i was extremely excited to begin the “cheese shop mysteries.” i thought the premise of the plot was promising: a celebrity scandal … and on top of that, phoebe had plenty of enemies/targets on her back. i was invested in finding out who’d done it but i struggled to connect with the characters, especially the MMCs. it’s not that their names sound too similar - which has been something i’ve found i’ve struggled with in the past - but there are so many local shops in yarrow glen and i had trouble remembering where everyone came from. with fall right around the corner, i enjoyed reading this novel because yarrow glen seems like such a beautiful place where the leaves change color so i was excited to lean about the town’s autumn floats for the festival. but i found it a bit repetitive how someone was constantly ruining willa’s float. i felt like these instances distracted me from the real crime. having said that, i’m excited to read more from this series and seeing who willa will form a potential relationship with …

Willa Bauer is up to her snooping once again and I am here for it! I may have enjoyed this book more than the 1st! I thought the development of characters was wonderful and perhaps because I am getting to know the cast of Yarrow Glen's adorable downtown.

Willa can't help herself, she just has to ask the questions that no one else will! And it gets her in trouble, but she's also helping to solve some serious crimes.

I enjoyed Gone for Gouda, I thought Moss did a great job of making sure I didn't know who dunnit! and I tried really hard to figure it out. I also like the romantic interest between Roman and the detective that Willa has. I have my favorite, but I will wait for the next installment.

As a cheese lover, this series is hands down one of my favorites. I think Moss does a great job of setting the stage for a neighborhood cheese shop. I do think Moss should add a shopping list at the beginning of the book with cheeses in the book that we can go out and get! I think I would set up a nice cheese plate next to me while I try to figure out who killed who and when!

Look forward to book #3

Thank you to Minotaur and NetGalley for the gifted ebook of Gone For Gouda! All opinions in this review are my own.

I have been on such a cozy mystery kick lately and I'm happy I found the Cheese Shop Mystery series! While I typically gravitate towards cozy mysteries set in bookshops or libraries, I loved the setting of the small town cheese shop for this one! There are many recipes described (and included in the back) that sound so good! The mystery kept me guessing until the end and I can't wait to read more books in this series!

I love a good cozy mystery and this one didn't disappoint! This is set in a small town, and with a wonderful cast of characters. I enjoyed the setting of the cheese shop. The mystery was fun and there were many potential suspects and I liked how the book gave many recipes in the end!

This is book 2 in A Cheese Shop Mystery Series but I did not read the first book. It is not necessary to do so unless you want a bit more of a backstory on the characters. As this is a cozy mystery, enough information is given to be able to read this on its own.

This was s great fall read full of fall vibes and an interesting murder mystery. I love the character interactions and the fact that the main character owns a cheese shop. This was a lot of fun to read and I can’t wait to try out the recipes in the back.

This was so much fun! I absolutely love this series, and Korina Moss did not disappoint! The characters are so endearing, and the cheese shop theme is fun. The mystery was well paced. I cannot wait for book 3!

Overall, this book is exactly what I expect in a cozy mystery. The cheese puns are ... Well, if you like puns, you will like them. Willa (the main character) has invited a vegan influencer to her home as part of a book tour (Phoebe). Phoebe is demanding and a bit of a pain, but Willa and her staff do everything they can to accommodate her., but then they find she isn't even a vegan. So people are upset and want their money back for the event. Needless to say, Phoebe is the murder victim and it is up to Willa and her crew to solve the mystery.

If you like cozy kitchen mysteries, this one is well worth reading. Very entertaining.

This had all the earmarks of a great cozy: nosy protagonist who has to help her friends/family- check, love interest in law enforcement - check, detailed descriptions of food being consumed - check, lovable pets - check, horrible person murdered - check. I enjoyed everything up until the end, it was just too hokey for my taste.

Dollycas’s Thoughts

Trying to grow her business, Curds & Whey, cheesemonger Willa Bauer is both nervous and excited to welcome Phoebe Winston, a vegan influencer to her shop for a demonstration to promote her new book. Phoebe is a very demanding guest and she was immediately taken in by Willa’s employee Archie choosing him to take on duties that would usually done by her own assistant Thomas. After giving instructions to Willa about all the ingredients she will need for her demo, telling her how to rearrange the venue, to order more chairs, and sticking a pin in Willa’s confidence Phoebe “sailed out with Thomas in tow just as she swept in – – like a tornado.

