Title: Little Bookshop of Murder & Once Upon a Seaside Murder
Series Name: Beach Reads Mystery
Author: Maggie Blackburn
Audience: Adult
Genre: Cozy Mystery
Publication Date: September 8th, 2020 & October 10th, 2021
Pages: 329 & 336
Reading Format: Audiobook
Publishers: Crooked Lane Books
What a fun way to start 2024! Little Bookshop of Murder is a Cozy Mystery follows, Summer, a Shakespearean scholar who inherits her mother’s Romance themed Bookshop after she passes from a heart attack. Upon Summer’s return to finalise the estate she comes across notes to hildy stating that if she doesn’t sell the bookshop she will die. Summer begins to wonder whether her mother actually died of a heart attack or was it something more sinister. She joins forces with her Aunt & her mothers Book Club to solve the mystery before someone else gets hurt.
I love a good Cozy mystery and this one did not disappoint. It’s always the vibes and atmosphere that gets me hooked on a Cozy Mystery and between the seaside location, cozy cottage near the beach and romance bookstore this one had all the vibes!
I really enjoyed the characters in Little Bookshop of Murder and only loved them more in Once Upon a Seaside Murder. Getting to know Summer, her aunt & cousin plus the members of her mothers Book Club was very enjoyable. Even the more prickly or more eccentric characters were a lot of fun to learn about.
The Mystery itself was also an interesting ride. I can honestly say I wasn’t able to predict the ending of either book but I had fun guessing. Little Bookshop of Murder especially was an unexpected twist but I definitely wasn’t mad at it.
Also can we talk about the fact that the cover for Book 2 features book 1 in it. I thought that was such a cute touch. I was also happy to discover that you can see both Book 1 & 2 on the cover for the third book, A Killer Romance.
And for anyone curious, the audiobooks for these were very well done. The narrator was enjoyable and easy to listen to so I definitely recommend picking this one up either physically or on audiobook.
Overall I really enjoyed the start of this series and I can’t wait to grab the audiobook of the third book, A Killer Romance when it releases in February this year. If only I had left it a month I could have binged the whole series in one hit!
Rating
Little Bookshop of Murder:
Review Breakdown
Characters: 7
Atmosphere: 8
Writing: 7
Plot: 8
Intrigue: 8
Logic: 7
Relationships: 7
Enjoyment: 9
Once Upon a Seaside Murder:
Review Breakdown
Characters: 9
Atmosphere: 8
Writing: 7
Plot: 8
Intrigue: 8
Logic: 8
Relationships: 8
Enjoyment: 9
Dusk Angel Reads 
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