🧁Review: A Beauty Queen's Guide Murder and Mayhem

🥞Rate: 5 Stars!! ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

🍰Praise: This was definitely an awesome read! I felt as if I was reading a book with a mix of Miss Congeniality with extra Southern charm! Beauty queens have many secrets in this book! They want to win win win!! Our main character Dakota Green is honoring her mother's last wishes and entering a beauty pageant. I so envisioned Dolly Parton making a soundtrack for this book!

🍭 Dakota has the heart of a real cowgirl! She really is loyal and honoring her mother's last wishes by doing this made me love her even more! Her Aunt Dede had me the moment her dialogue came to grace the pages!

💌Characters: Our beloved character definitely has her hands full with trying to find a reason for the disappearance of a beauty queen from the past! And now her aunt is accused of being involved in something scandalous! (I won't share too much detail it's too good! LOL) every character definitely has their own set of layers that you cannot wait to peel back and see what they will offer up as either truth or lie! Or dare I say in between?!

📖Extra/Trope: I am 100% hooked on this book! And I want a hundred if not more books from this beloved author who will now grace my Kindle and my shelves!

🍪Cozy Mystery!
🍪Fun read!
🍪Southern Charm!
🍪Must Read!

Thank you to Netgalley and Storm Publishing for an early release of this book in exchange for an honest review. I enjoyed this book so much and read it in one day. I loved the story line and the characters. I even caught myself laughing in parts! I would definitely recommend this book.

✨✨ BOOK REVIEW ✨✨
A Beauty Queen’s Guide to Murder and Mayhem by Kristen Bird is out now. This is a cute cozy mystery that has vibes of both Murder She Wrote (for those that remember Angela Lansbury in the 1980’s) and Miss Congeniality.

🎀 Dakota Green lives in Aubergine, Virginia where she pursues in obtaining a veterinarian degree to take care of horses. Unfortunately her dreams are derailed and stop with a screeching halt when Dakota has a life changing experience. Along with her Aunt Dee Dee, they begin on a new track to navigate life together, picking up the pieces and trying to put their financial lives back together.

💅🏻 Dakota, with the encouragement of her mother and Aunt Dee Dee, enters the Centennial Rose Palace Pageant, with the hopes of winning first prize to get their financial situation in order. However, Dakota is not the beauty pageant type, with permanent dirt stained nails from her care of horses, and being a flannel, jeans, and cowboy boot wearing kind of gal.

💄 Dakota connects with her best friend Lacy, the hunky sheriff, and others to find out the mystery of the missing beauty queen from 2001. Strange things begin to happen and these ladies find themselves racing the clock to uncover the truth behind the murders swirling around the pageant, ultimately finding out the mysterious truth behind the pageant’s history.

💞 If you enjoy a cozy mystery, check this book out. I liked Dakota’s spirit, her value of friendship, and the appreciation she had for those who helped take care of her. She’s a beauty who’s spunky, loyal, and fierce. This cozy mystery is out now! 3 1/2 stars

Thank you to Net Galley and Storm Publishing for the opportunity to read and review this book. All opinions are my own.

Just absolutely brilliant! Wow, what an amazing read! Just wonderful! I recommend this to everyone. You will not be able to put this one down. An amazing tale, wonderfully told.

A Beauty Queen's Guide to Murder and Mayhem was a hilarious and entertaining mystery that had me laughing out loud from start to finish. Dakota is such a relatable and witty protagonist—her sarcasm was my favorite part, and I loved how she tackled the absurdity of the beauty pageant world. The mystery itself was intriguing, with plenty of twists and suspense to keep me hooked. The small-town drama and quirky characters added a lot of charm to the story. The romance between Dakota and the sheriff felt a bit predictable, but overall, it was a fun and enjoyable read!

Dakota Green is used to manual labor and barn chores. Her momma has passed and she has left behind letters that have her last dying wishes for Dakota to fulfill. One of momma's grand wishes is for Dakota to compete in the Centennial Rose Palace Pageant so that she can make some money to keep their house, pay off her student loans and all her debts.

Dakota enters the pageant and soon after the pageant owner goes missing and all mayhem ensues.

Witty, funny , twisty and very pageantry, A Beauty Queen's Guide To Murder And Mayhem will have you cheering for Dakota and her sleuthing skills!

Thank you Netgalley and Storm Publishing for this funny and charming read!

⭐️⭐️⭐️ .5

Miss Congeniality vibes!!! 👠 This was a fun, quick read with good twists and a FMC I was rooting for all the way through. I do wish that the side characters had been developed a bit further but there were a lot of them! It kept me guessing up until the end and the finale was so satisfying! Can’t wait to read the sequel in June!

