I loved this book I honestly was late with my review because I wanted to re read it I loved the realness i felt for the characters and it had those cozy murder mystery vibe I love, as a big Agatha Christie I throughly enjoy this style of writing a definite for a relaxing afternoon read
I will definitely be purchasing a copy for myself and my mum as I love holding real books

There was one moment in this book that had me completely and utterly laughing out loud.

Besides that it was a rather surprising cosy mystery, where everyone in Cherrywood seems like they could be a suspect and they definitely all have things they are hiding.

Some rather more sinister than others.

It was a tricky initial murder to solve that Tess was sure the police had arrested the wrong person, but equally really wasn't sure who had murdered Clemmie.

But teaming up with the person she had never wanted to see again, starts to get them well some answers and more questions.

It's a well written book and a great start to a brand new series.

Thank you to Headline Accent and Netgalley for this copy which I have reviewed honestly and voluntarily.

As a cosy murder mystery this has all the main features, from ditsy characters, remote chocolate box village, handsome gardener, lots of intrigue and secrets, plenty of murder and much sleuthing without much sign of the actual police doing any work.

I do feel that it could have done with an edit as it did feel a little long-winded in places and there was a certain amount of repetition as different people passed on information to each other.

But on the whole it was a fun read, with some amusing parts and some surprising turn of events, and perfect for the darker autumn evenings.

This is a highly entertaining, a well plotted and solid cozy mystery that feature a cast of quirky characters.
I had a lot of fun in reading it, the solid plot kept me guessing and liked the style of writing.
It's highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher for this ARC, all opinions are mine

You just can't put this fun excited down! The characters are fun and loveable. Solid mystery. Great character development. Thanks#Netgalley and #Headline for the eARC in exchange for a honest review. All opinions are mine.

I absolutely loved everything about this cozy murder mystery book.
Cleverly written with a range of interesting characters & a great twisty plot.
Packed full of intrigue & humour this entertaining story held me from beginning to end.
Engrossing story that made me chuckle at times in amongst the many secrets & lies surrounding the murder investigations.
I’m hoping this book is a start of more to come as I would definitely like to read more.
The story is set in the rural Yorkshire village of Cherrywood, where everyone seems to know everyone’s business.
A much loved member of the community has been murdered.
Aunty Clemmie as she was known was a member of the women’s guild & a well liked retired school teacher.
Tess moved back to the village a year ago following the breakdown of her career & love life.
She is slowly picking up the pieces of her life again with the help of her friends Raven & Ollie.
Tess soon becomes embroiled in a bit of amateur sleuthing of her own.
She is determined to find out who killed the beloved Aunty Clemmie.
Liam who has a complicated history with Tess has shown up in the village under an assumed name.
Everyone becomes a suspect in the murder & it seems to get more complicated as the story evolves.
i thoroughly enjoyed & lost myself in this cosy murder mystery.

The cover and synopsis of this book is what drew me in initially as the cover is just so lovely and the synopsis just sounded so intriguing.

Then I started reading and I was just hooked by this, it was so great from the start. The humour in this had me laughing out loud at times.

There was shock surprises and twists throughout right until the end and I found myself gasping at some.

The variety of characters and their different relationships were also really great.

I loved the setting of the small village of Cherrywood and it was a setting that everyone seemed to know everything about everyone and everyone seemed to know everyone’s business.

This book is so written and I found it was so easy to read and flowed so well and the pacing was great too. I feel like the way this was written also really helped with being able to vividly picture the story and the characters and setting.

I would definitely recommend this book. I will also be reading more by Penny Blackwell and look forward to the next book in this cosy mystery series.

Please tell me that there will be more of these books! I absolutely loved this book and storyline, it was easy to read with some humour and unexpected twists and turns along the way. Brilliantly written.

This is an author who can do no wrong in my opinion. Everything she writes is just brilliant. This has been no different. I loved this book from beginning to end.

Tess is back in Cherrywood and I’m glad the main setting is such a cute, quaint little place. However, things have been shaken up by Clemmie’s murder.