But then the wind is knocked out of Phoebe’s sails when photos are published revealing that she is not a vegan at all. Willa sees the hit her business takes quickly when people fill the street into Curds & Whey demanding refunds for her big event. She needs to try to get the Book and Cook back on track so she and Archie take off to try to talk to Phoebe. When they arrive they find the woman dead in the bathtub. The death is soon determined to be murder and Archie believed to be the last person to see her alive is pegged to be the prime suspect.

Willa knows that Phoebe may be “Gone for Gouda” but she would bet her last wheel of cheese Archie had no part in her death and she is going to prove it.

All the core characters from the first book Cheddar Off Dead return and I was so happy to see some nice character development. We learned more about all of them. I was glad to see Willa emerge stronger after Phoebe took a swing at her confidence. She still needs to work on her amateur sleuthing skills and not accuse every one of her suspects right from the start but her way sure makes the story interesting. What made me the happiest was that while her romantic life is still up in the air she didn’t come off as so man crazy in this story. The triangle was still there but it was not as distracting as in the first book.

The mystery of Phoebe’s death was very cleverly plotted with a nice number of suspects. She was not a nice woman and had done some very shady things in her past. The author drops plenty of clues throughout the book and I thought I had the right person in my sights until an event twisted things up again. I enjoyed the way everyone pulled together to solve the mystery and took part not in just one rescue but two.

I liked the subplot of the fall festival and the float making with Willa’s unique project she made for the float. She received a lot of funny grief for it.

I was delighted by mouth-watering cheese dishes described too. There are recipes at the back of the book and I have already copied down the one for Cheesy Apple Pockets. They sound like a great autumn treat.

Gone for Gouda is an entertaining whodunit with a solid mystery and fun characters. Mrs. Schultz continues to be my fave.

Willa Bauer, who owns a small cheese shop in Yarrow Glen, is excited to host an event for a vegan influencer. When things go awry, Willa finds herself once again entangled in a murder investigation. Will she brie able to find the killer?

Gone for Gouda is the second book in the Cheese Shop mysteries and it was a fun, cozy, small town mystery that had me guessing the whole time. The characters were enjoyable and relatable and you wanted to root for them the entire book. I hadn’t read the first one in the series, but I was still able to fully understand what was happening and who the characters are, so it can definitely be read as a standalone.

Thanks to Minotaur Books for the advanced copy in exchange for an honest review!

A cozy mystery and cheese -what a delectable combination and my reason for picking up this book. And it did not disappoint! Willa is the owner of a cheese shop aptly named Curds & Whey. She is hosting an event featuring the obnoxious, celebrity chef ,Phoebe Winston. When Phoebe is found murdered Willa's employee Archie becomes the prime suspect! Willa sets out to prove his innocence and discovers that Phoebe was a phony with many people who disliked her.. Trying to untangle the clues led to a fun, at times heart pounding investigation with a surprise culprit! With a touch of romance and amazing food descriptions complete with recipes this book is the perfect way to spend an afternoon. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced copy of this book. All opinions are my own and I can't wait to read about Willa and the people of Yarrow Glen.
#UpToNoGouda #NetGalley

Gone for Gouda by Korina Moss is the second book in the Cheese Shop Mystery Series. Set in a small California tourist town, it follows Willa who recently opened a Cheese Shop in town. I didn't read book one, so I missed a bit of the relationship building, but it didn't affect my enjoyment of the mystery itself.

This mystery centers around an event featuring a celebrity vegan cookbook author that Willa is hosting at her shop. This is her first big publicity to do and she has a lot riding on its success. Of course, things don't go as planned and there is a suspicious death. Willa feels compelled to help investigate to help clear the name of a friend and discover the truth.

There's some romance, with a bit of a love triangle. I was intrigued by this and it looks like book three will bring more drama to Willa's love life.

The mystery had a lot of red herrings and I did start to guess the perpetrator by the end, it was overly obvious.

