This was such a good read! It had a great pace that kept me engaged throughout, and the story was easy to follow. At first, it took me a little while to adjust to the narrator's style, but once I did, I found that the voice was perfect for a cozy mystery. The mix of charm, suspense, and a touch of humor created the ideal atmosphere for the genre. Overall, a delightful and cozy read—perfect for a relaxing escape! Highly recommended for anyone looking for an entertaining and light-hearted mystery.

A Victim at Valentine’s by Ellie Alexander ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Valentine’s Day takes a deathly turn when a well-known and loved man from this otherwise safe and quiet community is found dead outside Annie’s bookshop. Launching into a classic “Who-dun-it,” Annie helps law enforcement to narrow down suspects, motives, and gather evidence. I wasn’t convinced on any of the suspects and found myself guessing until the end! I listened to the book on audio and found it was an easy, enjoyable little mystery with sprinkles of romance.💘 A cozy, perfect read for Valentine’s Day!

Thank you @netgalley + @ellie_alexander 💋

#avictimforvalentines #netgalley #netgalleyreads #netgalleyreview #cozymystery #audiobook

I enjoyed listening to this cozy. If there's one thing that I love most about cozy mysteries, it's the exploration of the relationships between the characters and the opportunity to peek into everyone's life a bit in each novel. I feel like that was missing from this book. When this book ended, I knew more about Annie than anyone else, but I don't really feel like I learned much about her either. The story seemed to sit right on the surface and that's great for a quick read, but if you want to spend time delving in to the lives and minds of the characters in addition to cracking the case, this isn't the cozy for you.

Although this is book #5 it was my first time joining Annie and her friends on solving a murder. I know have plans to go back to the very beginning.

I love Annie’s character so much, and the way that Ellie Alexander approaches grief in this book was amazing and very relatable. As a widow I found the long grief so relatable. Another aspect I really enjoyed was Annie’s grief is attached to her best friends who’s murder she is trying to solve and based on this book that seems to be a mystery she has been working on for years and is sprinkled through the series. The murder part itself in this book was so well done, I did not at all see the murder coming and it also kind of broke my heart.

If you are a cozy mystery reader do yourself a favor and grab this series, you will love it.

A Victim at Valentine’s (A Secret Bookcase Mystery #5) by Ellie Alexander

I desperately wanted to love this book. I’ve been searching for a cozy mystery series to obsess over—something reliable, charming, and full of bookish crime-solving goodness. And on paper, this one had it all: a matchmaking Valentine’s Day event, a protagonist with a criminology background who works in a bookshop (dream job, honestly), and a wholesome, small-town mystery vibe. These are all things I can absolutely get behind. But for some reason, it just didn’t click for me. I’ve been putting off this review while trying to crack the case of why.

First, I can say with 100% certainty that the patchy audiobook ARC did not help. As someone with sensitive hearing, I couldn’t unhear the inconsistent audio quality—it sounded like it was recorded in different sessions, stitched together with the subtlety of a ransom note. I listened both in the car and with earbuds (Spatial Audio on), and in both cases, I found myself hyper-fixating on the narration instead of the story. This might not bother everyone, but for me, it was distracting.

Now, onto the story itself—I wanted to love it! I really did! But no matter how much I adjusted my listening speed, I couldn’t shake the feeling that the main character was just too PG for my taste. I prefer a little more personality and humor in my cozy mysteries, something with a bit more spark. That said, I love the concept of this series, and I’m curious about which characters are recurring favorites in Alexander’s books. Honestly, I feel bad for not enjoying this one as much as I’d hoped—but I’m not giving up yet. I’ll likely go back and start with book one in the series to see if it changes my perspective.

Huge thanks to NetGalley and Dreamscape Media for the audiobook ARC and the chance to provide my honest thoughts—audio issues and all!

I thought this book was a cute valentines mystery! The main character was fun to follow. There were twists and turns that kept me on my toes and guessing until the end. I also liked that the main character used her detective knowledge to help the police solve the case. Overall this was a good read and I didn’t see the twist coming!

This is a classic Ellie Alexander cozy mystery. It hits all the right notes for the who dunnit and adds a little romance. I’m a huge Ellie Alexander fan and love all the series she has written. While this is not the first in the series, and I have read the previous ones, I think this can be read as a standalone. Looking forward to more books in this series to see what happens.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.

As a cozy mystery fan, I felt like something was missing from this book, which is part of a series and includes a character's coming out story. I received a complimentary audiocopy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

Title: A Victim at Valentine’s
Author: Ellie Alexander
Narrated by: Ellen Quay
Publisher: Dreamscape Media
Length: Approximately 6 hours and 25 minutes
Source: Review Copy from NetGalley. Thank you!

How did you celebrate Valentine’s Day? Did you have a cozy night in or go out on the town? Or not celebrate at all? My husband and I went out for dinner.

Annie Murray is celebrating Valentine’s Day at the Secret Bookshop by putting together a matchmaking event. Annie’s friend Scarlett was murdered in the past and she is still trying to put together the clues to solve her death. When someone else is murdered at the bookstore, Annie helps investigate who the killer could be in their small town. Will they find the killer before they strike again?

My thoughts on this novel:
• This was a perfect cozy read for Valentine’s Day. I loved how there was a slight romance with Annie and Liam and the event that was put together for the holiday. The murder was tied in with the holiday as well.

• This is the fifth book in the A Secret Bookcase Mystery series. I read it as a standalone, but I feel like it would have been even better if I had read the first books in the series.

• I enjoyed that the bookstore was an Agatha Christie themed bookstore.

