This is the second cozy mystery in this series and is as enjoyable as was the first. I like Jenna as an amateur sleuth. She is feisty and has a quick temper. Keith, her detective boyfriend, has a tempering influence on her. He helps her think through issues before she flies off into danger.

But Jenna gets into some danger anyway as she works to solves a murder. Besides being an entertaining cozy mystery, we learn quite a bit about antique books. Jenna is in the process of making her newly acquired bookstore a viable business, buying and pricing antique books. The man who was murdered was the expert in antique books at the local library. It was interesting to read how libraries handled valuable books in their collections as well as how crooks can fraudulently sell antique books.

Black has provided another good cozy mystery with a good plot, some over the top quirky characters, a good setting in the antique book world, and a wonderful rescue dog.

I received a complimentary egalley of this book from the publisher. My comments are an independent and honest review.

Murder by the Bookend by Laura Gail Black is book two in the An Antique Bookshop Mystery. It can be read as a stand alone. This is already one of my favorites.
This well written Cozy has plenty of twists , turns and suspects. The main characters are likeable and relatable. . There is romance and humor. Jenna is the perfect protagonist, she provides the humor while being a tad ditzy but she is also smart and doesn't let fear stop her.
A book repairman is found murdered after Jenna's grand opening of her bookstore and she decides to keep his dog, Eddy. She starts asking questions, as to who wanted Linus dead. She apparently stepped on toes, as someone tries to poison Eddy. Jenna sets out on finding out who is guilty and finds her self in few situations she may not get out of
I was given an ARC by Crooked Lane Books via NetGalley for an honest review..

This was a fantastic read! I really enjoyed the mystery of who killed the antique book expert. This has a great pool of suspects for the crime, and enough twists and turns to keep you guessing. Great second installment in the series and I can't wait for book three!

I enjoyed this mystery novel. The setting, plot and characters were all interesting and kept me engaged through to the end. An entertaining light read.

This was a great cozy mystery! Jenna is a great protagonist, and I enjoyed "solving" the mystery with her. The writing is great, and the mystery was well done!

This is the second book in the An Antique Bookshop Mystery and it did not disappoint. I loved all of the red herrings and dead ends Laura lead us down. Cozy, mysteries are my favorite genre, and a cozy mystery that takes place in a book store is the cat's meow. I cannot wait to read book #3.

For a second book in a series with, probably, more to come, this book is interesting and well written.

I liked that the author refrained from lengthy descriptions of everything and everyone, which could be due to it being a second in a series, and the story had a certain pace that made it a quick enough read.
On the other hand, I found that some characters seemed somewhat shallow and impossible to imagine in 3D. I could have done without the mooning over the cop by Jenna but it was overall a good read and I got myself a copy of book 1 to get the background on the main characters.

Good fun read. Very enjoyable book. Lots of false flags and unexpected twists. Looking forward to the next book in the series!

This story was a bit of a surprise, it jumped up and bit me, and I was truly captivated. I thought it would have been a talkie, talkie mystery, but that’s where the surprise came in. It was an exciting, intriguing, captivating, and entertaining fun read. Keith and Jenna finally began to grow closer as things took a turn for the worst.

After her uncle's killer is apprehended, Jenna has decided to stay in Hokes Folly and continue running the bookstore he bequeathed her. However, when the local library's Director of Antique Books gets bashed in the head and killed after leaving the store's grand reopening party, she finds herself once again defending her innocence against a local detective with a grudge. Jenna soon finds several people- all of whom were at the party- who had grievances with the dead mana and takes it upon herself to figure out who killed him.

As much as I enjoyed book one of this series, I enjoyed book two even more. I thought that I had everything figured out right up until the killer was revealed, but I was pleasantly surprised to be completely wrong...kudos to the author for that! The characters are even more fun now that I'm getting to know them better, with one exception who I despise now even more than I did with book one. The book did leave some loose ends, in my opinion, which I'm sure (hopefully!) will be addressed in the next book. I have absolutely no issues with that, as it just gives me more reasons to look forward to book three!

This is becoming a favorite series for me. The characters, the setting -- all of these things contributed to my enjoyment.

Jenna, the primary character, is such a fun character and, of course, any book with a bookstore and a murder just makes my mouth water! Everything was on point for me.

Thank you to NetGalley and Crooked Lane Books for the opportunity to read and provide an honest review of this book.

A solid follow-up to the first book.

Jenna is teaching me that old and rare books are dangerous. Poor girl cannot catch a break. Her grand reopening proves to have a killer of an ending. Now she must find the killer before her livelihood and town are destroyed.

My favorite was the addition of Eddy, the victim's dog. He was a treat. I hope his character presence increases in the series. He brings out an even sweeter side of Jenna.

You can read this book without reading the first but as always with a series, you get more if you start from the beginning.

I received a complimentary copy from the publisher, Crooked Lane Books, through NetGalley. All opinions expressed in the above are entirely my own.

Another excellent edition to a wonderful series! Full of twists and turns that leaves you wanting more and enjoying each moment until the end when the killer is caught!

