The Expectant Detectives is such a fun read. I haven’t laughed at a murder mystery in quite a while and I was so pleased to find that this book is full of humor. I loved the quirkiness of the characters - especially the ladies in the birth group. The delapitation of Alice and Joe’s rental and the small town feel gave it a fabulous comedic undertone. The mysterious commune living in the woods nearby and the shady actions of all the spouses created the perfect amount of suspense. It was all so fabulously laid out and such a fast paced read.

I received this arc through Minotaur Influencer Program.

I have posted this review on Goodreads

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/6069725979

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And Amazon.

MY RATING: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

I absolutely loved this book! Talk about starting off 2024 on a reading high ... starting with a 5 star book sets the reading year off with high hopes. So impressed that it was her debut! If this book isn't on your radar, I hope it is now!

This book is a cozy mystery - Clue level mystery - and the author keeps it really light. There are a lot of characters but I was invested in the story and didn't get confused. I loved the friends by association of a pregnancy group- unlikely to be friends otherwise but stuck together. It allowed each personality to shine. Pregnancy was a major theme in the book, but it wasn't overwhelmed with details and tons of scenes. I really think moms would love this book!

Plus- it was really funny- I literally LOL'd at points, which is VERY unusual for me. Helen is the main character- she was the humor we needed. I just love that silly, stupid dog. Heads up- she does get poisoned, but she survives (I would have appreciated that kind of reassurance before reading).

Read if you loved FINLAY DONOVAN - so many similarities.

Thank you @minotaur_books for the gifted copy! Thank you so much to @netgalley @stmartinspress and @macmillian.audio for the ARC and ALC!

🔍 𝙈𝙮 𝙏𝙝𝙤𝙪𝙜𝙝𝙩𝙨 🔍
If you are looking for a cozy mystery with hilarious hijinks, this is your book! I gravitated to this book when I saw the cover and title… I mean, some pregnant ladies doing some amateur detective work? Yes please!

Anyone who has been pregnant could relate to the ladies in this book. The main character is Alice, who moves to the English countryside with her boyfriend Joe prior to the birth of their first child. They join a prenatal class where they meet other expecting couples, and that’s where everything goes haywire. An unexpected birth and murder in the place leaves Alice and her new friends reeling. They can’t seem to let go of who could have committed the murder.

Alice and her friends decide to do some digging. They stumble upon a local commune and meet some interesting characters there. These expecting ladies are looking for something to take their mind off impending birth and new motherhood, which can be nerve racking.

This book is also about the new friendships between the ladies. They bond over their shared experience and their interest in amateur sleuthing brought them closer together. I found the read very enjoyable and can’t wait until the follow up book, Dead Tired, this summer!

🎧 𝙔𝙤𝙪 𝙬𝙞𝙡𝙡 𝙡𝙞𝙠𝙚 𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙨 𝙗𝙤𝙤𝙠 𝙞𝙛 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙡𝙞𝙠𝙚:
💚 Cozy Mysteries
🩷 Amateur Sleuthing
💙 Dog Moms
💛 Small Towns
💜 Female Friendships

The Expectant Detectives by Kat Ailes

This fabulous debut novel is delightful. Fun characters will make you laugh out loud as a clever story unfolds. The banter between new friends-all near their delivery due dates-is spot on.

Pregnant protagonist Alice is not without flaws, which she openly admits. She and her also-expectant cohorts are determined to solve a mystery, dragging each other farther into its claws. As they investigate suspicious members within a nearby English commune, more questions need to be answered. Then still more. Can this tangled web be untangled?

The conclusion is most unexpected, yet a perfect fit for this caste of characters. Some man bashing occurs as the new friends bond over pregnancies, parenting fears and all this investigating. A perfect story for book clubs which enjoy a fun read, I’ll give this one five stars.

I don’t read many cozy mysteries but this one definitely caught my eye. It’s charming, quirky, and funny. Is the storyline completely implausible? Yes!! That’s what I loved about it. Pure fun and escapism. Just an all around special mystery that I throughly enjoyed. Oh and can we just give Helen the dog a special shout-out! She makes the book! Loved this one!

Alice and Joe are expecting their first child and decide to leave London for a quieter life raising their baby. However, things aren't as quiet as they expect when the find themselves at a murder scene within days of arriving in their charming village. Alice and her new friends were a fun group to get to know as they start to investigate the murder. I truly enjoyed how fun and quirky this book was. I really hope for some follow-on books.

What an entertaining read! A group of pregnant women living in a quaint Cotswold village attend a pre natal class that has two surprising consequences. A baby is born during the class and a murder occurs at the same time in a shop downstairs from the classroom. These women were strangers, but now they are cautionary friends.
They decide to spend the brief time before their due dates solving the shopkeeper's murder. What could be better than interesting characters and a good mystery? This book is a definite must read.

