A delightful start to a cozy mystery series about a bed and breakfast with a spooky aesthetic that may or may not be fake. Full of the customary delicious food descriptions, roaming cats and small town secrets that many of us love in these kinds of stories, perfect for low key nights with a blanket.

When Carissa Blackwood goes to help out at her Aunt Runa and Hazel's new venture in California she is pulled into a murder mystery that happens right after an opening reception and seems to point towards her eccentric family. I enjoyed the Blackwood sisters, they are a little bit kooky but caring. I do wish there was more interactions between them and Carissa and anticipate future books will show more of their growing bond. I also would love to see more of Carissa and her book writing knowledge come into play, this was only vaguely mentioned and didn't seem to have an impact on the crime solving which felt a little bit clunky until the ending.

Overall a very encouraging start to this series, just needs a little more tightening up on the pacing and characters but I loved the spooky inn and family.

Thanks to the publishers Crooked Lane Books for access to the netgalley book.

In what looks like the start to a fun new series, we find Carissa Blackwood returning to Pelican Point, California, after her divorce to join her two aunts who manage the Blackwood Bed "n" Breakfast. The house had been described as classic Italianate, but when she arrives, she thinks it better resembles a haunted house. As she settles in with her aunts, she discovers that house includes a special garden--of poisonous plants. When one of the house's reception guests is found dead following the Inn's opening reception, Carissa has to find the culprit--with the help of a couple town residents and her grandfather's ghost!

This was an unusual combination of events for a (hopefully new) series. Fun mystery and unforgettable characters. Oh, and super cute cover art.

When Clarissa Blackwood finally leaves her cheating husband, she is lucky to have someplace to go--the old family home that her eccentric aunts are converting to a bed and breakfast. But shortly after arriving, Clarissa isn't so sure she's been all that lucky! Her Aunt Hazel is focused on potions and herbs, and of course her garden full of poisonous plants, while Aunt Runa is focused on her crystals. Both are leaning into the haunted reputation of their house, but neither has really done much to set up the business side of running a bed and breakfast. Meanwhile, the neighbors are not at all happy with the decor and changes to the house and don't really want a BnB in the neighborhood. Then there's the eerie noises in the house, the mysterious cat who appears and disappears, and the handsome but enigmatic caretaker. And of course the murder.

Since the victim was trying to get the aunts to sell the property and was poisoned with a plant that could only come from Aunt Hazel's poison garden, the aunts become suspects. Clarissa throws herself into the investigation, trying to save her aunts and the new business. When a second person dies, secrets about the house and the family begin coming to life, and Clarissa finds herself wondering who she can trust as she tries to find the killer.

This is a fun story, with a likeable main character who is much more patient with her aunts than I would be! There's lots of backstory yet to be told, so I hope there will be additional books to follow this fun first installment.

Carissa has left her cheating husband and gone to live with her eccentric aunts Runa and Hazel in Pelican Point, where her aunts are turning their home into a bed 'n' breakfast, complete with occult/haunted house themes. Aunt Runa believes in the power of crystals and spends her time strategically placing them around the house for protection. Aunt Hazel is into herbal concoctions and has a special hidden garden where she grows restricted and poisonous herbs.

When one of the locals dies by poisoning from herbs coming grown in Hazel's garden, with one of Runa's crystals in her possession, the local police suspect Carissa's aunts are involved. The police become further suspicious when one of the aunts' guest also turns up poisoned too. With help from here aunts' handyman Noah, Clarissa is forced to do her best to clear her aunts' names and find the real killer. However, even in the small town of Pelican Point, many locals have their secrets and reasons for wanting the victims silenced forever.

A fun , cozy mystery filled with eccentric characters, annoying small-town neighbours, plenty of cats, potential ghosts and a haunted BnB. I loved the Nancy Drew references in this story which was a little predictable but a charming and enjoyable read.

Thank you to NetGalley and Crooked Lane Books for the opportunity to read and review this book.

Looking for a cozy mystery than this is it. Funny, charming and clever with a plot twist you don’t see coming.
This is face paced with unique characters and lots of nods to “Nancy Drew” loved the witchy aunts and ghostly cat always popping up.
The ending has definitely been left open for a second book and I can’t wait to read that one too.
Thank you Netgalley & Penny Warner for allowing me to read this ARC and give my honest opinions.

Ghostwriter Carissa Blackwood is having the worst year of her life after walking away from her unfaithful husband. Seeking refuge and a fresh start, she heads to Pelican Point to help her eccentric aunts run the charming Blackwood Inn. But peace is short-lived when a local dies from poisoning—casting suspicion on Aunt Hazel, whose herbal remedies and apothecary have made her both popular and a little notorious in town. Determined to clear her aunt’s name, Carissa takes it upon herself to uncover the truth. What follows is a fun and twisty mystery, filled with quirky characters, small-town secrets, and the cozy charm of a place that might just feel like home.

#MurderatBlackwoodInn #NetGalley

"Murder at Blackwood Inn (Haunted Dead and Breakfast #1)" by Penny Warner was an interesting first book in a new possibly cozy romance mystery. I put the romance part in there because the first three eligible men introduced to Carissa are described as attractive and potentially interested in her in some way. I'm sorry, but that probability only happens in romance books. Also, when they find some steamy love notes Carissa reads the first few words out loud and that really wasn't necessary if it wanted to stay in fully cozy mystery territory. It wasn't really romance territory either. Just more descriptive than your typical cozy mystery and very mild for a romance.

