The Kensington Kidnap is the first book in a humorous cozy mystery series by Katie Gayle. Released 2nd Dec 2020, it's 240 pages and available in paperback, audio, and ebook formats. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links and references throughout. I've really become enamored of ebooks with interactive formats lately.

This is an engaging madcap comedy of errors with a fundamentally good-hearted and intelligent heroine who's only trying to solve the mystery and make her rent to keep a roof over her (and her three-legged cat's) head(s). The plotting and pacing are breakneck and this is one which readers can devour in a sitting or two. The dialogue is occasionally a bit twee, but all in all it's a fun ride with a satisfying denouement. The language is firmly PG (with hell, damn, bloody, and the occasional "f-bomb". There is no graphic content. Spelling and vernacular are UK standard (lift, lorry, tyre, flat, etc). It shouldn't pose any problems in context for readers. The authors hint strongly at series follow ups (in fact, book 2 will be out in March 2021); and I find myself looking forward to seeing what comes next for Pip & Most (of a cat).

Four stars. Fun.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

Epiphany ‘Pip’ Bloom is down on her luck as usual. She is broke and she needs to pay her rent else she might have to go to her mummy for the money. And we all know as a grown-up that can get quite tricky. 
She goes for an interview for a temp job but ends up getting mistaken for a missing persons expert at a  private investigation firm. She takes it as an opportunity to get back on her feet and begins her search for the teenage son of two A-list celebrities. 
This takes Pip into the strange, intimidating world of the rich and famous. The question is will she without any experience in this line of work be able to find the boy and get him back home safe. 

This was absolutely entertaining and hilarious. It is a feel-good cozy mystery with adorable characters. 
I had great fun reading it and was laughing out loud throughout. Pip is such a likable character. I enjoyed the exchanges she had with her mom and sister. And then there is flirting, very awkward flirting which was really fun to read too.  And despite all the funny elements, there is the suspense in the plot and it kept me hooked. 

A light and funny read and a great series to look forward to.

An entertaining and well written romance.  Good plot and character dynamics. A touch of humor.  I recommend this book.  I received an advance ebook from the publisher and Netgalley.  This is my unbiased review.

Epiphany (Pip) Bloom is down on her luck--money and job wise. Epiphany is not poor but mommy dearest is not letting her anywhere near her trust fund dough at the moment. Epiphany wants to keep a steady job but she somehow has always found her well meaning self in the wrong place and situation in her previous short lived jobs. So when a temporary job as an office assistant comes her way she grabs it but when she ends up being mistaken as a private investigator by a leading investigation firm and given a case of a missing teenager to solve, she decides to go alongwith it... what's a little charade as long as it pays her bills and lets her put her 'investigative skills' to use. And thus Epiphany Bloom's career as a PI takes off!

A promising start to a new cozy mystery series by the author Katie Gayle. I think I am going to like Epiphany a lot and her interaction with her eccentric social media influencer sister Felicity in the book had me chucking away and I hope to see much of it in the next books too. Also, beneath all the eccentricity and lighthearted fun, this book touches upon the issue of the sometimes insane & dangerous level of influence social media and social media influencers can have on people and their mindsets.

My thanks to NetGalley, the publisher Bookouture and the author for the e-Arc of the book. 

The book was published on 2nd December 2020.

Rating:🌟🌟🌟🌟

I love romantic comedies, and I love thrillers too. So getting a combination of the two in this book had me feeling genuinely excited to start reading it.

When Ephinany Bloom, mainly known as Pip, finds herself being cut off from her Mothers funding – and she begins to fall behind in rent – she is forced into the working world and has to quickly take on a job. She is taken on by Sharon at Boston Investigations as a filing clerk. When she arrives on her first day, she finds herself being mistaken as an expert in Adolescent Psychology, and she finds herself being quickly thrown into a missing person’s case of a celebrity couples son.

What follows next is a tale full of misadventures and also self discovery. As she is thrown headfirst into the case, she finds herself having to use the knowledge she has collected over the years to gather clues that will help them find out exactly what happened. The only problem is – she has gathered this knowledge from watching many Television programs.

Pip has a big heart, and it is certainly in he right place. But one thing I loved about this book is how as she is thrown into this unusual case of mistaken identity, it really makes her grow as a person. Although she is usually the one in the wrong in a lot of circumstances, she seems to thrive throughout this book.

This book was an absolute delight to read! It was fun, heart warming, and the perfect book to escape into. The characters – although not always relatable, were likeable, and my love for Pip grew stronger as the story unfolded. The author brings the setting to life beautifully and really brings the story to life in your mind.

