Annie Adams "won" an inheritance from her great aunt Frances by finding Frances' murderer. Now Annie is settling into her new manse in Castle Knoll. Now there is another murder. Local "seer", Peony Lane, is murdered shortly after Annie a cryptic message. Once again Annie's investigation has roots in the past, taking us back to 1967 and young Frances.

Fantastic follow up to How to Solve Your Own Murder!

Small town secrets, hidden pasts, murder, and more fortunes-what's not to love?

Without giving too much away and spoiling book one, let me just say I had such a good time reading this book!

This is currently one of my favorite mystery series, and I can't wait for the next book! What other secrets are there to uncover in Castle Knoll?

The 2nd installment of Castle Knoll Files follows the same formula of dual timelines, Annie Adams, in the present, and her great-aunt Frances Adams, in the past. While I did enjoy the book, I think I would have enjoyed it more if I had read it immediately after reading the 1st book, How To Solve Your Own Murder. There is too many references to the previous book that I had forgotten and I felt lost sometimes.

With that said, this is a good mystery with likeable characters. There are lots of twists and turns to keep you vested throughout the book.

I received this advance review copy from NetGalley & the publisher for my honest review.

How to Seal Your Own Fate is a cozy mystery that has some sinister underpinnings that give it a little more weight.

Annie has inherited her aunt's home in Castle Knoll, along with Aunt Frances' files on everyone and everything in town. She really wants to speak with Penny Lane, the spiritualist who predicted her aunt's death. When Lane is found murdered, Annie, of course, needs to know why she died and who was responsible.

I enjoyed this book, as the mysteries in the present time and the past were adequately explained. My biggest issue was the name Penny Lane has me singing the song every time I read it. The ear worm is driving me crazy!

Thanks to Netgalley for the advance copy of this book.

Annie Adams is just settling into life in Castle Knoll when the mysterious Peony Lane shows up, the same fortune teller who previously warned Aunt Frances about her impending doom. Now Peony has a cryptic message to share with Annie. When Peony is found dead inside Annie’s own inherited home hours later, Annie has to dive back into Castle Knolls secrets before everything comes crashing down.

I really enjoyed this sequel to “How to Solve Your Own Murder.” It’s nicely complicated while not being confusing, and builds the mystery as you read. Fun to get through and a great little cliffhanger at the end (while still wrapping up the main storyline). I’m excited for book #3!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Writing style
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Characters
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Plot
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Premise
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Pacing
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Impact

Thank you to Penguin Group Dutton and NetGalley for the eARC in exchange for my honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I suppose I didn't realize this was the second book in the series, so that's on me, and I think I would have enjoyed it more had I read the first one. That said, I think there was a way the author could've woven the events of book one in this better still without giving too much away. It seems this author is great at foreshadowing, though, so it does make me curious to see how things play out later on the series.

Thanks NG & Dutton for the ARC copy of this book.

I really enjoyed this book, and the two timelines as usual fit together perfectly. I always thought I didn’t enjoy multiple timelines, but Kristen proved me wrong, not once but twice. This was a great thriller, and I was at the edge of my seat trying to solve both crimes. I can’t wait for book 3!

This one did not hold my interest as much as the first book. I had a hard time getting into it so I decided to DNF.

I wish I stuck with just reading the first book and not wanting to continue because it's a series. I didn't like the second installment. I couldn't get interested in the subject matter this time around and they were hard to connect with.
Again, there were transitions between present day and the past. For some reason this time around, it was harder for me to grasp which POV I was reading because some of them involved the same characters. I admit, my brain was working overtime, so it could completely be me and others will grasp it much quicker than I did.

Kristen Perrin's How to Seal Your Own Fate offers an engaging continuation of the Castle Knoll Files series, blending dual timelines and a small-town mystery with a touch of the supernatural. The atmospheric setting of Castle Knoll and the return of familiar characters provide a comforting backdrop for this cozy crime novel.

The alternating narratives between Annie Adams in the present and her great-aunt Frances's diary entries from the 1960s add depth to the story, though some readers may find the transitions between timelines a bit jarring. The mystery itself, involving the murder of fortune-teller Peony Lane, unfolds with a series of twists and turns that keep the reader intrigued.

However, the novel's complexity can be a double-edged sword. With a large cast of characters and intricate plotlines, it occasionally becomes challenging to keep track of who knows what and how each piece fits into the larger puzzle. Some readers have noted that the ending leaves certain questions unanswered, which may be a point of contention for those seeking closure.

While How to Seal Your Own Fate may not surpass its predecessor, it still delivers an enjoyable and atmospheric mystery. Fans of the series will appreciate the continuation of Annie's journey, though newcomers might consider starting with the first book for a fuller understanding of the characters and their motivations.

Thank you Netgalley and the author/publisher for a copy of this book. This was a little outside of what I normally enjoy and I can't decide if its because I did not read the first book. I feel like people that like this genre will still enjoy.

