Charlotte Reed is back in the third installment of the Booklover's B&B Mystery series. This time she is hosting a retreat for a book club that focuses on fairy tales and classic children’s literature. When one of the guests drops over dead at a Mad Hatter themed tea party, Charlotte finds herself playing host to a murderer. The victim was not well liked by the other members of the book club, and all of them had access to the poison that was used to kill her. Aside from being thoroughly unlikable, the victim also has a shady past and may have been using her legitimate business as a cover for criminal activities. Charlotte enlists the help of her neighbor, boyfriend, and her friends to help her find the killer before she becomes the next victim.

A FATAL BOOKING is a great addition to the Booklover's B&B series. Charlotte continues to grow as a character, and her amateurs investigation skills are improving. The continuing plotline involving Charlotte's aunt former job as a spy ties all of the books together. With each novel, we learn a little more about the enigmatic Isabella Harrington. I really enjoyed all of the facts about the poison that Gilbert included. She lists numerous other (non-lethal) things that the poison can be used for, and gives an innocent reason as to why each suspect could have had it in their possession. The only thing I really found unbelievable was that all of these people—most of whom don't get along—would continue being in a book club and going on trips together.

Charlotte and her Chapters Bed and Breakfast are the sight for a retreat of classical children's literature book lovers. All seems to be going well, even if the group is eclectic and nobody seems to really like each other. That is until one of the guests turns up dead in the garden during a Mad Hatter Tea Party. On top of the murder, someone is swiping photos and rummaging in her attic. The sets Charlotte and her neighbor Ellen investigating along with their friends. This includes agent Gavin who is sweet on Charlotte.

This is a fun cozy. I love the characters, especially Charlottes friends. The story is a page turner and there are soo many suspects. Entertaining and a fun read.

This is the third book in the Book lovers B&B mystery series. I highly recommend reading this series in order.

Charlotte is delighted to welcome an eclectic group of guests to Chapters Bed and Breakfast for a book club retreat focused on fairy tales and classic children’s literature. But then one of the guests, an opinionated busybody whose jewelry store sold original designs, along with some possibly “hot” merchandise, is poisoned at a Mad Hatter tea party.

Can Charlotte with the help of her neighbor, Ellen, solve the crime? This is a wonderful and well written cozy mystery!!

This is a part of a series but I dont think it would be a problem if you hadn't read the previous books.

A cosy murder mystery - a little obvious but I enjoyed the characters and general plot.

Thank you for the arc.

In the third Booklover's B&B novel Charlotte Reed and her former spy neighbor, Ellen Montgomery investigate the murder of a Chapters Bed & Breakfast guest.

Chapters is the perfect place for a book club retreat. As Charlotte gets to know her guests she realizes they really don't like each other very much. It shouldn't be a surprise when one ends up dead, and all of the others have a strong motive to kill her.

Charlotte and Ellen, along with a few neighbors are determined to identify the killer before anyone else dies.

If you're looking for an action-packed cozy mystery with an interesting suspect pool, I'd recommend checking out A Fatal Booking. This book was so compelling, I stayed up much later than I should have to finish it!

I liked that the reader is given all the clues they need to solve the mystery, but the mystery wasn't straightforward either. I was able to correctly guess the individual(s) involved but was still interested in seeing whether my guess was correct and how the pieces of the puzzle came together in the end.

I was particularly impressed at how in-depth Gilbert went into the poisoning. It's nothing graphic or overly violent, but the reader does learn more about how the poison could have been sourced and general information about its properties. This was intriguing to me, and I think it helped make the mystery more realistic.

On a less positive note, I found it a bit unbelievable that Charlotte was allowed to know about the past or present participation of her boyfriend, neighbour, and late great-aunt in American intelligence gathering. While I liked how they spiced up the action, I didn't love this aspect of the book either. At times, I felt that they provided Charlotte with a bit too much convenient help.

In a genre where characters of colour are rare, I was pleased to see the inclusion of several.

Thank you to NetGalley and Crooked Lane Books for providing me with an ARC. All opinions expressed are my own. This book works as a standalone. Readers do not have to read previous books in the series before reading A Fatal Booking.

First off: THAT ENDING!!!!!
Without giving anything anyway, this was one of the best cozy mystery endings I've read in a long time. Seriously, five stars. I was on the edge of my seat. I had suspicions about who the deviant was in this story, and actually guessed correctly. Either way, Victoria Gilbert had my attention from start to finish.

Second, my new life goal is to sit in the gardens at Chapters and read books and sip lemonade.

Third, if you haven't started this series yet, I highly recommend that you do.