This the 2nd installment in the Antique Bookshop Mystery series. Jenna Quinn is hosting a grand re-opening party for the antique bookshop renamed Twice Upon A Time she inherited from her Uncle Paul who had been killed in the first installment. She has invited select patrons and all is going well with when book appraiser Linus Talbot arrives with his cute little dog Eddie (in bow tie and all) and soon a few other patrons feathers are ruffled. First, Bradford Prescott, then Selina and her husband Douglas and another patron Alice King. No one seems to get along with Linus. Linus wins a pair of antique bookends and is later found after Eddie is seen running by the shop with blood on his paws. Detective Frank Sutter is once nasty with Jenna almost accusing her right away of the murder but Keith her boyfriend said that he, Rita and Mason (store manager) can all verify that Jenna never left the bookstore. With no one else to take This Eddie, Jenna takes him and is trying not to get involved until Eddie is poisoned at the bookshop one day. Now it is personal again. This was a good mystery and I went back and forth on who it was and did not figure it out until the very end. I love the relationships she has with Rita, Mason and of course Keith. Looking forward to see what happens next.

This is the second book in the series and I’ve not read the first one. The book can certainly stand alone and the author gives just enough background information so the reader knows what’s going on. I like the character of Jenna and she is surrounded by good friends and they all look out for each other. Also a few really quirky and odd characters to make things entertaining..

. Murder by the Bookend is the 2nd book in th Antique Bookshop Mystery series by Laura Gail Black.
I found this book to be a very enjoyable cozy mystery. I liked the characters, and I thought the story was well written. I was able to follow the clues given, though I did not guess the suspect until the end. I am looking forward to reading future books in this series.
I would recommend this book for those who love cozy mysteries.

Thank you Netgalley for the e-ARC which I voluntarily reviewed..

This is the second in a cozy mystery series about Jenna, who inherits her uncle’s antique bookstore in the small town of Hokes Folly. In the first book, her uncle was murdered and Jenna accused of the crime - and spent months in jail until able to prove her innocence, something rarely seen in a cozy. Finally acquitted, Jenna’s holding a grand reopening for the bookstore when disaster strikes again, with an expert on rare books killed in the car park just after the event.

Jenna’s dating a police detective who, again unlike the cops in most cozies, does not tell her in uncertain terms to stay out of things. Instead he just asks her to be careful, something Jenna’s pretty bad at. The other police detective who irrationally has it in for her doesn’t help matters - and there are some unresolved plot threads there which make me wonder if they are going to reappear in future books, along with at least two genuinely terrible people who were nevertheless not the murderers (on this occasion).

I enjoyed this a lot. Jenna’s very relatable, and a very kind person, good to her friends, her staff, and even kind to people who have treated her badly. I was charmed by the North Carolina setting, especially the magnificent Hokes Folly hotel, a Gilded Age mansion. Although I hadn’t read the first book, there was enough backstory given - and not infodumped - that I had a pretty good idea what had gone on, and I’d be happy to read more books in the series. Five stars.

An excellent follow up to the first in the series (which I loved!). Jenna is such a down-to-earth person who is 100% relatable. I found myself rolling my eyes with her with some of the antics of Selina March, giddy with excitement when she welcomed a new family member, and laughed alongside her and her friends throughout this whole book. She did, at times, do things that made me want to kick her (the TSTL moments in all cozies) but I found her character refreshing and believable. The setting of the antique bookshop in the cute downtown area is perfect and I look forward to more adventures with her.

Murder by the Bookend by Laura Gail Black has Jenna Quinn having a grand reopening of the bookshop she inherited from her uncle. She is renaming the store to Twice Upon a Time. The party has a few bumps along the way, but it seemed to go well. That is until Linus Talbot is found dead in the parking lot. Jenna must deal with disagreeable Detective Frank Sutter once again since her beau, Keith Logan is a witness. Jenna is told to stay out of the investigation, but she has no intention of obeying. Linus was a kind man with a sweet dog, and he was killed in her parking lot. Plus, Jenna does not trust Detective Sutter. Jenna begins gathering information that will lead her to Linus’ killer. Murder by the Bookend is the 2nd book in An Antique Bookshop Mystery series. I believe it can be read as a standalone. A summary of the main details from For Whom the Book Tolls is included. It contains good writing with steady pacing. I like the small town of Hokes Folly, North Carolina. The author provided vivid descriptions of the town along with the residents. We are introduced to quite a few people in the beginning of the book as they attend the grand reopening. There are a couple of individuals who I would have preferred as the victim instead of the Linus Talbot (maybe in the next book). There are several suspects in Linus’ death. There is a good misdirect to lead readers away from the true culprit. The clues are there to help readers solve the crime. I was left with an unanswered question regarding the mystery at the end. I just loved Linus’ dog, Eddy (full name Edition). He is a sweet dog. There is a little violence in the story as well as a small amount of profanity. I did have some trouble relating to Jenna which meant I was never able to become fully immersed into the story. I also felt the romance between Jenna and Keith Logan progressed too quickly for a cozy mystery. Murder by the Bookend is a quaint Southern cozy mystery with a cute canine, blown glass bookends, a departed antiquarian, a banged-up book, a disgruntled detective, and a sleuthing bookseller.

Too many continuity and repetition issues for me to consider this a good book. I found myself bouncing back and forth between paragraphs questioning if the author, Laura Gail Black, had just said something different or hasn’t this been covered a couple of times already. Reading an advanced copy tends to have its issues, but these types of distractions, for me at least, tend to cause a lack of reading flow and leads me to wonder when it will happen again instead of being focused on what is coming next.

In my opinion, the second book in this series did not live up to the expectation laid out in For Whom the Books Tolls, the first book in this series.