Princess Fuzzypants here:  When first introduced to Pip, the reader is forgiven for thinking her a vacuous airhead, privileged, unable to take responsibility and aimless.  She rents a room from a bloke she fancies but cannot pay her rent now that Mummy has cut her off.  What is she and her three legged cat going to do.

In desperation, she reaches out to a temp agency and in a case of mistaken identity that Pip willingly encourages, she is sent on a mission to find the missing son of a movie star living in London while making a film.  There is no indication of foul play so Pip figures it will be an easy way to make her rent money.  Little does she know that she is about to discover her niche as she investigates very efficiently to locate the boy.  Along the way, things that look innocent end up being nefarious and when she finds him, she uncovers a plot that highlights the danger of internet celebrity and “influencers”.  She picks up assorted associates along the way and together they uncover  a heinous crime.and bring a duplicitous and wicked villain to task.

Once I got into the book and realized for all of her quirks, Pip is probably one of the most level headed and focused characters whose light has been hidden heretofore.  I enjoyed her adventures and hope that there are more of them coming.  Five purrs and two paws up.

Desperate for a job and a case of mistaken identity while applying for a temp job made Pip an amateur sleuth in charge of a case of a missing son of multi-millionaires.

Bordering on cozy and a tiny amount of chic-lit, I enjoyed following Pip on her shenanigans. Author Katie Gayle etched out a well-rounded character, entrenched in the love of her mother and sister, exasperated by them too, the story had her following the various leads in cults and social media influencers.

Many secrets in the various groups had her taking risks, but the author managed to find an escape route for her. The first book in a light crime mystery series, Pip soon endeared herself to me as I scrolled down the pages. The mystery was intriguing, and I enjoyed the hilarious moments with her sister, Flis. I especially liked Jimmy, an instructor in the gym, who stuck himself to her side to help her with the investigation.

Relentless and determined, the nosey parker did lead herself to a dark finale. Though not my genre, it sure was fun to read her capers as she went undercover on a false identity. A terrific mood-uplifter after intense thrillers.

Epiphany Bloom - known as Pip - has taken on another temp job. She has a fabulous opportunity in front of her, even though it is due to an error. She is mistaken for a private investigator. Without revealing the truth, Pip jumps in with both feet and commits to finding the missing teenage son of a celebrity couple named Matty Price. 

Whether due to curiosity or indeed a hidden talent, Pip is determined to discover what has happened to Matty. She soon finds herself mixed up with a crowd of a higher echelon, and what she learns about these people does not bring good results. 

Cozy mysteries are one of my favorite types of read. In this case, our primary protagonist is expected to be an expert, so to speak. Since she is nothing of the sort, she must put up a brave front that is accompanied by some level of skill. Like with every cozy mystery I read, Pip finds herself in trouble more than once. No one likes too many questions, and this is exactly what Pip is doing - pushing buttons. Well, she pushes a bit too hard, because she really wants Matty to be found safe and sound.

Not only is Pip a delightful character, I fell for her cat, a three-legged feline named Most. I don't know what it is about this type of books and pets, but they always make a good combination, and that certainly proves to be the case in this story. With this story, the authors did a fabulous job with their debut writing together. I really loved this book and hope that there is much more to come from Pip, Most and others that we met in this engaging read. 

Many thanks to Bookouture and to NetGalley for this ARC for review. This is my honest opinion.

The Kensington Kidnap (Epiphany Bloom Mysteries Book 1) by Katie Gayle
Publisher: Bookouture
Genre: Mystery & Thrillers
Release Date: December 2, 2020

The Kensington Kidnap is the first book in the Epiphany Bloom Mysteries by Katie Gayle, the writing duo Kate Sidley and Gail Schimmel. This is the first book I've read by the author pair.

This was a fun cozy mystery featuring Epiphany (Pip) Bloom, who finds herself smack down in the middle of a missing person investigation. This was captivating mystery with touches of humor throughout.

I really enjoyed reading this and look forward to reading the future books in the series.

I'm so grateful to Katie Gayle, Bookouture, and NetGalley for providing me with a free copy of this ARC ebook in exchange for my honest review.