This one gave me major Finlay Donavan vibes. I thought it was going to be a laugh out loud funny, with a murder and a group of pregnant women trying to solve the murder. There were barely any laugh out loud scenes and it was way too long. There were so many irrelevant things happening that overshadowed the cozy mystery, and the ending was rushed. Also, the main character was ditzy which was really frustrating at times. Unfortunately this one was a miss for me.

Hello cosy mystery set in the Cotswolds. The Expectant Detectives by Kat Alies is a wee bit dark, has a naughty dog, and the sequel, Dead Tired, comes out in June. Thank you Minotaur Books!

Alice and Joe move from London to Penton to combat the high cost of living and prepare for their first child. At their first prenatal class someone goes into early labor, chaos ensues, and a local village member is found dead in the shop downstairs. All members of the class must be questioned, as well as the community members.

I loved the quirky characters, the connections, and how Alice and Joe find themselves wrapped up and part of their neighbors. Undoubtedly, their dog Helen has a huge personality. If there’s mischief or a mess nearby, Helen’s going to find it. Repeatedly Alice and Joe are admonished “Don’t bring Helen!”. As the clues are unraveling an old mystery is revealed.

This is a quick cosy read, perfect for wrapping up on a winter afternoon. I can’t wait for the sequel in July!

The Expectant Detectives is a FUN story! Alice, almost nine months pregnant, and her partner make the move from London to the tranquil countryside in order to have a quieter, more affordable lifestyle. However, their new village proves to be anything but quiet as Alice and her new friends from the pregnancy class are caught up in investigating a murder. I laughed out loud many times during this book, and I thought the story line was unique. Thank you, NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press, for the advance reader copy of this book.

The Expectant Detectives by Kat Ailes
Alice and her boyfriend, Joe move from London to the tiny rural town of Penton, because they figure raising their baby in the countryside is better. But during their birthing class, the shopkeeper for the natural remedies shop below is found deceased.
Alice befriends the other expectant mothers in her class and together, they become a little detective squad, determined to figure out who was responsible for the crime. Are any of them qualified? Nope, not even a little.

If you enjoy the Finlay Donovan series, I think you'll like this one. A group of women with no idea how to be detectives decide they're going to solve the crime, but of course, they end up tampering with evidence, creating mayhem, and ultimately, succeeding at their task (because, of course). I chuckled quite a few times, and even though the two different-but-sort-of-converging mysteries were relatively easy to figure out, I was still entertained enough to want to keep reading. I definitely recommend, and I'm hopeful there is a second one in the works.


TLDR:

One Line Synopsis: Pregnant women in an uppity English countryside town decide to solve a murder together.

Who Should Read It: If you like the Finlay Donovan series, or funny/bumbling hero mysteries.

My Opinion: Loved it. Hope there's a 2nd one coming.

I was highly entertained by the main character in this book. Alice was so honestly herself throughout the book. She made me laugh a lot. The premise of this book was original, and the author did a great job with it. I liked the number of suspects, and the pacing was pretty good through the story. It was a little long, but I was entertained, so kept reading without a problem. I thought the ending was a little rushed, but overall, it was good. The ending was satisfying and wrapped up well. I would definitely give another book by this author a try. I received an advance copy from NetGalley and am voluntarily leaving a review.

The Expectant Detectives by Kat Ailes was surprisingly a phenomenal story.
I really got sucked into this story and had such a hard time putting it away.
I thought the premise was utterly unique and very interesting.
Alice and her other pregnant friends are attending a prenatal class when a local man is murdered in a store below them. These soon to be mothers decide to investigate a death that happened close by and try to find the killer on their own.
I loved these amateur detectives. They bring such chaos and fun to the story it was honestly great watching it all unfold.
I loved the setting being in the British countryside.
The writing was such fun and so comical you’ll find it damn near impossible to put your Kindle away.
Overall, this engaging British cozy mystery was a delight and I hope Kat Ailes continues to write about these characters.

Thank You NetGalley and Minotaur Books for your generosity and gifting me a copy of this amazing eARC!

The Expectant Detectives by Kat Ailes

A cozy set in England. Alice, who is 8 months pregnant, and her partner Joe decide to leave the hustle and bustle of of London for the "calm and quiet" of rural Penton. Once in Penton, their rental house leaves much to be desired, but they are committed to stay.
Alice had preregistered for a prenatal class and their first session is eventful. Held above the Natures Way Shop, one of the other women goes into early labor and while they are involved with delivering the baby, Mr. Oliver, the shop owner is murdered downstairs.
For some reason all of the pregnant women are considered suspects (they were in the building after all).
So the moms-to-be join together to clear their names. In the process they uncover other mysteries and odd people (like the cult up the hill) To add to the fun is Alice's semi crazy, troublemaking pup, Helen, who has her own near miss run in with the bad guys, Interesting mystery on several levels, hopefully the next will be too, now that all the babies, but one, have been born. ⭐⭐⭐⭐

The Expectant Detectives by Kat Ailes is a book that started strong, ended nicely but had a lot of weaknesses along the way.