"Gone for Gouda" features a cheese shop owner who inadvertently becomes entangled in helping to solve a murder. When Willa agrees to host Phoebe, a foodie influencer, at her shop for a cooking demonstration, she never dreams the whole event will end tragically.

Phoebe seems to have acquired a list of enemies as well as admirers. Her vegan cookbooks gain a popular following, but when Phoebe is revealed as a fraud, the cooking show is cancelled, her books end up in the trash, and she hides in her rented home as followers demand their money back. Willa and friends must keep the shop running as well as preparing for the local festival and recouping their losses from the cancellation. When her friends become suspects in Phoebe's demise, Willa works with law enforcement to try to nab the killer, while hoping one of her friends will not turn out to be the perpetrator--but they all seem to have motives!

While this book is part of a series, it can easily be read as a standalone novel. The action moves along quickly and the characters are realistic and interestingly portrayed. The novel contains no violence, explicit sex, or strong language. Readers will also learn a little bit about cheeses when devouring this clean novel! The sneaky ending leaves readers with a taste for reading the next book in the series.

I received this novel from the publisher and from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. The opinions portrayed here are entirely my own.

Willa Bauer knows a good cheese when she sees it. She has spent years traveling around, trying cheese and learning to sell them before settling in the small town of Yarrow Glen and setting up her own cheese shop. Curds & Whey is the culmination of her lifelong dream, and while she’s still struggling with that first year of a new business, she has had an event drop into her lap, and she is going to take full advantage of it.

Celebrity chef and vegan Phoebe Winston has come to town to promote her new cookbook. She is appearing at Curds & Whey for a cooking demonstration because Willa was an early adopter of the vegan cheese who is sponsoring Phoebe’s book tour. Willa is hoping the event will bring in some extra sales and some good publicity for her store.

When Phoebe first shows up at the shop, she is electric, and entitled. She insists on having chairs for every ticket holder, which Willa was not prepared for. And Phoebe insists on having the ingredients prepped and ready for six different recipes, even though she will only be preparing two. Phoebe’s assistant Thomas helps get Willa all the information to prepare for the event, while Phoebe asks Willa’s employee Archie to take care of her dog Buttercup for a while.

But despite Phoebe’s rudeness, Willa does her best to prepare the store for the event. But when some leaked photos of the vegan chef eating barbecued ribs damage Phoebe’s reputation, Willa is left to wonder if the event will even happen. And then, when Phoebe ends up murdered, Willa knows that her hopes for an amazing event are over. Willa will have to cancel the event, refund everyone’s ticket prices, and pay the expenses herself. But more importantly, when it comes out that Archie was the last one on the security cameras at Phoebe’s rented house, Willa knows that this event could cost her even more. It could put Archie behind bars.

Willa immediately starts to investigate, enlisting the help of all the friends she can recruit, to exonerate Archie and find out the truth. Could her assistant Thomas have finally turned on Phoebe for all her bad treatment? Could it be her old friend from culinary school, whose recipes Phoebe may have stolen for her first cookbook? Could it be the mysterious stalker whose photo was sent to Phoebe and then disappeared after her murder? Or was it someone who was upset that she lied about being vegan? As Willa and her friends add suspects to the list and then track down the answers to their questions, they get closer and closer to a killer. But when Willa gets too close, will she be able to find a way of escape, or will she be put out of business for good?

Gone for Gouda is a charming cozy, set in a small town, and with a good cast of characters. The backdrop of the cheese shop is fun, and there are even several cheese-related recipes at the end of the book, like the Beer-Cheese Soup that Willa has made at the beginning of the story to enjoy the coming of fall. The mystery has lots of red herrings and potential suspects, as well as delicious cheeses and a cute dog.

I enjoyed Gone for Gouda. I am big fan of cheese, so I love all the food descriptions. I like Willa and her friends, but I do find it a little tiresome that Willa is romantically interested in a couple of different men in the middle of a murder investigation. But overall, it’s a fun cozy read, good for curling up with some tea or apple cider and a good plate of cheese.

Egalleys for Gone for Gouda were provided by St. Martin’s Press through NetGalley, with many thanks.

Really enjoyed this second book of the series. Well written with good characterization and a quality narrative. I was surprised by the twist ending and the cheese receipes sound delicious!

