Thanks to Poisened Pen Press and NetGalley for this ARC
I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book, interesting characters keep us on our toes, and in true cozy tradition, that bit of comedy keeps things light and, in this instance, very lively. The action keeps going from beginning to end.
Tess and her teenaged daughter Gertie are very entertaining, for the most part, Gertie is the grown up.
Tess is an author, famed for her crime series starring the infallible Detective Gonzales, she tends annoy the local sheriff by comparing his actions to those of that paragon of fictional detectives!
I love to read a cozy between heavier stuff, I'm so happy to have discovered a wonderful example of this genre

Thank you Netgalley for the advance reader copy of Buried in a Good Book by Tamara Berry in exchange for an honest review. Tess Harrow, a suspense writer, comes to her grandfather's cabin with her daughter. As they walk into the cabin, Tess's imagination goes crazy. No running water, electricity, no WiFi or phone service. Time to rough it. They hear some loud booms - a man blast fishing - and then fish and pieces of a dead body comes raining down. I found this book a bit hard to get into initially, but then I started to really get drawn in. I had no idea who the killer was and felt like I was right there with Tess.

A story about a best selling thriller writer?! That’s one way to be buried in a good book.

"Dead bodies, explosions, and a taste of something to come. That was Thriller Writing 101."

Tess Harrow’s mind is always busy creating imaginary scenarios for her widely successful character, Detective Gonzales, to solve. But when real life throws her in the middle of a murder investigation with a bunch of bizarre clues, she quickly realises that writing fiction is tons more easier than solving true crime.

The mystery begins with such a collection of leads that it felt like there was no way all of this could fit together and become any kind of big picture. With every passing chapter though, things start to make sense while still continuing to be a tiny bit weird. While the suspense of the real culprit is maintained well throughout, it leads to a satisfying end with a few surprises as well.

"We all do bad things sometimes. It doesn’t automatically make us bad people."

All the characters have been written with such care that everyone has a strong personality and depth; this made them all feel fresh and interesting, be it Gertrude, Nicki, Sheriff Boyd, or Ivy. The old-timey vibe of a small town also got expressed really well. This has been a great start to the By The Book Mystery Series; definitely looking forward to meeting Tess again.

I received a complimentary advance copy of this book from @netgalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

I am a huge cozy mystery fan but this series is not for me. I detested the main character Tess and that’s never a good thing in a book. She was snobby, whiny and a know it all. The thing I love about cozy mysteries is the fact the MC is an older but professional woman but Tess was not that. The plot as well was very absurd and overall it wasn’t my cup of tea

A great start to a new cozy mystery series. The characters are entertaining and I can’t wait to see how the series continues.

Thanks to Poisoned Pen Press and NetGalley for an eARC to review! Buried In a Good Book is my first book by Tamara Berry. It is the first in a new cozy mystery series: By the Book. It will be published May 24, 2022.

Recently divorced Tess Harrow is a bestselling thriller writer looking to leave her normal life behind for a few weeks in favor of her late grandfather's secluded cabin in the small mountain town of Winthrop. Her fourteen year old daughter, Gertie, is not too pleased at the cabin's lack of electricity and running water. Just after arriving, their plans are turned upside down by loud explosions and body parts (both fish and human) falling from the sky. This encounter leads to a meetup between Tess and local sheriff Victor Boyd, who is a doppelgänger for Tess's main character Detective Gonzales. The plot that follows is a delightfully wild ride!

If I had to think of one word to describe this book and its characters, I would choose FUN! This book was a pleasure to read from start to finish. I caught myself smiling the entire time from all of the antics and witty banter between characters. It was a blast to be able to put my problems to the side and get lost in the adventures (and misadventures) of Tess and her daughter Gertie! Winthrop was a pleasant setting and the characters had all the charm that comes with life in a small town. I was immersed in the story, and didn't try to figure out who the killer was until Tess herself figured it out. The plot was definitely outlandish in places (as all cozy mysteries should be, in my opinion), but the solid foundation created by relationships between the characters always brought it back home. This book was lovable, and I can't wait to read the rest of the series!

I had a hard time getting into this book. I found Tess Harrow hard to take as the main character. There was some comedy with the interaction of the sheriff and her. Towards the end I did enjoy the build up and the ending. I will let the reader decide about the book.

Thank you NetGalley and Poison Pen Press for this ARC.

What a great start to the new By the Book Mysteries series. Humorous and just plain fun with characters you’ll fall in love with (gotta love oh so grumpy Sheriff Boyd) I look forward to what comes next in this promising series.

Tess Harrow is a very successful thriller writer who takes her teen daughter to the family cabin to spend the next month finishing her latest book. Her daughter, Gertie, is not thrilled considering it does not have running water or electricity; in other words, it doesn't have WIFI.

