Great new book. Very cozy and fast paced with lots of twists and turns. Look forward to reading more by this author.

I don't usually read cozy mysteries but I'm glad I tried this one. It reads quickly although I think it was a tiny bit dragged out and repetitive. It's a nice pallet cleanser and a cozy read for when you want to just relax your brain a bit.

This book, written by an author with another well known name was a real page turner. It was an easy read, the plot light and entertaining. I had n9 idea who the murderer was - and was really thrown at the reveal! I can't wait to get my hands on the next in the series!

I really enjoyed this cozy mystery. Summer is the amateur sleuth and she does a great job at it. She did get hurt once. There are so many people involved in this but she is determined to find out who murdered her mother and how they did it. It is a page turner. In this story most of the characters are strong which has you guessing until the end.

The first in a new cozy series, Little Bookshop of Murder by Maggie Blackburn is a fun, quick cozy mystery. Set on an island beach town it centers around Summer Merriweather who has returned to her childhood home after her mother's sudden death. Summer becomes convinced that her mother's death mas not natural and they're may be a murderer on the loose. Shortly, after she arrives Summer herself begins to be threatened only strengthening her resolve to get to the bottom of her mother's passing. There are some strong female characters and I loved Summer's parrot Mr. Darcy, but the development of some of the characters could have been stronger. I also found Summer's arachnophobia a strange addition to the plot. The murder mystery itself was pretty obvious from the get go, but I still enjoyed the story and found that the series itself has a lot of potential. All in all, I enjoyed the setting and characters and would read the next instalment.

This was a fun new cozy author for me. I enjoyed the story and the characters. The town is one I wouldn't mind living in myself. A very good read.

Summer goes back home for her mother's funeral. Once she's there, she begins suspecting something was wrong and that her mother had been murdered. With the help of her mother's friends, her aunt, her cousin and her niece, she starts investigating the case.

I had a few issues with this book.
First of all, it still needs editing and correcting. Names change, and I found a couple of "we" that should have been "they".
The murderer was clear from the very beginning.
I get feminism and strong women, but I don't get why men are useless in the story, or they just don't exist. Who's Mia's father?
Where do Piper and Mia live? They seem to move in with Summer instantly.
Everybody works at the bookstore, yet there's only one employee, they all just help out.
Summer is an expert on Shakespeare. She has a PhD! But she only mentions the most famous quotes and characters. Nothing worthy of a professor of Shakespearian lit.
Summer despises romances. As I was reading this story, besides feeling the character was a snob, I felt like the author was trying to convince me that romances and cosy misteries can be good books, too.
To me, the beginnibg of every chapter felt like a recap, only missing the "previously on..."

I hope this story gets edited before it gets published. The idea was ok, but I feel it still needs work.
I'd like to read a new version of this novel.

Thanks NetGalley and the publisher for my ARC.

Summer has just returned home after the sudden death of her mother. She is convinced that it's not possible that her healthy mom could have died suddenly of a heart attack. She talks to the local sheriff but, perhaps because she had once left his son at the altar, he refuses to believe her so she sets out to investigate her mom's last days herself with a little help from family and friends.

Little Bookshop of Murder is the first book in a new cozy mystery series A Beach Reads Mystery by author Maggie Blackburn. I love books about books and bookstores so I really wanted to like it but the best I can say - it was okay. There were a lot of problems that kept me from becoming invested in the story although I was able to finish it. First, there were lots of characters to provide suspects but, despite this, the murderer was pretty obvious fairly quickly. Also many of these characters seem important to the story only to vanish like the man who I'm guessing will be her love interest in future novels based on the fact that he's pretty much the only male in the story who isn't an idiot or dismissive, or useless. However here, it just seems like he's there to back her up on her murder theory which seems strange in a book that, at least on the surface, appears to be trying to embrace feminism. And although Summer is supposed to be a Shakespearian scholar and professor who hates romance novels, she quickly falls in love with them which I guess is good because she is inheriting the store and that is pretty much the only genre it offers. At times, the novel just felt like an ad for romance novels. As well, there were a lot of words used that seemed out of place or poorly used - really, I guess, a small quibble - but it did tend to throw me off my reading stride and make it even harder to maintain my willing suspension of disbelief.

So I suppose the real question is do I recommend this. Maybe if you are a fan of cozy mysteries and are just looking for a couple of hours of entertainment without expecting much from either the plot or the characters. Overall, though, I would suggest, if you're interested, get it from the library.

<Thanks to Netgalley and Crooked lane Books for the opportunity to read this in exchange for an honest review</i>

Summer Merriweather returns home after her mother's sudden passing. Summer is not convinces that her mother dies of a heart attack and wants the truth.

This was an easy read but defiantly needs some clean up before publication. While not the most mysterious of mysteries, I did enjoy the book over all. A light easy summer read.

This book introduces us to a new "cozy" community. Set on a beachtown, the main character comes back home upon her mothers death. She is not convinced that her mother's death is not suspicious and so we out more about this beach town.