Thank you NetGalley for early access to this title in exchange for an honest review.
Gone for Gouda is the second installment in the Cheese Shop Mystery series with cheesemonger Willa Bauer as our sleuthing protagonist. When celebrity vegan chef Phoebe Winston comes to town for an event at Willa’s shop things go from bad to worse when Phoebe is first busted eating meat and then shortly after found dead. Not only is her celebrity visitor dead but beloved cheese shop employee Archie is the prime suspect as he was the last person to see her alive.
This was another wonderful addition to this cozy mystery series. I ended up reading the entire novel in one sitting I was so sucked in by the plot. Despite being new to town Willa’s commitment to her new home and the people who make up her neighbors and friends is heartwarming. The whodunit question at the center of this mystery kept me guessing since both members of the local community and people connected to Phoebe from afar are all on the suspect list. Overall another delightful novel in a new cozy mystery series that I look forward to continuing to read.

I requested the galley of this book, not realizing that it was the second in a series - that was my own fault. Luckily, with these small town mysteries, I knew that I could likely pick up this book without reading the first and would be caught up to speed.

How about a cheesy a mystery? (Pun intended). As I probably alluded to, I went into this book with the expectation that it would be a standard small town mystery, with more action than any small town ever receives. Of course the person (or people) suspected, find it their duty to investigate themselves and find answers. There are love triangles, most typically with one of the officers or detectives. Then there is some near(ish) death experience where the truth comes to light and the culprit is found. Now, is it ground breaking writing, or some new premise? No. But was that what I was looking for? Not at all. Despite all of this predictability, I loved this book and it was every cheesy bit I wanted.

**I received this advance copy free from St. Martin's Press via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.**

I will admit, I've made fun of some of the mystery sub-genres the publishing houses produce. Oh, I love the tea shops, the inns, the bookstores and libraries. But it seems like they will publish a series no matter how outlandish the core concept. After all, look at the sheer numbers of mystery series with witches, vampires, and ghosts (regular Gentle Readers know how I feel about paranormal mysteries). There are series centered on knitting--full disclosure, I'm a knitter and crocheter and read several of these series, but how many of them do we need?--, scrapbooking, a gift basket store, ice cream parlors, pet groomers, a couple of crossword puzzle series, cooking shows, record shop/coffee shop combo--if you can think of it, there's probably a series centered on it. Even vampire knitters! So when I saw one centered on a gourmet cheese shop, I groaned. But dang if I didn't like Gone for Gouda by Korina Moss. Willa owns a cheese shop in a small town in Sonoma Valley, California, and when the story begins, she is excitedly getting ready to host a visit by the latest super popular influencer cum cookbook author, Phoebe Winston, who is making a comeback with a book on vegan cuisine after a scandal. Phoebe is a graduate of the local culinary school, but not everyone in Yarrow Glen is happy to see her coming home. Then Phoebe is murdered, and Willa's employee is the main suspect, so she investigates out of guilt--he wouldn't have been the last person to see Phoebe alive if Willa hadn't insisted he be Phoebe's assistant that day. I like Willa and her best friend Baz, and I wish we had seen more of Mrs. Schultz. There's enough cheese talk to ground the book in its' setting but not so much that the reader would be annoyed (even readers like me, who love cheese). I'm not sure how long a cheese shop can function as a mystery setting, but I suppose it will do just as well as a bookstore. The characters are likable, and enough time is spent on the setting and on the town to make me want to visit again. Net Galley

This second installment in Korina Moss' Cheese Shop cozy series is just as strong as the first. It's been a few months since the first round of excitement, and now Willa is looking forward to hosting a book event with vegan cheese. It's not long before things go wrong, and her and her friends are on the case when the cookbook author is murdered. There's no shortage of suspects in or out of town.
These books will make you crave cheese, so consider this a reader's advisory to have some on hand while reading. The mystery unfolds nicely and Willa's character development is continuing nicely. Highly recommended for contemporary cozy mystery readers.

Good follow up to the first book! The second mystery is good, with plenty of suspects and the romantic side plot is fun without being unrealistic. Nice to get more background into her surrounding group and all of the amazing cheeses had me drooling and craving cheese.