.
I’m excited to see how the rest of the series goes!
Thank you to #netgalley and #penguingroupdutton for an ARC in exchange for a fair review.

Kristen! You’ve done it again! I thoroughly enjoyed the first in this series and this is no different! I at first found the two timelines somewhat confusing, but once I got into it, it wasn’t that bad! I really loved our present timeline with Annie and it was really reminding me of Knives Out— smart, twisty, and funny. A really good sequel to a successful first book !

Annie Adams is back in book 2 of the Castle Knoll series! This story focuses on a mystery with the fortune teller from the first book. I enjoy how the author balances the past and the present through Annie and France's personalities. Annie is very cautious, but an excited sleuth, whereas Frances was very bold. There are slow moments in the mystery, but the vibe and intrigue from the first novel really does carry through into book two. How to Seal Your Own Fate is exactly what you want in a mystery: smart, surprising, and utterly compelling. Perrin proves she's a master at crafting mysteries that are as emotionally rich as they are intellectually satisfying.

Thanks to NetGalley and PENGUIN GROUP Dutton | Dutton for sharing this eARC copy with me in exchange for my honest thoughts.

“How to Seal Your Own Fate” is the second book in the Castle Knoll Files by Kristen Perrin. In this book, we once again follow Annie as she solves another mystery. There’s a lot of changing timelines (as this book is based in both the present and in the 1960s). As with the first story in this series, I found myself getting a little bored and a little confused as to who was who. I wished that this book had had a recap from the first book because I found myself trying to recall information from the first book. This book is not a stand-alone book - one really should read the first book (or have a memory better than mine). For me, this book was okay - there’s not a lot of character development and it took a while for me to get into, and I’m never sure it fully grabbed my attention. There’s obviously going to be another book in this series. If you found the first book engaging and entertaining, this one might continue your interest in Annie’s storyline and mystery solving skills.

I loved the first book in this series “How to Solve Your Own Murder”and was excited to return to Castle Knoll for “How to Seal Your Own Fate”. Sadly, the sequel did not live up to my expectations. There was very little character development in the present time frame. The characters were flat and just going thru the motions of telling the story. It was about 1/3 of the book before I could get into it. It failed to captivate my attention and I struggled trying to remember who was who and if it was a character from the first book that I should remember for this storyline.

The mystery itself was summed up rather quickly in the end and there are still questions that were left unanswered for me. There is a very slow budding relationship with Annie and Crane that will be interesting to follow in the next installment. It will interesting to see what Annie investigates next.

How to Seal Your Own Fate is the second book in a new series by Kristen Perrin. I really enjoyed the first book and was really looking forward to the second book. I am happy to say that it did not disappoint at all! In the first book, the main character Annie solves the mystery of her great aunt’s death and inherits her estate. In the second book, Annie hears another prediction from the fortune teller that predicted her aunt’s death and works to solve the mystery and deaths involved in that prediction. I like how the book travels back and forth between the past and present and learning about these characters as they were then and as they are now. I really enjoy Ms. Perrin’s writing style and once I started reading it, I just couldn’t put it down! I’m looking forward to more books in this series and I highly recommend it for cozy mystery fans!

Thank you to Netgalley for allowing me to review this book. All opinions are my own.