How to Seal Your Own Fate by Kristen Perrin is the second book in this series. This dual timeline story starts with Annie in present day as she is adjusting to living in her Aunt Frances's estate Gravesdown Hall. Little does she know her skills will be put to work again to solve not one, but four murders, one in the present and three from the past. The story takes us back and forth in time using Frances's journals to show what actually happened in the past and how Annie and Jenny use what they learn to solve the present day murder. The stories build on each other and the clues add up as you go along with a satisfying resolution. The one thing that is a bit of a caveat is that you need to be familiar with the first book in the series to truly understand what is going on. I read the first book about a year ago so I was able to piece things together.. I think it would have been helpful to have more of a review of the first book in the set up of this 2nd one. That being said, I still really enjoyed it and would recommend it to anyone who likes a good mystery to solve.

Annie Adams is back. Castle Knoll may seem like a quiet town, but secrets, lies, and murder seem to be around every corner. This time it is the fortuneteller Peony who read and told Frances Adams fortune , the one that shaped her life. In the present, Annie is trying to discover who wanted Peony dead. Also, why that person framed Annie.
In the past, we learn more about France’s. Her relationship with Archie Foyle, and the wealthy Gravesdown family. I don’t know what it is about Frances, but her chapters were my favorites.
By the end, the guilty party was exposed. My bad, this person was about the only one I didn’t consider. Another engaging cozy mystery. I’m curious to see if there will be some growth in Annie’s character in the next book. I’m also sure there are a lot more secrets to be uncovered in aunt Frances’s packed files.

Another cozy mystery from Perrin. I did enjoy this book and will most likely continue to read the others in these series BUT the Gravesdown family characters and quite a few of the townspeople confused me. I frequently struggled to remember who was who. The back and forth time hopping may not have helped matters either, usually this doesn't affect me keeping characters straight though. This was the biggest downfall for me. Otherwise a fun to read murder mystery.

Definitely enjoyed How To Seal Your Own Fate, the second book in the Castle Knoll Files written by Kristen Perrin. However, I agree with others who pointed out that it's best to read this book right after the first one, mostly because it involved the same characters and when Frances, the primary one, is murdered in the first book but we re-live her life in the second, you need to be prepared to understand all the timelines and connections between the stories. That said, I loved the alternating time periods in chapters, as it really helped create a story within a story. In one of my books, I did the same thing, meaning as you end a chapter with current time on a cliffhanger, you find out what happens only thru the scenes from the prior time period. It's a cool plot device and helped make this book stand out for me in 2025. I'm now curious if there will be a third... love Frances but she's likely gone, and unless there's more to her secrets, I'm ready to find out what her niece's sleuthing skills are like on her own.

I love, something about this series is so cozy while also being very suspenseful. I think towards the end the story started getting very tangled in a confusing way there seemed to be a lot of lose ends specifically Marks, I feel like more elaboration is needed on Samantha’s involvement. I feel like a lot of unnecessary pieces

This was a wonderful sequel! Written in the same format as book one, Kristin Perrin beautifully juggles past and present, weaving together a mystery that leaves readers waiting until the very end for a big reveal. This novel gave readers further insight into Annie's personal life, and her relationship with her family and friends. I loved the incorporation of her cousin and her budding romance with the town detective. These books are the perfect mix of cozy and contemporary mystery, and I'm already sat for book three!

This followup to How to Solve your own Murder had all the elements of the first book, with a bit more padding than necessary. I'm thinking that Perrin is planning a series with unlikely heiress Annie Adams solving murders in oh so quaint Castle Knoll. There were times I felt as if I needed a shot of insulin to stabilize the sweetness.

I really enjoyed the first book in this series so I was excited to see there was going to be another! I did enjoy it, but I kind of wish there had been a recap of the first book. It was referenced at various times, but I ended up needing to look up an overview since it had been a long time since I read the first book and I feel like there were a few important parts that I was missing by not remembering.. Overall though, I really enjoy the setting and the journal from the past, then current narrative style of writing.

Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for an arc of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I would rate this book a solid 3.5 out of 5. I really enjoyed the first book and I like that this one is a new mystery but we still get to see both what is happening with Annie in real time and what happened with Frances in the past. I genuinely love reading these books because I never know what's gonna happen and the twist or reveal is always refreshing. The one complaint I do have is that the pacing was a little weird but the story more than made up for it. The beginning starts off kind of slow but by the end before you know it you're finished with the story. Also multiple characters from the first book make appearances which I was excited to read about. Can't wait for the next book by this author.

After reading How to Solve Your Own Murder and fiercely loving it, I was a little scared that How to Seal Your Own Fate wouldn't measure up to it. It did, and then some. When I tell you I would read a ten book saga with these characters I'm not even exaggerating.
I refuse to spoil anything about this book, so I can only beg you to read it. Trust me!

The only negative thing I could say is that Frances and Annie's voices are so similar that at some points it gets a bit hard to remember who already knows what. Didn't have this issue with the first book because Annie was investigating while Frances was actually living the crimes. This time around, with both looking into the accident it got somewhat hard ro keep up.

How to Seal Your Own Fate is the second book in the Castle Knoll Files series. Annie Adams has been living in Castle Knoll for months now and still is wondering what she is going to do with her life when she runs into Peony Lane. When Peony gives Annie a cryptic message Annie tries to forget it but can't. The fortune lead Annie onto the steps of Archie Foyle's farm house with questions about it. While waiting Annie notices hears a noise at the waterwheel and finds an ornate knife stuck in it. With Archie's help they retrieve the knife and Annie decides to take Detective Crane to take a look at it. Annie notices that Archie has some of Great Frances journals for the years she has been looking for. This makes Archie nervous and cagey about the journals. When Annie arrives home later that day her friend Jenny has arrived and they find the dead body of Peony Lane. With her amateur sleuthing skils Annie and Detective Crane access to information they work together to solve the mystery. The book goes into the back story of Frances and Archie and Ford Gravesdown and the mystery surrounding the fatal car accident that involved Edmund, Henry, and Olivia Gravesdown. This was a fast paced read that had me up until 3:40 in the morning to finish it. Like with How to Solve Your Own Murder the cast of characters are as unusual as the town of Castle Knoll. I would like to thank both NetGalley and Dutton Publishing for letting me read an advance copy of this book.

This was another cozy mystery in the same style as the first book, How to Solve Your Own Murder. It was fun to get back to Castle Knoll and the characters. I didn’t find it to be quite as suspenseful as the first one (even though that wasn’t super suspenseful either) but more on the cozy British side. It’s a nice book to cuddle up with in the couch with a blanket and a cup of tea or a nice bedtime read. The author did well with carrying some of the story from the first book and expanding on it. Should leave for a fun cozy mystery series.

cold-case, mystery-thriller, cozy-fiction, suspense, British-humor, fortune-teller, dual-perspectives, dual-timeframes, family, family-drama, family-expectations, relatives, diary, twisty, series, murder****

I definitely missed out by not reading How to Solve Your Own Murder (Castle Knoll Files, #1). I feel that this one would definitely be enhanced by that experience. Nevertheless, I enjoyed following the very interesting MC and the rest of the quirky characters as they went along. Good story.
I requested and received a free temporary uncorrected digital galley from PENGUIN GROUP Dutton | Dutton via NetGalley. Avail Apr 29, 2025
#HowtoSealYourOwnFate by @kristenperrinwrites #CastleKnollFilesBk2 @duttonbooks
#netgalleyreview #cozymystery #cozymysteryseries #murdermystery #NetGalley @goodreads @bookbub @librarythingofficial @barnesandnoble **** Review #booksamillion #bookshop_org #bookshop_org_uk #kobo #Waterstones #England #MurderInvestigations #fortuneTeller #womensleuths #twisty #inheritance #diary #dualTimeFrames #series

In this second installment in the Castle Knoll Files, audiences join Annie once again when a body has been discovered in her home. This time the body is that of Peony Lane, the infamous fortune teller who set Annie's aunt Frances' life into a paranoid tailspin so many years ago. Readers are drawn through a similar experience in which we alternate between aunt Frances' journals and Annie's present-day investigation in order to identify the killer.