• There were many red herrings in the mystery which made it fun as Annie put together the pieces to find the killer.

• Ellen Quay was a great narrator, and this was an enjoyable audiobook.

Overall, A Victim at Valentine’s Day by Ellie Alexander was a perfect cozy mystery for the holiday.

This is a really cute and fun cozy mystery for Valentine’s season. It definitely had the edge of a mystery but there were some very cute moments that helped it keep within the theme of Valentine’s Day. I loved the names for all the animals and I thought that the characters were lovable and memorable.

I didn’t really follow the subplot of the friend who passed away and I am wondering if it is because I haven’t read the earlier books but it was still a really fun read

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for sending me a free arc for review.

I should know by now that these cozy small town mysteries are usually not for me. They always leave me wanting for more.

A victim at Valentine’s was sold to me as a cozy mystery in a bookstore. Instead this was mostly the main character walking around town and having about 3 conversations of the murder. She’s sold as this person with incredible detective skills. But it’s barely shown. She even jumps to a non-sensical conclusion once, that turned out to be false. This novel actually as more instances where the main female character pines unrelentlessly for her boyfriend, constantly hammering how perfect he was.

Honestly, he kind of felt like a cardboard box.
I have to say that this is the first book I’ve read in this series (and the last one). And this is the 5th one.

This is the fifth book in the series, definitely a series to read in order as you’ll see the character growth and understand the storyline better. I listened to the audiobook and the narrator is great! This is a fun cozy series with lots going on, highly recommend.

This was a perfect cozy mystery for Valentine's Day! It's the fifth book in A Secret Bookcase Mystery series, but the first one I've read. I'm sure it would've been a little more enjoyable if I'd read the others first but I didn't feel lost either. This book had the perfect amount of small town charm, with it's eclectic cast of characters and cozy bookstore setting. I absolutely plan to read the rest of this series!

This book wasn’t for me. It’s not one you can read as a stand-alone and I couldn’t get into the story, missing so much background information. It felt rushed in parts and I found it difficult to care about the characters given how one-dimensional they were.

3.75⭐️

The perfect cozy mystery! A Victim at Valentines follows Annie as she tries to unravel the mysterious death of a beloved community member. This is a very face paced book with a shocking end! It was fun to see the detective work and deduction of the murderer through Annie’s eyes, it’s like you were solving the mystery with her!

Thank you to Dreamscape Media for an advanced audio book copy! All thoughts and options are my own.

I got the pleasure to reviewing the audio of this book through NetGalley. I loved the narrator. The story itself I really enjoyed as well. The detailing was great. I would highly suggest reading all the books from 1-4 first. I read as a standalone and I missed out on the character building. The world building was good in this story. I definitely will be checking out more books by this author.

Happy murderous Valentine's Day!
That's not exactly true. Cuz the murder takes place before Valentine's Day .
I listened to the audio and there was a weird little quirk with the title . The book cover states "A victim at Valentine's" but the audio States and all of the audio tracks "A victim for Valentine's." So something is weird there with the title.
The book itself though was a fun read. This is number five in the series. Most of the book is easily accessible and enjoyed by anyone just picking it up. So I definitely recommend picking it up for a Valentine's read. There is enough mention to something that happened previously in her life that I would think it would be well worth it to go back and read previous titles in the series if you have not done so.
This one mostly takes place around a sweetheart matchup at the bookstore over a few days.
There is a cast of eccentrics and other enjoyable people. There is an elderly gentleman who is very big into philanthropy and helping lots of people with various types of loans and business investments and partnerships. When a murder takes place then our protagonist looks at each person and in her words explains why she thinks they could be a suspect. That's probably good because she knows these people better than we do although you also do question why would she suspect all of these people who she has known for years. Some of her thoughts and ideas about who could be the guilty party seem a little far-fetched or contrived. Ultimately though what was interesting is we solve that murder and then there's a fantastic little twist in the story that was entirely unexpected but it's one of those things that does point back to a previous book but again it still can be enjoyed even not knowing what took place in the previous book.
It is a fun Valentine's holiday read for that Thriller reader who also loves their mysteries.

A Valentiney addition to what is quickly becoming a new favorite series from one of my fav cozy authors. Love is in the air, but so is an allergic reaction and the team at the Secret Bookcase has to figure out whodunit before a matchmaking weekend comes to an end.

I love Ellen Quay as a narrator, and she continued to do a great job. My only issue with the narration was that you could tell where the audio had been edited, the sound changed and the voice almost sounded unnatural. Otherwise, the narration was fine and the story was great.

Love is in the air… but so is murder.

A matchmaking weekend at a charming bookstore should be all about romance, but when a guest turns up dead, amateur sleuth Annie Murray finds herself unraveling another mystery. Adding to the intrigue, a murder of crows seems to have been the only witnesses to the crime—watching from above as secrets unfold.

While there is a continuing storyline about the unsolved murder of Annie’s best friend, Scarlet, I read this as a standalone and had no trouble following the plot. The mix of literary charm, quirky characters, and a small-town setting made for a cozy and engaging read. And with A Body at the Book Fair arriving June 16th, more bookish sleuthing awaits!

Thank you to the Author, Dreamscape Media and NetGalley for the opportunity to listen to this audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

Although I count myself among cosy mystery fans, and this was admittedly a good exponent of 5he genre, something was missing from this for me. It might be that I tend to appreciate British cosy mysteries more, but this didn't rise above average for me. However, if you appreciate small town settings and quirky sets of characters from American settings, this book might be for you. Just be aware this is part of a series. Happy reading!