They no sooner get to the cabin when a sudden BOOM! rattles the porch of the cabin. It's not too long before they hear another boom and go and investigate. It turns out someone on blast fishing in her pond behind the cabin, but the blast turns out more than fish; it also turns up pieces of a human body.

She calls the sheriff only to find he is a doppelganger for her Detective Gonzales in her popular series. To say she gets on his nerves is an understatement. Something strange is going on in the forest around her cabin and she intends to find out what, using all the information she has learned from the research she has done for her books.

This is a good mystery, I liked the characters and it's funny and even more important, it held my interest. I can't wait for the next installment!
Note: I was given a copy of this book from the publisher through Netgalley.com. All opinions expressed are my own.

I didn't know who the killer was. My favorite characters are Nicki Nickerson and Gertie Harrow. The murder case was very interesting.
I want to read the next book in this series.

I received an ARC from the publisher and NetGalley for an honest review.

Buried in a Good Book is the debut of the By the Book Mysteries series set in the remote town of Winthrop, and featuring mystery thriller writer, Tess Harrow and her sassy 14 year old daughter, Gertie. After a messy divorce, Tess decides to leave the city and spend a month at her Grandfather's cabin in order to unwind and finish her latest manuscript. The problem - there is no electricity, no Wi-Fi and no running water, not the ideal situation for an already disgruntled teen. Within minutes of arrival at the cabin, a series of explosions results in fish (and body parts) raining down from the property's pond.

Tess soon finds herself embroiled in a mystery that not even she could have plotted for her main character Detective Gonzales, who bears an uncanny resemblance to Winthrop's real life Sheriff Victor Boyd. Between Bigfoot sightings, exotic animals, whacky locals and the mysterious bookmobile librarian Nicki Nickerson, Tess begins to wonder if leaving the city was such a good idea.

A fun, laugh out loud plot that will keep you turning the pages from beginning to end. I can't wait to see what happens next with Tess and Gertie, and highly recommend giving this new series a read.

I received an advanced copy of Buried in a Good Book from NetGalley via Poisoned Pen Press. While not required to write a review I am happy to offer my honest opinion.

I received this ARC via Netgalley and Poisoned Pen Press, in return for an honest review. I loved this first book in a new cozy mystery series and hope there are many more to come. Best-selling mystery author, Tess, is six months divorced from her cheating husband. In those six months, he has made no efforts to contact their 14-year-old daughter, Gertrude. To get away from the silence of his inattention to Gertrude, Tess moves them to her grandfather’s off the grid cabin in the woods. But, when they arrive, they’re confronted by the ground shaking and then the sky raining fish from the pond out back! When that also includes human body parts, Tess’ research and writing brain kicks in. She’s immediately pulled into the murder investigation, both by choice and by situation.
All the characters are interesting. There’s a wonderful amount of snark from Gertrude, coupled with true affection for her mom while dealing with her dad’s leaving her life. There’s Nikki, the African American Amazon librarian who Tess immediately clicks with as a possible new BFF. There are the triplets who might or might not be murderers (of things other than fish). There’s Ivy, the police officer, who ably assists the handsome sheriff, Victor Boyd. Funny how the sheriff looks almost exactly like Tess’ fictious protagonist.
I didn’t expect the ending and that was also positive. I like how it resolved and all the things that Tess figured out (or tried to). I’m already looking forward to the next in this series very much.

This was a really entertaining book with several laugh out loud moments. I enjoyed the verbal sparring between the sheriff and Tess. The murder investigation took on several different tracks but the pace of the book moved along quickly and was easy to read. I’m looking forward to the next installment.

Thanks to NetGalley for an advance copy of this book.

I received an advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

<I> Buried in a Good Book </i> is a wonderful start to a brand-new series and a prime cozy mystery. The story follows a best selling author recently divorced from her cheating ex-husband. Tess and her daughter steal away for a month to an off the grid cabin to write, rest, and reset. But life has other plans, and they immediately get pulled into a murder investigation.

The story gave me Castle vibes but not enough for me to continue to compare the two. Overall, the book sucked me in and I went along for the ride. As with most books there are some slow moments in the story, but they don’t make you want to stop reading entirely. Normally I try to follow the clues and figure the ending out for myself; but not this time. I did not see the end coming until just about the time Tess did. The author does an amazing job of adding in just a few sharp turns to keep you guess without overdoing it. As a reader you can just get lost in the story without too much thinking.