Carissa moves into her family's ancestral home to help her two aunts run it as a bed and breakfast. She's lost her long term ghost writing partnership and her ex boyfriend did something unspeakable, yet he keeps blowing up her phone with texts. Odd things keep happening in the house and Carissa can't seem to get a good night's sleep. She's also trying to help prove that her poison plant growing aunt isn't a murderer and her other, crystals loving, aunt didn't try to cover it up.

I can’t help but try new cozy paranormal mysteries because they can be so much fun. This is a new author to me, and I had to try it. Of course, this is a fun and engaging cozy, with interesting characters. I like that the main character is a ghost writer. Finding out more about her career should be interesting. While the mystery wasn’t really strong, and the characters weren’t too fleshed out to my tastes, which sometimes happens with the first book in a series, I still really enjoyed the book. Recommend. I was provided a complimentary copy which I voluntarily reviewed.

Cute small-town mystery with a haunted B&B and a couple of batty aunts. Carissa was okay, but I enjoyed the side characters more. Easy read that would be a fun transition to fall and spooky season. Hopefully the editor does a few more final comb-throughs before pub date because there were a lot of errors. They didn't really bother me since this was an ARC, but hopefully not a sign of the quality of the final product.

A fun cozy mystery. Charming setting. Some paranormal, which I really enjoy. Hopefully we will see more from this author.

It was a good cosy mystery, the characters were quirky and the setting fun and creepy.
However, I think it could use a bit more editing because the pacing was a bit slow and there were a few too many grammatical and spelling errors.

Having left her ex-husband and previous life, Carissa Blackwood has moved into her aunts' bed 'n' breakfast inn in the charming seaside town of Pelican Point, California. With less work available to her as a ghostwriter, she is happy to take on some of the duties required to guarantee a smooth opening for the new business. With rumours galore regarding her paternal grandfather and the house he lived in until his death six months earlier she is eager to learn more but reports of bad luck, séances and ghostly goings-on means she jumps at every unexpected noise. A visit by the local sheriff after the unexpected death of a guest at their recent party is a real life problem that needs dealing with very quickly especially as he considers her Aunts, Rona and Hazel, his prime suspects! The Inn handyman, Noah, helps with her quest but after a guest also dies it seems as if the new business will fail before it has a chance to start.

I was able to read an advanced copy of this thanks to NetGalley and the publishers, Crooked Lane Books, but the opinions expressed are my own. The first book in this new series was fun to dive into with quirky characters, secrets abounding, and recipes at the end, I am very glad I took a chance with it.

This book had a lot of positives: a charming inn, spooky setting, and a snarky heroine. However, the repetitive nature of the plot and the fact that the heroine didn’t seem capable of solving the mystery left me wanting more from the story. I hope that additional editing will help with pacing, but unfortunately I won’t be continuing the series. This one just wasn’t for me.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this early review!

An amazing start to a new series. I couldn't love this book more. It is a perfect cozy mystery. Even though it's not out yet, I can't wait for the next one.

What a great cozy mystery. It has all the things I look for in a good cozy: quirky characters, fun settings, a little romance, and enough twists and turns to keep you engaged. Also, the writing is well done - meaning the descriptions of the settings gave me enough detail to paint clear pictures of all the settings and characters in my mind.

Murder at Blackwood Inn is a fast-paced, delightfully cozy mystery that immediately pulled me in with its charming setting, quirky characters, and clever nods to classic sleuths like Nancy Drew. From the first chapter, I was hooked and didn’t want to put it down.

The story moves quickly, with just enough intrigue to keep the pages turning, and a plot twist that genuinely surprised me. I especially enjoyed the main character, Carissa—resourceful, curious, and very Nancy Drew-esque (a comparison the book playfully acknowledges!). Her sleuthing felt nostalgic yet fresh, and she carried the story with heart and humour.

That said, I did have to suspend a bit of disbelief at how freely the local police shared case details with townspeople—it stretched realism, but in the cozy mystery genre, that’s part of the fun. The quirky supporting characters—especially Carissa’s eccentric aunts, Runa and Hazel—added levity and warmth, and the lovable, mischievous cats roaming the inn brought a delightful dose of chaos and personality.

Overall, Murder at Blackwood Inn is a feel-good whodunit that blends charm, curiosity, and clever plotting. I’d recommend it to fans of cozy mysteries, especially readers who appreciate strong female leads, small-town charm, and a story that feels like curling up with your favourite comfort read.

Thanks to Netgalley and Cooked Lane Books for this ARC. This is my Honest review.

I wanted to enjoy this book more, I really did. But I feel it was released on Netgalley as an ARC too soon. It needed a LOT more proofing and correcting before it should have been offered to readers.

I wish I was exaggerating when I say it seemed like every single page held some type of error. Whether is be a grammatical error, spelling error, punctuation mishap, or simply sentences that contradicted themselves. The continuity was haphazard, the characters were all over the place, and parts of the narrative sounded childish, like I was reading a NA/ YA while other parts were clearly meant for an older audience.

The setting, plot, world building held so much promise but failed to hit the mark.

I truly hope all this jumble is tidied up before final proof and publication. I expect better quality ARCs from this publisher.

I will be leaving a rating on Goodreads, as I read to book, but not these comments. They are for Netgalley only.

a bit familiar to another book that i absolutely love. this needs more editing but this was such a cozy read! cats, witches, mystery. very good!

Thank you to Net Galley for the advanced read. This is my first book by this author but it won’t be my last. I found this book unputdownable. The setting was fantastic. I absolutely loved the characters and it was a really good mystery.

The book had was overall entertaining with a strong engaging mystery. Characters were unique and fun. If you do not like paranormal themes and references, then this may not be the book for you. I enjoyed reading this book!