3.5 stars - For me, this book was a bit of a letdown. I remember really enjoying the first novel in the Castle Knoll Files, but this one didn't seem to grab my interest, and I'm not entirely sure why. One of the things that I struggled with is that I didn't remember a blessed thing from the first book. I don't know if this is my fault or the author's, but I couldn't even tell you the name of our main character, let alone who the murderer was from the last book. If I were going straight from the first book to the second, I would have had a much more clear experience. I certainly don't want the author to spoon-feed information to us or play back some kind of "previously on" scenario, but I do feel that we were a little dropped into the mix and just expected to know a lot. As far as the mystery goes, this one felt a little convoluted for my taste. The intertwining between the past and the present again also didn't seem to work as well as the previous novel. Overall, this one just wasn't my favorite, and I'm not entirely sure why.

Thank you to Netgalley for the ARC and my honest review of this book.

If you liked the first book from Kristin then you are going to like this book. Thankfully for me I liked the first book 😂.

The only issues I had with this one over the first book is that the plot and the ending were not as strong and it is the reason why this is a 4-star and not a 5. Whole this was an issue I don't think it takes away from the joy you get from the book.

Also the duel POV is wonderful and really helps expand the story more.

Highly recommend book #2 and can't wait to see what the author has in the future

How to Seal Your Own Fate
By Kristen Perrin

This book is a follow-up to How to Solve Your Own Murder. It is a typical rather low key British murder mystery. This tale takes up where the previous book leaves off with the same protagonist, Annie, who has inherited the Gravesdown estate by solving her Aunt Frances Gravesdown's murder.

In this book, there are other fortunes to be told, other murders, both old and recent, to be solved. While entertaining, it is very similar to the previous book. Thus somewhat less suspenseful. And it is not a book that should be read standalone. If you haven't read the first one, you will not "get" parts of this one because you don't have the backstory.

This book is a quick and easy read, but I would not recommend it if you have not read its predecessor.

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC.

I loved the first book in the Castle Knoll Murder Mystery series and couldn't wait to read the next Annie Adams installment. And it didn't disappoint.

Annie and the original cast of characters is back again. Just a few weeks after her Aunt Francis' death, the infamous fortuneteller, Peony Lane, turns up with a new fortune (or rather an old one), it sets into motion a chain of events that has Annie using her observation and sleuthing skills to solve another murder. And this time she's a suspect.

The way Kristen Perrin alternates between Annie's antics and the secrets Francis kept hidden in her diary lends tension to the story and kept me guessing who the murderer really was. I do wish we'd gotten to see more of Annie, her relationships, and her growth in this book, but I enjoyed the way the pace of the story and can't wait to see what comes next for her and the rest of the Castle Knoll crew. I have a feeling we'll be seeing more of them based on how this one ended. And I'm definitely looking forward to it.

Thank you to NetGalley and PENGUIN GROUP Dutton for providing this book for review.

I was fortunate enough to receive this book as an ARC from NetGalley!

How to Seal Your Own Fate follows Annie Adams at it again solving another mystery in Castle Knoll! More secrets are revealed through the past to present, through Aunt Frances’ diaries. Will Annie solve the mystery in time or will she find herself in the same fate as Aunt Frances?

In my personal opinion, this is a new favorite mystery book series of mine! Loved the two timelines, characters, and location! A great cozy little mystery! (Also, a slow burn side romance that I am so here for!)

I would recommend this to those who love cozy mysteries but, also for beginner mystery readers! Can’t wait for the next installment!

I really enjoyed How to Solve Your Murder, the first book in the Castle Knoll Files series. The cast of characters is mostly the same for book 2, and this story is set in motion by another fortune that was told by Peony Lane. Lots of twists and turns as we ride along with Frances trying to solve several suspicious deaths in the 1960s and Annie doing the same in present day, and Annie becomes a suspect herself. We get more background on the Gravesdown family, Archie, and Frances. We also get more of Annie's deepening friendship with a certain detective inspector. I'm looking forward to book #3!

Many thanks to NetGalley and Penguin Group Dutton for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

I was interested in where the story would go with a second novel. While the characters were interesting, I am not sure it was strong enough for a second book. So much time was spent in the past that Annie often didn't feel like the 'main character' to me.
If you really enjoyed the first book, and the story flipping in time back and forth, you'll like this one too.