Tess and Gertrude are a super fun mother daughter pairing. The dynamic is captured so well that you can feel the sassy energy of a 14 year old teenage girl forced to live in a cabin without a working shower. They aren't the only good characters, the whole cast adds something to the story that without one the story would feel off. Sheriff Boyd is gruff and by the book, but clearly has some good secrets deep down that have shaped his life. I do hope we get to explore more of him in later books. The interpersonal dynamics are definitely some of my favorites. The dialogue and character interactions set this book apart. They were funny without being corny or over the top and had a real feel to them.

Like I said, I think this is an excellent start to the series with a solid introduction to the main characters. It’s a solid 4 stars for me, I like the book I will whole heartedly recommend this book. However, the characters didn’t stay with me. When I closed the book I didn’t continue to wonder what was happening or what next blunder they would make. But when I was in the story, I was thoroughly in the story and didn’t want to put it down.

Give it a chance, you won’t regret it. Cheers and happy reading.

I really wanted to like this book but it is an utter mess. Ridiculous with an over explaining main character who is completely unlikeable. Ugh

This is the first book in the series. Tess is a strong woman with a sense of who she is. I liked the flow of the story. The characters were interesting and I could see them developing more. Overall a good book.
#BuriedinaGoodBook#NetGalley

(3.5 stars; 7.5/10)

This book was a solid, delightfully cozy mystery set through Tess Harrow's eyes, the eyes of a writer who truly recognizes that writing about mysteries is a lot different than living through them!

Tess has a strong voice and is a respectable character overall, who definitely gets in over her head at times but still attempts to focus on the case at hand. Obviously, that dichotomy is part of the humor and the skeleton of the book: she's not really the detective in her books. But, of course, she's based the detective in her wildly popular series on the sheriff of this quiet town where she's gone with her daughter after a messy divorce.

The best part of this book was the family dynamics, which there definitely could have been more of. Tess and Gertrude had this mother-daughter vibe almost like that of sisters, and so I was picking up a bit of a "Gilmore Girls" vibe from that angle. Most of the chuckles came from that. I probably could've done with a bit more of that, and I would've liked it if the townspeople had even a bit more quirkiness (though we do get Edna's love of her cat ("It looked like a cat") and Ivy's pie-in-the-sky dreams of becoming a novelist).

I'm not exactly sure how Berry accomplished it, but her attention to place was also solid; while the descriptions were not suffused with grandiose detail, I totally felt where I was and could visualize a lot of what I was reading. Pacing was also solid and moved along at a decent clip.

The plot itself had its share of red herrings, which of course you expect, and the climax was okay, if predictable (though there are several elements that I didn't get that maybe other readers would). All in all, it was an enjoyable read to take away from the chaos of the world, which is always a good thing!

Tess Harrow talks her teenage daughter Gertie into spending the summer at the family cabin. A hard sell for a teenager who is tied to a phone and wifi, but with the two trying to get past the divorce together, they head off for some quiet time in the woods. Well, that was the plan anyway. Not long after they arrive at the cabin there’s an explosion and fish are rain gin down…even human remains. What have the ladies just gotten themselves into?

While Gertie is a bit more interested in dead bodies than Tess thinks a teenage girl should be, the neighbors are saying Big Foot walks among them. Being a mystery writer, Tess knows all about murder, so she’s doing her best to figure out whodunit before she, Gertie or anyone else comes to harm if the killer strikes again. Worst of all? The local sheriff is a dead ringer for Tess’ main character…way too much for a recently divorced. single mother, mystery writer to deal with. Will Tess and Gertie shrive the Summer and heal together, or are they targets just waiting for their time to come.

A great first entry in this new series. This is the second series from this author that I have read and I enjoy your work, so this is great news to have another series from her. Can’t wait for more in this series!

situational-humor, verbal-humor, murder, murder-investigation, law-enforcement, writers, family-dynamics, small-town, rural, Washington state, cozy-mystery, local-politics*****

The publisher's blurb is a good start but there's so much more fun to be had. First there are the core characters, then the humor, maybe the apparent Bigfoot, and don't forget the contentious election for sheriff! The interpersonal interactions had me ROFL, and the sleuthing is unusual but has lots of misdirection and red herrings. Loved it!
I requested and received a free e-book copy from Poisoned Pen Press via NetGalley. Thank you!

This book was a delightful cozy mystery. I laughed out loud at many points throughout the book and the mystery kept me interested. There were just the right number of clues to keep you guessing, but they don’t give the mystery away too early. Tess is a fun character that is determined to use her knowledge to help solve the crime. Nothing seems to deter her relentless pursuit of the answers. Tess’s relationship with her daughter is genuine and the author does a fabulous job of portraying them as realistic mother and teenage daughter. And the chemistry between Tess and Sheriff Boyd is engaging. I really enjoyed this book and would love to read the next book in the series when it comes out.