This is beautifully written and a book I’ve been completely pulled into. I’ve loved the air of mystery and how I’ve been kept guessing. I devoured this book in just one sitting with no regrets.

I loved the banter and how the wit comes across on the pages of this one. The characters are brilliant and I’ve loved getting to know them in this one.

Everything about this book has been brilliant. I really hope we will be returning to the residents of Cherrywood for more mystery because this has been brilliant.

There is nothing negative I can say about this one. This has been a brilliant read that I will be recommending to everyone. A definite for the TBR.

Now I initially enjoyed this one it started off well but then half way through I really struggled as it went a bit flat and didn't appear to be going anywhere however I stuck with it and it gained in its momentum again.

It's cosy mystery set around the demise of a member of the woman's guild it has a lot of humour and some interesting and entertaining characters. The character writing and development was my most preferred part of the writing.

When much loved retired school teacher and Women's Guild member Aunty Clemmie is murdered, its up to Tess Feather, her best friends Raven (heiress to Cherrywood Hall) and Oliver (vicar of the local church), and a blast from Tess's past to solve it.

The Cherrywood Murders is Penny Blackwell's debut mystery, however she's better known for her women's fiction as Mary Jayne Baker and Lisa Swift (among other pen names).

This book is a cosy mystery however its full of the same wit, banter and charm. I absolutely adored the relationships between Tess, Raven and Ollie. The trio have a solid friendship having known each other since they were toddlers and the ease they have with each other, even with Tess returning after years in London. There were times I cackled with laughter with some of their teasing. Think 'sacred Evian' and 'vicar dress'.

Blackwell is so talented at creating a vivid and entertaining world. I really felt like I was in Cherrywood, eavesdropping in the pub or at Women's Guild meetings. I also loved the cast of characters in the Women's Guild, and the solidarity and empowerment the members give each other within their safe space. In one scene, Raven's grandmother firmly puts a young woman in her place talking about the Guild marching for women's rights during the first wave of the feminist movement. You go, Guild women!

The mystery was equally compelling, with a satisfying resolution. This book is compelling, hilarious and cosy with lashing of sass. More please, Ms Blackwell.

Thanks to Headline and NetGalley for the ARC.

It’s pure madness that people are still moving to picturesque country villages in search of rest and relaxation when they or someone they know is far more likely to be murdered and/or accused of murder. At least, that’s what cosy crime fiction will lead you to believe. For her part, Tess Feather is clearly no fan of the genre as, in Penny Blackwell’s The Cherrywood Murders, she has left London and returned to the Yorkshire village of Cherrywood, the pleasant backwater where she grew up, to recoup and regroup following a messy breakup and career implosion.

Alongside pulling pints in the local pub and taking to the stage as a Cher impersonator, Tess distracts herself from the troubles of the recent past by hanging out with childhood friends Raven Walton-Lord and Oliver Maynard. Raven is the heir to the local manor house and Oliver is the local vicar, and the former has managed to persuade Tess to attend the Cherrywood Women’s Guild. So far so wholesome, provided you ignore all the drinking.

However, the brutal murder of septuagenarian former primary teacher Clemmie Ackroyd soon proves that Cherrywood would not be out of place in Midsomer County.

Although the police quickly identify a suspect in the form of local scallywag Terry Braithwaite, Tess and the rest of the villagers find it hard to believe that he’s a murderer. In fact, they find it hard to believe that anyone would want to kill Clemmie. For Tess, interest in the murder shifts from idle pub gossip to a full-blown amateur investigation when a face from her past makes an unwelcome appearance in Cherrywood.

The Cherrywood Murders is the riotous start to a new cosy mystery series featuring Tess Feather and her eclectic group of friends and neighbours. The village itself is just the kind of quintessentially British rural setting that seems to be crying out for a murder. From the country pub – styled as Ye Olde Traditionale Englishe Pube – to the home for inebriated gentlefolk to the Women’s Guild, all the staples of genteel rural life are present.

Of course, as Miss Marple famously noted, “The things that go on in a pure peaceful village would probably surprise you.” And even she would likely be shocked by the happenings in the boiler room of the village hall.