In How To Seal Your Own Fate, we return to Castle Knoll and find Annie Adams right back in the thick of another mystery. Annie encounters the elusive Peony Lane, a local fortune teller that was responsible for giving Annie's great aunt Frances the fortune that changed the course of her life. It isn't long after this meeting that Annie finds herself thrust into a mystery that could have dire consequences for Annie herself.

I definitely feel that readers should start with the first book in the series to have a full appreciation and understanding of this second installment. It was interesting to have the passages from Frances's diary to provide more insight into her life as well as many of the other characters that appear in the present day narrative.

I received this book courtesy of the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley for the advance review copy in return for an honest review. I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own. I feel like out of all the books in this series, this one was the slowest and the least exciting. The arc wasn’t that great but I’m glad we got to learn more about gran and there was a more clear ending on her story. I really enjoyed the first book in this series but I don’t know, this one really dragged! I could not get through it!

Another interesting installment! The way this series teams up Frances gathering her secrets in the past and Annie uncovering them in the present is interesting and fresh.

Thanks to Penguin and NetGalley for inviting me to read this title early!

I really enjoyed the first novel in this series but didn't find this one as gripping--I'm typically not a "cozy mystery" reader to begin with but I do always appreciate a palate cleanser book like this. Generally, I wasn't quite as invested in the mystery of this one and I was a little bored with the past plotline specifically. It was fine enough to read but I can't say I really cared all that much unfortunately.

Another cozy mystery book set in Castle Knoll, the famed fortune teller herself, Peony Lane, is found dead at the Gravesdown estate. While I again thoroughly enjoyed Annie as a character (and Jenny and Inspector Crane), I found the Frances portions of the book a bit lacking, and I didn't find the citizens of Castle Knoll as eccentric and interesting as I did in the first book. I also feel that despite being a main part of the plot, the Gravesdown family members could use some fleshing out in terms of character development.

Ultimately, I think the framing device of Frances' old journals paralleling the present day story line is quite a bit thinner and twists itself a bit too much to make the mystery work. I'm not sure how much longer that framing device will be effective in future stories. I do think it would be interesting to see Annie continue to be an intrepid investigator, and I'm enjoying the potential burgeoning romance between her and Crane. I just found the 1967 plotline getting a bit bogged down in trying to support the whole thing. I'm curious to see where this series goes from here.

Kristen Perrin is now two for two. I loved her debut and I loved this book just as much. She manages to write a standout mystery that feels cozy without being soft. I love reading her books and unraveling the mysteries she writes. As with the first book there was a host of characters that could’ve been guilty, and cookie crumbs dropped everywhere giving you clues to who did it but never quite enough to figure it out. It was perfection!

Annie Adams is roped into another mystery when Peony Lane (the fortune teller who kicked off the events in the first novel by telling Annie’s Great-Aunt Frances’s fortune in the 60s) warns her she has a fortune for Annie—but Annie won’t want it. Then, Peony Lane turns up dead on Annie’s property and Annie has to figure out why Peony was killed at all and who wanted to silence her.

I enjoyed the dips into Frances’s diary; I get they’re fully written out which isn’t how normal people do diaries, but I always like the use of diaries like this in fiction. It’s fun. With the diaries, we get the fleshing out of Archie, and some more backstory about Frances as well as her connection to Ford.

As for the present storyline, let’s have more Detective Crane! I know he helped Annie some in this one, but it would be great if they teamed up proper in the next instalment. I’m happily looking forward to seeing some more interplay between them and for feelings to build as they try to piece together an answer to a murder.

This is a cosy mystery with dual timelines that might be a little confusing if one hasn’t read the first one, but enjoyable otherwise.

I received a copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This is the second book in the Castle Knoll series, and I’ll be quite honest, I didn’t remember much about the first book by the time I started this one. The little bits and pieces of the plot that were presented again helped to jog my memory. That being said, I’m just not sure that more needed to be written in this series. While I did enjoy the mystery part of this book, I found it to move quite slowly as we are again put through the point of view of Annie in the present day and Frances in the form of diary entries. I found it difficult to jump between the two at times, and the mystery itself seemed a bit silly and convoluted by the end. While the book was alright, I just left wanting more. I know myself, however, and know that I will probably want to read more in the series because I hope that we can get back to some of the spark that the first one had. My overall feelings were that this moved a bit slow, was difficult to follow at times, but at least the reader did have a good payoff by having the mystery solved. If you're a reader who enjoyed cozy mysteries, this one will satisfy you.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for an advanced reading copy of this book. All opinions within this review are my own.

Kristen Perrin's How to Seal Your Own Fate is the second book in the Castle Knoll Files. I love the first book in this series How to Solve Your Own Murder.
The story is told in two narrative voices. Annie in present day, and excerpts from Aunt Frances’ diaries, her teenage years, 1967. The second book picked right up after the events of the first one.
The story was good and kept me engaged, the writing was beautiful. I still liked the first book more, but the second one was still very enjoyable.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for my ARC in exchange for an honest review.