Thank you so much Cooked Lane Books for the opportunity to read an advanced copy of this book, on sale June 7, 2022 #AFatalBooking #NetGalley

The third installment in a thrilling new series! When a guest is found dead at her B and B, and all the guests appear to have had an issue with her, Charlotte and Ellen don their sleuthing hats to find out what really happened. I absolutely loved the literary time ins as well as the camaraderie of the book club members! Not to mention Gavin! I adored his and Charlotte's budding relationship and look forward to it growing in the future!

I will be one of the first to admit, I absolutely love Victoria Gilbert’s books.Her cozy mysteries have wonderful and quirky characters and her imagination within each story is fantastic. This one is a murder within the book club and theme was the MadHatter.

If you haven’t read any of Victoria Gilbert’s cozies, you need to. You are most definitely in for a treat. The story was fast, fun and easy to read and is a great respite from all the heavy stories most of us read.

Get yourself a cup of your favorite beverage, sit back for a couple of hours and read until your hearts content. You will enjoy this one.

Thank you #netgalley and #crookedlanebooks for allowing me to read an advance readers copy of this book.

While this isn’t my favorite series by Victoria Gilbert I do enjoy the B&B Mystery series. I just wish it was one of those series that I figured out who did it half way through.

Another great mystery from Victoria Gilbert, this time, the third in the Booklover's B&B mystery series.

In this one, members of a book club retreat are staying at Charlotte's B&B, Chapters. A book club focusing on classic children's literature and fairy tales shouldn't lead to a murder but, of course, it does.

There's a great cast of recurring characters in this series and it's a joy to read. More please.

Hosting a book club, isn’t supposed to turn into murder, but when it does Charlotte and her friends turn to find the killer. A quick and easy read enjoyable mystery too.

Booklover Charlotte is delighted to welcome an eclectic group of guests to Chapters Bed and Breakfast for a book club retreat focused on fairy tales and classic children’s literature. But when one of the guests is poisoned at a Mad Hatter tea party, Charlotte realizes she’s fallen down a rather unpleasant rabbit hole. And so begins the 3rd book in this really delightful series. Not overly complicated, quick reading and a well plotted mystery make this book a fun time. If you enjoy cozies set in colorful and interesting surroundings, you will love this series. Thank you NetGalley for the advanced readers copy for review.

A Fatal Booking is a great read. Charlotte Reed is the main character who inherited Chapters B&B from her Aunt Isabella Harrington. She had a reputation as a socialite giving great parties. The other characters just add to the story. A book club group is staying at the B&B. Lara Kane, an artist who designs jewelry went to school with Charlotte and head of this group. Stacy Wilkins is part of the book club but is not staying at the B&B. There is much animosity between her and the other members of the group. Stacy also has a run in with a Captain Sam Jointer who owns a fishing tour fleet and threatened her. . Arnold Dean is an elderly man who is godfather to Lora and is a member of the book club.. He went to school with her neighbor Ellen Montgomery. Stacy is found dead in the garden of the B&B from poisoning at the tea party which brings in Detective Amber Johnson. All of this adds to the suspense of the story. Over the years there is many unsolved burglaries of vintage jewelry. Charlotte and Ellen want to find out who killed Stacy and why. This takes them on many adventures which ends in a climax of an exciting ending.

I look forward to the next in this series and to see where the story line goes with Charlotte, her boyfriend, Gavin and Ellen.

Thank you NetGalley and Crooked Lane Books for this ARC.

I received this ARC via Netgalley and Crooked Lane Books, in return for an honest review. This is the third book in this series and easily read as a stand-alone. Widowed Charlotte Reed is settling into her new life as the owner of a literary themed B&B. the setting allows all kinds of interesting people into her life and unusual events to occur. When a book club rents all the rooms to host a week of discussions about fairy tales and classic children’s literature, Charlotte pulls out all the stops, including helping with a Mad Hatter’s Tea Party which the members attend in costume. Charlotte quickly realizes that the members are less than happy with each other with several underlying points of tension. When she discovers one of them dead of poison in her garden, Charlotte enlists her next-door neighbor, Ellen, to assist her in solving the crime and saving the B&B. Given Ellen’s background as a former spy handler, Charlotte is confident they can figure out who did it. I like the women in the story and their strength of character. There’s some romance for Charlotte which is nice and not too much. I look forward to the next in the series.