The Kensington Kidnap is an engaging, suspenseful cozy mystery that will make you laugh and keep you reading to discover the next exciting clue. I loved this lighthearted mystery that superbly combined humor and suspense. Epiphany Bloom, aka Pip, is the perfect protagonist in this entertaining caper involving kidnapping, cults, and influencers. This puzzle is a winning combination of fun and thrills! I highly recommend this to all cozy mystery fans! Thank you NetGalley and Bookouture for my ARC. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

The Kensington Kidnap by Katie Gayle is the introductory novel in the Epiphany Bloom Mysteries. Pip, who has not had success in previous jobs, and is essentially a loser, is sent to a detective agency for a temporary filing job. There is a mistake in identity and she is thought to be a psychologist brought in to solve a missing person case. The son of a movie star is missing, and his family doesn’t want the public to know about it. Epiphany (Pip) spends most of her time reading about celebrities and being star struck, so she is excited to meet the family and already knows a bit about the celeb that she is trying to find; she goes along with the mistake, takes an envelope full of money and information (her rent is late), and decides to try to solve the case. Meeting the real psychologist outside the building, she tells her that her job is gone because she is late. The way in which Pip gets the job is a bit dodgy, but as she follows clues, she finds she is pretty good at detective work and may actually solve the mystery in the end.

This first novel in the series introduces readers to Pip’s character; she is fairly well-developed, albeit quite immature and certainly entitled; nor would she be considered particularly smart. The supporting characters are also well-developed. Gayle tells the story well, and it is easy to follow. Some of the early stuff doesn’t grab, especially the tree-hugger stuff, but it is essential to the story, and as the novel progresses, it gets more and more interesting. Pip is having better luck at this job than anything she has had prior. Some may find her previous exploits humorous (others may find them silly and unbelievable). One thing that readers will find charming is Pip’s cat who was rescued from a disastrous job losing a leg after being hit with a car; Pip names the cat “Most” because it is “most” of a cat. 

This cozy novel is suitable for everyone, and is a bit on the immature side. It is, however, an enjoyable quick read.

Special thanks to NetGalley for supplying a review copy of this book.

loved this story. There was a mystery, a lot of humor, an entertaining investigator (amateur sleuth), a cult, intrigue, celebrities and a plot that kept me interested all the way through this story. Epiphany ‘Pip’ Bloom is in trouble. Her mother has cut off her allowance, she has no job, and owes rent. She has a three-legged cat named Most, and influencer sister named Fliss and her landlord and friend Tim to support her. When she takes on a temp job and a Private Investigation firm, she is mistaken for someone else. When they offer her an envelope of cash to work on a missing person case, she makes the decision to take the money and solve the case. This will show her mother that she can be responsible and just as good as her sister. The fun starts there.

Pip and her sister Felicity aka Flis were quite the pair. Pip is a bit of a clutz and leaves disaster and misadventure in her wake. Flis has a vocabulary that had me spitting out my coffee at some points. She uses so many words incorrectly that Pip has become a pro at interpreting what she is trying to say. I enjoyed the secondary characters as well and thought they were all well-developed. Pip actually did a great job with her investigation. She followed the clues, dug into things and did a good job with her impersonating to get to the bottom of what was happening. There were a lot of clues to follow and chances were taken. This turned out to be a serious investigation with life threatening consequences, and what Pip ended up uncovering was a lot more than this reader expected. My one niggle is that there appears to be a love triangle emerging. I like both of the male characters so, hopefully, it will work out in a positive way, only time will tell. I am definitely looking forward to the next book in this series, to see what Pip gets involved in next.

A quick and easy read that I found myself picking up after a long day to unwind. The characters are beautifully written and I came to love them within the first few pages and was rooting for them all the way to the end. At times I wanted to stop reading because I just wanted the experience to go on for longer. Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This was a really fun, lighthearted read.  I liked Pip, who desperate for work goes for a temping job at a detective agency, where she is mistaken for a hot shot detective.  Rather than correct their error, she takes on the case.

This is a very promising start to a new series. I look forward to seeing what scrapes Pip gets herself into next!

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for my review.

Aww I really enjoyed the kensington kidnap 
it was a fun and light-hearted book 
that was well written and a good little mystery book. If you want to try getting into mystery books  then I think this one is a really great place to start  as it isn't too heavy and reads really well. 

In this book we meet Epiphanyyy Bloom, or otherwise known as Pip. Pip seems to hop from one disaster to the other all the way through this book. Pip is unemployed, has little money, no money to pay her rent or herr bills and her love life is also no existent. 

But then it's like the universe decides to give her a helping hand and a case of mistaken identity gets her a temporary job as a private investigator searching for a missing teenager. But Can she keep up the pretence long enough to find the missing boy...?