A Beauty Queens Guide to Murder and Mayhem by Kristen Bird is a witty and humorous mystery that would probably lean more towards a cozy mystery.

Dakota Green is more accustomed to mucking stalls and handling horses. But when she receives a letter from her late mother that explains that she's been entered into the Beauty Pageant of Aubergine, she swaps her boots for heels reluctantly. She has heard the rumors about the pageant... Bad things seem to happen to the beauty queens. But Dakota needs the prize money so with some fresh highlights she is off to try to claim her crown. When her lovable Aunt Deedee is accused of stealing a crown not to mention murder, Dakota must figure out who is behind the crimes, stay out of the crosshairs of the killer and let's not forget..to get ready for the pageant!

This was a quirky fun novel. I tend not to like cozy mysteries, but I thought this was a good read. One negative I had was it felt somewhat slow and then the last like 40% of the book was a roller coaster. I still enjoyed it and recommend it to anyone who likes clean cozy mystery reads.

Thank you to NetGalley, Kristen Bird, and Storm Publishing for this ARC. Expected publication date is February 28th 2025.

I loved this book! The characters are fantastic. Dakota is fiesty and relatable. The mystery is just the right amount of zany. I was so glad to find out this is the first of a series. I'm looking forward to many more adventures with this bunch.

A cozy mystery read set in the beauty pageant world in a small southern town in Virginia. It read well and had a good plot line and red herrings, and the growing friendship between the characters was well done. There was also a hint at romance and a lovely aunt-niece relationship.

However, for some reason I just did not fully connect with the characters. I cannot put my finger on exactly why and think this is a me issue as the book was objectively well done.

If you like cozy mysteries, recommend you check this one out. It’s also the start to a series.

Thanks to the publisher for this complimentary copy. All opinions are my own.

This was so much fun! I loved the setting of a small town in Virginia, at a beauty pageant with a reluctant participant fulfilling her dying mother’s wishes. The characters were plentiful but were all well-developed enough to tell them apart and had their own quirks in their own right; I was a big fan of the contestant who smushed words together to form interesting malapropisms. The mystery was interesting and I had no idea who the guilty party was until the very end. Looking forward to more in this series!

4⭐️ Thank you to NetGalley and Storm Publishing for an advanced copy of A Beauty Queen’s Guide To Murder And Mayhem.

Dakota is still struggling after the death of her mother almost a year ago. Her mother has left her a letter each month with a task she wants her to complete. But the task for this month is the worst yet-she has signed her up to compete in a beauty pageant. Dakota is more of a cowgirl than a pageant girl but the prize could get her out of debt and she could be able to go back to school. Her aunt helps her prepare but at the start of the pageant festivities someone goes missing. With her aunt being framed Dakota sets out to find the truth.

This book was such a good read-it gave me Miss Congeniality vibes! I loved the plot, writing, and characters. I see this is the first book in a series and I cannot wait to see where the story goes from here!

ARC Book review 📚
A Beauty Queens Guide to Murder and Mayhem - Kristen Bird

𝐑𝐞𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐞 𝐝𝐚𝐭𝐞: 𝐅𝐫𝐢𝐝𝐚𝐲 𝟐𝟖𝐭𝐡 𝐅𝐞𝐛𝐫𝐮𝐚𝐫𝐲 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟓

Rating - ⭐️⭐️⭐️💫 (3.95 ⭐️)
Pace - 🏃‍♂️🏃‍♂️🏃‍♂️🏃‍♂️🏃‍♂️
‘“ɪᴛ’s ᴀ ᴘᴀɢᴇᴀɴᴛ,” ʟᴀᴄʏ sᴀɪᴅ, ʀᴏʟʟɪɴɢ ʜᴇʀ ᴇʏᴇs. “ɴᴏᴛ ᴛʜᴇ ᴀɴɴᴜᴀʟ ʜᴜɴɢᴇʀ ɢᴀᴍᴇs.”’
___________________________________

𝐒𝐨, 𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐝𝐢𝐝 𝐈 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐤? ⬇️

❤️ A cozy mystery set in a small town needs a nosy, relatable character, a love interest, a quirky sidekick, and a good murder—and this book had it all! The author’s incorporation of the characters’ accents really made you feel the Southern charm. It was like I could see the horses and beauty pageant hair spray hair right in front of me. 💅
I really appreciated the heartfelt reason behind this book, the struggles of loss and love, and I felt the letters being incorporated truly hit home and conveyed how heartfelt it was.

However, I must say, the last letter… 🤯 I’m sorry, but I NEED the second book!

