A Bride's Guide to Marriage and Murder

A Bride's Guide to Marriage Murder takes place around Frances and George's wedding. Their honeymoon is interrupted by news that their neighbor has been murdered, and the main suspect is Frances' brother. Frances and George together try to figure out who the real murderer is, but there might be more murders before they can.

I quite enjoyed this book! It was a fast-paced, fun mystery and the characters were loveable. Filled with humor and a great cast of whimsical characters, this was a wonderful historical cozy mystery.

Even though this is book #5 in a series I haven't read before, I didn't find it to be an issue at all. The book does a great job of filling the blanks without making it seem like an info dump. Definitely safe to read as a standalone.

The mystery itself was quite fun, and while I figured out the details of the murder, I still enjoyed the journey, and it was never obvious enough to make me think, “Come on, get there already!” In fact, I really enjoyed the way the mystery was woven together and then revealed, it didn't drag its feet, and everything made sense.

Even though this book is not a romance, I quite enjoyed the romance between Frances and George. I loved the respect and trust they have in each other, and the way George embraces Frances fully.

The relationships and dialogue between the many characters seemed very genuine, I'm sure it helps that this is now the 5th book and all these are well established characters, but the familiarity, love and care most of the people had for each other was heart warming. I also loved all the various family relationships they had in the book. There was real love among the family members, even if sometimes they got on each others' nerves.

Overall this was a delightful and fun mystery that had me turning the pages to see what happens to the characters as much as to figure out the murderer.

Thank you to Kensington Books and Netgalley for the eARC for this fun mystery!