I really struggle with this cozy mystery. I went from finding the main character, Alice, spunky and charming to ditzy and annoying. Initially I was giggling at the humour, but then found it repetitive. Alice was almost 40 weeks pregnant at the beginning of the story, with those last few idle weeks of pregnancy dragging on, but the story's length seemed too long to fit the pregnancy timeline. I didn’t know how I was supposed to feel about Joe, Alice’s partner, and their relationship really bothered me (he did have one supportive and positive speech, however). There was pregnancy and expectant-parent jargon, which allowed for some humour, and real-life stress. The book was slightly chaotic and too long overall. The last chapter was sweet, and the murder wrapped up sensibly.

It’s clear from the cover and title that Alice is pregnant which was brought up time and time again during the book’s narrative, meaning there was no way the reader could forget. Somehow, it was also convenient to be ignored at times for the plot (the ease at which Alice slept and how she was able to run, for instance).

My real struggle is knowing if the book was intentionally written this way or if they were errors of a debut author. I'll try to give some grace, and lean more towards the former rather than the latter here.

The audiobook narrator, Kitty Kelly, gets extreme points; I love how she portrayed Alice and her emotions!

Kudos to Ailes for sharing how much of her book was based on her own personal experiences, as noted in her Acknowledgements.

In conclusion, I think this is one that could become incredibly redundant, annoying and cumbersome to those that have never dealt with pregnancy (which could be a huge trigger for many). I think it’s fair to say “proceed with caution” with this book. I will add that I want to continue this series, despite my issues with this first book.

Thank you NetGalley, St. Martin's Press, Minotaur Books and Macmillan Audio for the complimentary copies to read and review.

New to the village Alice and Joe attend a child birthing class and Alice winds up getting herself a little more involved with the other mothers-to-be that she planned on.
This pack of pregnant women are charming and funny as they try to uncover everyone's secrets because almost everyone is keeping a secret. Somewhere between cozy and suspenseful, this was a nice change of pace!

Hilarious, relatable, ridiculous and fun! It’s everything a novel about pregnant women surrounded by mysterious deaths should be!

I so enjoyed the wit and humor of this debut novel. It brought back all of my hilarious and horrifying pregnancy feelings and I found myself laughing out loud so many times! The mystery is satisfyingly twisty and convoluted without being too far fetched. The characters were simply drawn without being caricatures, but Alice was undeniably the star of the show. I’m not sure we’ll be getting a series out of this, but I definitely need more Alice in my life!

Thank you to NetGalley and Minotaur Books for my free copy. These opinions are my own.

My first book of the year: THE EXPECTANT DETECTIVES by Kat Ailes. I expected this book to be a quick and fun read— it is but even better than I anticipated! It’s hilarious with laugh out loud moments and a good murder mystery.

Alice and her partner, Joe, have moved out of London for a quieter place to start their family. As a pregnant mom-to-be in a new area, Alice is looking for new friends to bond with. (And we all know making friends as an adult isn’t easy.) At one of their evening antenatal classes, someone in the building is murdered. Alice teams up with some other expectant moms, and they start their sleuthing around in attempt to find out what really happened that night. As you can imagine, these amateur detectives get in over their heads for a fun (& funny) ride. For fans of the Finlay Donovan series, I highly recommend you grab THE EXPECTANT DETECTIVES this Tuesday 1.9.24!

Thanks to @minotaur_books and @macmillan.audio for the invitation to read/listen to this entertaining book! It was a great way to kick off my year of reading!

I switched between audio and ebook and found the audio to be my preference.

This is a cute cozy whodunnit where a group of pregnant women start investigating a murder that happened in their town - ironically downstairs from where their prenatal class was being held.

There was definitely some humor, especially about impending motherhood. Mostly likeable, but somewhat unforgettable characters.

I did love Helen the dog! Overall a cute cozy mystery.

Many thanks to NetGalley, St. Martin's Press and MacMillan Audio for an ARC and ALC in exchange for my honest review.

At first, I was overwhelmed by the number of characters in this book. I was listening to the audiobook and I decided to follow along with the ebook and that made a huge difference. Once I learned all the names of the expectant women and their significant others, I began to enjoy the book more.

There was a lot of wittiness in the dialogue and I found myself enjoying the interplay between Alice and her friends. Helen, the dog, was my favorite though. I can relate to crazy pets.

The mystery in this was pretty convoluted. There were so many moving parts that I found myself not even really caring so much about "whodunit" or what they did. It's like there were so many things to solve at once: the murder(s), why Alice's husband was acting strange, the disappearance of a woman long ago, the current husband of one of the women maybe cheating, etc. Too much in one book.

I liked the way it wrapped up and I liked the characters so much I'm willing to give the next in the series a try.