In fact, the picturesque and outwardly respectable village forms the backdrop to various twisted secrets, simmering resentments and peculiar peccadillos. Some are related to the murder of Clemmie Ackroyd, some are not. All add deranged and/or amusing local colour to the story. There’s plenty for Tess to unpick as she considers who would have reason to kill Clemmie, which is a good sign of nefarious things to come in the series.

Tess herself is an enthusiastic if not always dedicated amateur sleuth. Aside from being a keen Murder, She Wrote fan, she has an ear for gossip and an eye for suspicious behaviour. Having grown up in Cherrywood, she is initially sceptical that any of her neighbours could be a murderer, although she commits to the investigation with gusto when the visiting Londoner throws down the challenge.

Prior to solving the murder, she comes very close to discovering important clues on a couple of occasions but stops short of actually doing so. Given that she is keen to unmask Clemmie’s killer, this is a rather unlikely aspect of the story. No fan of Murder, She Wrote would casually agree to meet with a key witness to discuss their discovery concerning a murderer at a later point when they could instead discuss it immediately – that’s just asking for trouble.

Otherwise, Tess’s investigation involves a goodly amount of twists and turns, and it’s a lot of fun to follow her progress. There are also some surprisingly dark aspects to the story, which add extra moments of tension and danger as Tess edges closer to discovering the motive for the killing and the identity of the killer. Penny Blackwell handles the dramatic shifts in tone from the funny/light aspects of the investigation to the dark/disturbing aspects particularly well.

The village setting means that Tess is faced with the classic closed circle of suspects. Unfortunately, most of them are life-long friends or acquaintances. Still, the limited pool of people with the means and opportunity to murder Clemmie allows her tackle each of the suspects in turn, revealing plenty of skeletons in plenty of cupboards as she does so. Slowing down the speed with which she is able to identify an even smaller pool of suspects may have rendered things more puzzling, but there are still a good number of threads to unravel.

The Cherrywood Murders is a witty and intriguing cosy mystery. There are plenty of laughs and warm-hearted moments throughout the story, but there are also numerous secrets and lies and even a spot of deadly danger. Tess Feather’s first murder investigation is a satisfyingly complex one, and it’ll be interesting to see what her next case has in store.

I’m sure many of you will have noticed by now that I love a cosy mystery, especially one with a juicy plot and a cast of eccentric characters. So, I was very excited when I was invited on to the blog tour for this new addition to the genre by the lovely people at Headline. Take a look at this beautiful paperback that they sent my way!

Since a professional disaster saw Tess leave her dream life and career in London and move back to her home village of Cherrywood in Yorkshire, she has been picking up the pieces amongst her childhood best friends and neighbours while serving pints in the local pub and occasionally impersonating Cher. But when beloved Clemency Ackroyd, a long retired teacher who everyone loved ends up murdered in her own house, it seems it’s not quite the open and shut case that the police think it is. When an unexpected and unwelcome face from Tess’ past shows up, she becomes determined to discover what really happened to Clemmie. Could the answers really lie amongst the jam and knitting circles of the Women’s Guild?

I’ve always been a bit intrigued by Women’s Institute groups and goings on but like Tess, I know that they’re not quite for me (yet!). However, I became very invested in the lives of the women who belonged the Women’s Guild of Cherrywood. There’s something really delightful about being around women who (at least on the surface!) appear to be dedicating their lives to supporting each other and doing good deeds. The setting of the Women’s Guild definitely lends the book a lot of its ‘cosy’ vibes and I know that this will translate well to readers outside of the UK, which I think the genre sometimes struggles to do.

Liam shows up in Cherrywood under a different name but he and Tess have a complicated recent past, so of course she recognises him straightaway. I did think it was a bit convenient that they seemed to have all this history and that they’d both somehow ended up in the same tiny village. I also wondered at several points whether this book was a sequel because Tess and Liam had so much back-story that it could easily have been another book. Of course, this book tells that entire story, so there’s little point in Blackwell writing that prequel now but I do wish that I’d read it for myself as opposed to being told it in this book.

