This is one of those books that has you silently shouting at the characters ‘don’t say that’ ‘don’t go there’ ‘don’t trust them’. The good thing about this is it proves you are rooting for the characters, but boy oh boy is it frustrating! A real change of style for this author as this is definitely a cosy mystery complete with a chocolate box village. The real star here is the amazing Poppy, who you would love to own.

With her life in London in turmoil, Emily is stunned to discover she's inherited a house from her great-aunt. But there's strings attached...

Installed in the neglected house (because she hasn't anything better to do), Emily begins to make friends in the village, and investigates what she believes to be a mystery next door.

But life is never that straightforward....

Fabulous - more please!

I enjoyed this book! It’s a very sweet story, with a cute dog, idyllic village and a cozy vibe to it.

The main character, Emily, irritated me on and off throughout the books. She treated people badly, was incredibly naive and made some silly decisions. There are however some other supporting characters who I enjoyed reading about.

This book is sold as a story about a dog who solves mysteries which I was looking forward too; and that was not what I got. What I got was a woman solving a crime, with her dog in tow. Still nice, but not what it said on the tin as it were!

Overall, this was a nice enjoyable story, it won’t be for you if you like alot of grit. I would recommend to anyone who’s after an easy read with cozy vibes!

R A T I N G

⭐️⭐️⭐️

This book was sent to me electronically by Netgalley for review. Thanks to the publisher for the copy. What a fantastic book! The author has a great gift for characterisation - nuanced, interesting, believable people!Thanks to a great author we have great storytelling and emotional intelligence, this book was a huge pleasure to read!