💔 As I was reading, I couldn’t help but think, “Why is everyone so unusually calm about this?” and that was a recurring thought throughout. Each time I couldn’t push past the fact that people wouldn’t just continue as normal after seeing a dead body. This is the only reason it wasn’t a 4-star for me, as it did take me out of the story just a little.

I found this book amusing (obviously except for the murders). The way she was an unwilling participant in a beauty contest was funny as she was made to glam up. She also made friends with other contestants who joined her on the hunt for who had framed her aunt, then who committed murder. The big reveal was during the end of the contest and there were a few twists, then an unexpected ending. I enjoyed this book

Dakota Green is more at home in a horse barn than on a pageant stage, but after learning that her mother’s dying wish was for her daughter to enter the local beauty pageant in Aubergine, Virginia, she reluctantly agrees to compete. After all, that prize money would solve a lot of Dakota’s problems. Sequins and sashes aren’t Dakota’s thing, but luckily she has her Aunt DeeDee to guide her every high-heeled step of the way. But things quickly start going awry; first, a pageant crown is stolen and then the pageant’s owner goes missing, and Aunt DeeDee is the prime suspect. Between present-day hijinks and a decades-old missing pageant winner, Dakota is determined to solve these mysteries, clear Aunt DeeDee’s name, and win the crown (and the prize money!).

This is such a fun cozy mystery! Dakota is endearing as a fish out of water on the pageant scene (imagine if Miss Congeniality was a horse girl), and I loved her pluckiness and amateur sleuthing. Of course I tried to unravel the mystery right alongside Dakota, and I was delighted that I was able to guess some twists but also be totally surprised by others. I love the focus on female relationships, from Dakota’s bestie Lacy, to her fellow contestants Jemma and Summer, and of course sassy Aunt DeeDee. There’s a nice hint of chemistry brewing between Dakota and Sheriff Charlie Strong, and I can’t wait to see where that goes in the next installment, An Heiress’s Guide to Death and Diamonds.


Many thanks to NetGalley, Storm Publishing, and the author for providing me an advance copy of this book.

'A Beauty Queen's Guide to Murder and Mayhem' by Kristen Bird is a delightful cozy mystery that blends humor, heart, and a bit of intrigue. The story centers on Dakota Green, a stable hand who reluctantly enters a beauty pageant to fulfill her late mother's last wish. As she swaps her muck boots for high heels, Dakota stumbles upon a decades-old mystery involving a missing beauty queen.

Dakota's dry wit and down-to-earth personality make her a standout character. The beauty pageant setting adds a fun twist, reminiscent of 'Miss Congeniality,' and provides an entertaining backdrop for the mystery. The pacing is brisk, but the story remains engaging with plenty of twists, especially in the epilogue.

Overall, it's a quick, enjoyable read that leaves you wanting more from Dakota Green. I'd give it 4 stars.

Cozy mystery lovers will love this! It was a fun, light murder mystery. At least as fun and light as a murder mystery can be! I had a bit of trouble with the main character and the “pageant girls aren’t just pageant girls” trope.

Amusing story of a girl who enters a beauty pageant in respect of her late mothers wishes. We find out the result of the competition towards the end of the book. I would describe the book as a light hearted pleasant read. Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the chance to ARC this book.

3.75 stars rounded up

This is was light(ish) cosy murder mystery - nothing to taxing with easy to like characters that grow over the course of the book.

A Beauty Queen's Guide to Murder and Mayhem (Dakota Green #1) by Kristen Bird is an entertaining cozy mystery set at the opulent Rose Palace in the charming town of Aubergine, Virginia. Dakota Green, a reluctant pageant contestant fulfilling her mother's wishes, finds her plans disrupted when her beloved Aunt DeeDee is arrested. Determined to clear her aunt's name, Dakota must navigate the treacherous waters of the beauty pageant while simultaneously investigating the crime.

The interactions between Dakota and the other pageant contestants were particularly entertaining, ranging from cutthroat competition to surprising moments of camaraderie. I especially enjoyed the interactions between Dakota and the sheriff. The Rose Palace, with its opulent decor and hidden passageways, provided a perfect backdrop for the intrigue, and the small-town charm of Aubergine added to the cozy atmosphere. The mystery unfolded at a satisfying pace, with clues sprinkled throughout the narrative.

I would recommend this book to fans of cozy mysteries who appreciate strong female characters, a touch of humor, and a unique setting. A Beauty Queen's Guide to Murder and Mayhem is a delightful start to what promises to be a captivating series. I eagerly await Dakota's next adventure!

Thank you to Storm Publishing for providing this book for review consideration via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.