Tess’ childhood best friend Oliver is a young vicar and he’s very much as you’d expect a vicar to be -quite socially awkward but very sweet. I don’t think I’ve ever read a book that includes a vicar in their early 30s, which seems strange because of course, they exist. I loved that Blackwell chose to make the village vicar a young, shy, relatable guy because it was such a refreshing departure from the typical ancient, devout, reclusive man that fictional vicars are often portrayed as.

I also adored the humour in this book. In several places, it felt like the kind of humour found in British soap operas. I wouldn’t be surprised if Penny Blackwell is a fan of Coronation Street and EastEnders because a lot of the situations and definitely the comedy could have been lifted from those scripts. I also noticed some resemblances to some classic characters from them too, so if that’s your jam, The Cherrywood Murders has a lot for you!

The Cherrywood Murders is an intriguing mystery and I certainly didn’t guess the ending until we were there. Having said that though, I’m not sure I could have guessed it. If I re-read it, I might see that I’m wrong but I don’t remember any blatant clues that I could have picked up on. I really enjoyed the ride and the cosy atmosphere that was served alongside the murders, so I’d say it definitely did its job!

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC.

If there is a genre called cozy murder story, this would be it. I liked the setting and the plot. It all tied up at the end.

The author threw a lot of characters in the beginning. I had to go back a few times to remember who this character was (is this why some of bookworms take a note? ). There were times I couldn’t follow the conversation because it wasn’t clear who was speaking. It might be just me though. Other than that, I enjoyed the book. Very witty and clever. Definitely not creepy that would cause nightmares for readers

Surely Not In Cherrywood…?
When Tess returned to her sleepy village hometown the last thing she expected was murder most foul marring the rural enclave. Surely not in Cherrywood? - but a brutal murder in the village brings all sorts of trouble as secrets come piling out of the woodwork, not to mention unexpected faces. Tess is determined to get to the bottom of whatever on earth it is that’s going on. Entertaining and engaging cosy mystery in an ideal setting and populated with and well drawn and keenly observed cast of characters. A most promising start to a new series.

This is a brilliant funny murder book in a small town. People know each other too well and suspect each other. Brilliant writing and love the references to English culture. So good for people who are fans of Richard Oseman books

This book is definitely the definition of a cozy murder mystery. I enjoyed it very much. I gave this 4 stars for a few reasons - first, sometimes it was difficult to understand who was speaking. There would be several lines of quotations without identifying the character who was actually talking. This happened quite a bit in the book. Second, from the get-go there are a lot of characters so in the beginning it was a little hard to remember who was who. However, overall, I enjoyed the plot, how the story progressed, and the end with all loose ends being tied up.

Tess thought Cherrywood would be calm after London but nooooo- someone has murdered one of the villagers and now, curses, her old beau Liam is working undercover to find the villain, This is a nice start to a new British cozy series, It's got all the feels- Tess is working at a pub, she's an amateur sleuth, there are old secrets and lies in the village, and a romantic interest has turned up. No spoilers from me but know that it's not too twisty, Thanks to netgalley for the ARC. A good read.

This was an interesting read for me, never having read any of Penny Blackwell's novels. I did enjoy it.

We meet main character Tess who has swapped her life from being in a busy city to going back to her roots and living in a sleepy little village aptly named Cherrywood. She is back and nestles in the support of her long time friends and works in the local pub.

A murder rocks the quaint little village but Tess believes that it wasn't the presumed robbery that went wrong but actually a murder by someone in the village. Tess searches for answer and she is extremely good at it.

I really enjoyed reading about Tess and the characters in the village and how they really were different but complemented each other beautifully.

Cleverly written, with a good air of mystery around the entire writing I really enjoyed this novel. I hope that Penny Blackwell will write more about Cherrywood and its inhabitants.

Thanks to Netgalley, Penny Blackwell and the publishers for allowing me a copy of this novel in exchange for my honest review.

I loved this British cozy mystery! And the characters were so good! It was like reading about friends. I loved this so much!! It was the perfect book to read!
I just reviewed The Cherrywood Murders by Penny Blackwell. #TheCherrywoodMurders #NetGalley
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