This book needed another round or three of editing. Misused words, inconsistent characterization, and obvious punctuation and grammatical mistakes are present throughout this book. As far as the main character goes, for a woman who is supposedly a Shakespearean scholar, she chooses the most banal quotes to toss off at random intervals. There is a glimmer of something there when she talks about the grief experienced by someone who was more or less estranged from a family member, but much more polishing is required to make this book work.

With thanks to netgalley for an early copy in return for an honest review
Was an okay read good plot but a bit lacking.

I really enjoyed this book. It's a well paced, exciting read with well constructed characters and solid plot development. The protagonist was initially a bit standoffish and snobby, but that changed by the end of the story. An excellent mystery, l did guess it about though but it didn't stop me from enjoying the book. I definitely look forward to reading more from this author.

I would like to thank Maggie Blackburn, Crooked Lane Books and Netgalley for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for a fair and honest review.

A grand slam for the first in a series. Summer Merriweather goes back to St. Brigid after learning of her mother’s death. She is convinced that her healthy and active mother didn’t die of a heart attack.
She inherits her mother’s beloved book shop Beach Reads. Summer who has a PHD in Shakespearean Lit did not understand the romances and mystery her mother stocked the store with.
With the help of her Aunt Agatha, cousin Piper and her daughter Mia she sets out to discover the truth.
Lots of twists, turns and excitement through out the book. The setting is relaxing and well developed characters. I will be getting book 2!

Like others I had a hard time getting through <i>Little Bookshop of Murder</i> by Maggie Blackburn because the murderer was obvious from the beginning, but there didn't really seem to be any logic behind the murderer, and that was never really cleared up at the end. I think the biggest points of confusion for me were all the extra details like the spider storyline (still makes no sense to me) and the mother's witchcraft group. There were so many extra storylines like that, that it made the plot fill bogged down and ultimately made the ending unsatisfying.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC of this book.

I received a copy of this title in exchange for an honest review, all opinions stated are my own.

Summer Merriweather rushes to her childhood home in Brigid’s Island NC for her mother’s funeral. Summer struggles to reconcile the sudden deal of her mother Hildy to the vibrant healthy woman she knew and loved. After mentioning her disbelief to her Aunt Agatha and Cousin Piper the three agree something doesn’t add up about Hildy’s sudden unexplained heart attack. As they work through the mystery, with the aid of Piper’s teen daughter Mia, Summer also works to come to terms with the distance that had grown in her relationship with her mother.

Overall the story was prolonged and seemed to back track on itself often. I hope there is still quite a bit of clean up that happens in final edits, as there are some glaring errors with the time line, character names and roles, and many instances where plot points simply seem superfluous, such as Summer’s arachnophobia. Also, several of the character names are too similar and create confusion such as Poppy and Piper and Posey. The basic elements of a Cozy Mystery are present, but the killer is obvious, the red herring introduced too late and rather clumsily, and the possible love interest simply disappears from the story line. It also becomes clear early on, despite Summer’s own hesitations and inner turmoil, that she will ultimately chose to stay on the island and run her mother’s Beach Reads book store.

I was surprised to find that this author has written many other mysteries, including award winning books. This series debut was very clumsy, about twice as long as the plot line actually permitted, and created undue confusion at times. In the end I would like to get to know the main characters more and see how they develop in future books so I may read more in the series as they are written, with any luck Summer will settle down and lose some of her pretentious aires.

This one wasn't for me - didn't enjoy it one bit, I'm afraid. Didn't work well (for me) as either a beach read, or as a mystery.

A Shakespearean professor experiencing trouble with her job rushes home at news of her mother's death.
A cozy mystery, small town friendships, romance bookstore.
A great quick read.

Fantastic characters wrapped into an intriguing mystery to keep you entertained and turning pages for hours! You have a main character who is a book snob thinking only classic literature is worthy of time and is the daughter of a romance bookstore in a beach town. When the mom dies suddenly, not only is there the mystery of the sudden death, but what does a Shakespeare professor do with a romance bookstore? Humor, wit, friendship and family wrap you into a story that you just can't put down! I really can't wait to read what happens next!

I know this won't be published for a few months, but it needs a ton of revisions. Simple things like names changing in the middle of the discussions (Hildy versus Agatha in the beginning, Marilyn suddenly becomes Glads in a conversation in the back room of the book store later in the book; the doctor's name suddenly changing, Marilyn and a few others acting like they hadn't heard anything suspicious, then later saying they knew or vice-versa).

But the biggest issue is from the moment Doris is mentioned, it is so very obvious she is the killer. This case could have been solved in an hour, and it dragged on and on with the same sentiments and questions being asked, but no one asking the obvious from the very start.

Ugh. I wasn't going to finish it. I thought it was a debut author's first attempt at a mystery, Then discovered she had written many things, so I thought it was just editing issues and to keep reading; that Doris was a red herring. But no. It was here. I honestly don't understand how this came to be published.