Epiphany Bloom, known as Pip, seems to rattle from one disaster to the next. She is unemployed, has no rent money and no boyfriend. But then a case of mistaken identity gets her a temporary job as a private investigator searching for a missing teenager. Can she keep up the pretence long enough to find the boy...?
The Kensington Kidnap is a fun and light hearted cosy mystery novel. The tone of the narrative is gentle even during scenes with more action. This book frequently left me with a smile on my face at implied and direct comedic moments.
The plot itself is not particularly realistic but that doesn't matter at all as the overall novel is so entertaining and I felt myself pulled along by the main character.
Pip's character is absolutely fantastic. There are plenty of allusions to incidents and escapades in the past which tantalise the reader by making you imagine the madcap things she is capable of. She is very endearing as she attempts to solve the mystery in her own exuberant style.
I also adored Pip's sister Flis. A blogger (like me!) but her misuse of words is hilarious and they have a really lovely relationship. I hope we meet their overbearing mother in a future book...
The kidnapping plot is engaging and I think the extra dimension of the environment and social media adds a layer of context. I had suspicions about what and who was behind the 'kidnap' but the ending and full reveal was still a surprise.
Overall, I love The Kensington Kidnap: it was the perfect light relief to relax with.

The story follows Epiphany Bloom. What a wonderful and exotic name! That caught me at the outset. The quirky name was a good indicator for the rest of the book which was weird but wonderful as well. 
I thoroughly enjoyed this one. It's not a page turner, but I liked the way the plot developed. I liked the way the author spent the entire first chapter on Pip's background. It was also refreshing not to have dead bodies right at the beginning of the story. This book has a little bit of everything that makes a good cozy mystery - amateur sleuth, love triangle, quirky characters etc. 
I would definitely read the rest of the series.

This was an adrenaline-filled start to a new series. We are introduced to our lead protagonist in bits and pieces. Every time you think you know something about Epiphany Bloom (Pip), she adds a missing bit to the current information about her previous jobs to change the tone of the incidents. This latter part involved me changing my mind about her multiple times as well.


Pip has no income, her mother is hounding her, her sister is more than a little scatterbrained. They altogether constitute a very vibrant supporting cast. The plot begins with a bit of impromptu impersonation followed by some more identities to be juggled while working on a missing child. Finally, I must mention the plastic angle was well handled. I was initially baffled by its introduction but then ended up liking the twist.


This is a cozy mystery with all the misadventures possible thrown in including and not limited to a possible future love triangle. I reserved my judgement in the rating because I want to see what the next instalment has in store for me.

⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 4 out of 5.

I received an ARC thanks to NetGalley and the publishers, but the review is entirely based on my own reading experience.

This was a fun read and the main character, Pip, was utterly charming.  This is a bit of a lighter book than I usually read, but did include some heavier topics here and there throughout the book.  The book starts out with Pip down on her luck, jobless and not able to make rent, with her well-to-do mother refusing to help bail her out yet again.  You learn that Pip has a rather irresponsible outlook to working and has done a bunch of jobs with random things happening that always get her fired.  She takes a job as a file clerk at an investigations firm and is mistaken for an expert in the field and tasked with finding the missing son of an A-list celebrity couple.  Turns out that Pip IS an expert on celebrities since she spends so much of her time reading magazines and Instragram, so she is eager to get involved and figures it's worth it to not tell them of their mistake and go see if she can find the missing teenager. 

Pip goes off to investigate, with the help of her flaky sister Flis, her roommate and potential love interest, Tim, and a random guy (and potential other love interest) who runs a gym named Jimmy that she met when trying to "track down leads".  As the reader, there were times I was super stressed on her behalf as she tried to pretend to be someone else and delved deeper into secrets of a seemingly innocuous environmental group that seems to be connected to the case.  Pip doesn't take herself too seriously and I had to remind myself that I shouldn't either- I was just hoping she wouldn't get herself killed!

This is overall a light and fun read and I was excited to see that it was the first book in a series because I want to know what happens to Pip next.  It's more of a cozy mystery than a psychological thriller but I'd recommend even to those who normally read darker books, as it's just an enjoyable read.  Thanks to Netgalley for providing me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Pip seems to have all the randomness of odd things happening to her whilst at work. She seems to mix things up and oddly sometimes it is not her fault, but she has always ended up getting fired. Now at her wits end how to pay the rent, but at the same time not over anxious over it, she is so optimistic that something will turn up. Turn up it does.

Going for a job interview as a filing clerk, mistakenly taken for a private investigator, she gets landed with a top job - finding a missing boy, son of two celebrities who have problems of their own and who do not want any publicity at all about the missing teenager. 

Not having a clue (!) how to start a search she does what lots of people do nowadays, she puts in a google search to get her started and through luck, and charisma and personal charm manages to inveigle her way out of sticky situations getting a lot of information to boot. 

A fun light hearted read but there was one murder in between, you can get exasperated with Pip, you'd want to murder her at times and I loved the way her sister Fliss murdered the English language!!!

Part of a series this is Book No. 1.