I would like to preface this review by saying that I did not that this book was a part of a series so maybe I will go check out the first two and come to this one once I have a little more context to see if my feelings about it change.
This was a very meh read, particularly because I didn't like being in the MC head. I know she wasn't like a real detective or anything but her little asides came of as catty and snide instead of like actual observations. Also old girl was just jumping to conclusions about everybody?!! (I feel like a bee could have pitched on the deceased that day and she would have found some way to find a possible link to the death). I also think I need to check out the first two books in this series to get her animosity (maybe this is too strong a word) towards Alicia. To me it read like the MC was kinda empathic to the fact the B&B was left to her instead of Alicia who had been there for years but also there was this note of superiority in her town when they had their interactions, yea didn't care that. Also felt like the author was doing just a bit too much with Stacy's character. Like I get that she was a bad person(she was out here stealing, gossiping and lying on people's name but on top of that she was racist too, ok)

Charlotte owns Chapters B&B and is hosting a book club retreat in book 3 of Booklover's B&B Mysteries by Victoria Gilbert. This is an enjoyable cozy mystery with likable, interesting characters and a mystery that will keep you guessing. At the book club retreat's Mad Hatter tea party, a member is poisoned and all of the guests had a motive. Charlotte, her next door neighbor, Ellen, and Charlotte's new boyfriend Gavin work together to sort through all the clues and lies to reveal the truth. All of the books in this series are enjoyable! #NetGalley #CrookedLaneBooks #AFatalBooking #VictoriaGilbert

I was given a free e-copy of this novel by NetGalley in exchange for my honest opinion.
Booklover Charlotte is delighted to welcome an eclectic group of guests to Chapters Bed and Breakfast for a book club retreat focused on fairy tales and classic children’s literature. But when one of the guests is poisoned at a Mad Hatter tea party, Charlotte realizes she’s fallen down a rather unpleasant rabbit hole

The victim – an opinionated busybody whose jewelry store sold original designs, along with some possibly “hot” merchandise – had plenty of enemies, spurring Charlotte and Ellen to offer their well-honed investigative skills to assist the local police. But as they delve deeper into the each of the guest’s stories, they realize all of them had a motive, and the means, to close the book on the unfortunate victim.

Enlisting the aid of a few local residents, as well as their new ally, agent Gavin Howard, Charlotte and Ellen vow to reveal the truth, even if the path to any sort of happy ending is strewn with deadly danger. (Goodreads synopsis)

I read the second novel of Victoria Gilbert’s Booklover’s B&B series, and had been iffy about the series at that time. This third novel, however, I enjoyed more and rated it accordingly.

The murder was set up perfectly and the hows and whys were apparently obscured. I followed along with Charlotte, but I did suspect someone before Charlotte did. I find that I am more cynical than the main character, so I struggle to maintain the written pace, but that’s my flaw and not anything to do with the novel.

What I liked about this novel was more of the personal growth from Charlotte. While the reader doesn’t get to see all of the blossoming relationship, we do get to see snippets, and it makes Charlotte more personable. I also like that there was less of the espionage background in this novel. There were references to the past, but the murder was the main focus and I didn’t feel anything distracted the reader from that.

There was less of the Booklover’s theme, because there wasn’t really any book club meetings. I mean they had them, but they weren’t about books. Which I thought was kinda cool, that these people get together outside of book club.
Overall I rate this novel 5 out of 5 stars.

This series is really hitting the spot for me. The setting and characters are fun, and the mystery is just twisty enough not to be completely obvious. This is a perfect cosy read.

Charlotte Reed is a young widow who inherited her late aunt's literary-themed B&B and has taken to it quite nicely. She loved the fact that her guests are people who are interested in reading, and are making use of the many books throughout. Her current guests are members of another book club, and they are going to discuss fairy tales and classic children's literature. But they are barely into their retreat when one of the guests is poisoned, and Charlotte is suspicious that this was no suicide. With the help of her neighbor Ellen, the two are determined to sift through the remaining guests to find a killer. But unfortunately, the killer is close and may just be watching them, too, putting the women's lives in mortal danger...

This is the third book in the series and I have read them all. I am highly delighted with Ms. Gilbert's writing ability; pulling you into the story easily and descriptions of everything surrounding the characters that people the book. We are given glimpses into Charlotte's and Ellen's past lives in each book, and it brings us to the present, where Charlotte may be changing, and enjoying a new budding romance again after being widowed so long. It is a tale told within the mystery, and quite interesting on its own.

As for the murder, the woman who was killed, Stacy, was an unsavory character to begin with. She managed to offend all of the guests -- and even Charlotte's employees - while she was alive, so it was no surprise that someone had slayed the woman early on. But when Charlotte starts looking into Stacy's past, she finds even more unpleasant things about the woman. All of it adds up to the fact that one of the remaining guests is a murderer -- and they're in Charlotte's home indefinitely, told to stay by the local police.

As the clues pile up, so do other things that are bothering Charlotte (which I will not go into here, since this book as of yet is unpublished and I do not want to spoil it for others) and Charlotte is also having doubts about certain things and may wish to make changes of her own. But it takes second place to finding a killer, and so she and Ellen keep looking.

When the ending comes, it is quite a climax. There is enough action in it to keep anyone interested, and it was definitely worth reading. While I am still on the fence about the changes to come, I love this series and will continue reading it. I would recommend this book to anyone looking for a decent mystery, and this is worth the time. A cozy to curl up with on a cold night. Recommended.