Books: her closest friends and greatest teachers.

Set in the small, very windy, village of Waterfall Tweed, all three stories in this book centre around Books and Bakes, a cafe and bookshol, and it's owner, Sandy.

Book One: Once Upon a Crime.
Sandy's shop was struggling. Although the cafe with it's delicious came selection was reasonably successful, no one seemed interested in buying books. Then Sandy becomes prime suspect in the murder of a man who had announced his intention of opening a top of the range bookstore opposite her own shop. Sandy needs the help of her sister and her loyal customers to try to clear her name.

Book Two: A Tale of Two Books.
The major bouse, left empty when the owners left for a very long vacation, and been occupied by squatters, which annoyed many of the village's inhabitants. When one is killed in a hit-and-run incident, Sandy feels remorse because she had earlier refused him a job. When another young man working in her kitchen is also hit by a car, Sandy and handsome neighbour Tom try to work out what is happening.

Book Three: A Valentine's Kill.
With the shop doing well and romance in the air, Sandy finds her emotions stretched when Tom himse!f becomes a murder suspect and he suddenly becomes cold towards her.

The books, individually, are quick to read and not taxing. The writing style is direct and simple with uncomplicated snappy sentences. There is a lot of eating and drinking, mostly coffee and cake, with recipes liberally sprinkled throughout. Despite frequently detailed descriptions of the characters, they remain essentially two dimensional but become familiar as they reappear in the different bolks. It is a fun read with intriguing mysteries and having the first three books to read in sequence is a bonus as the background story builds as the cafe-bookshop develops. Interestingly, although Wendy's main love is books, their is a noticeable absence of any literary references along with the obsession with food.

Nano Nagle has a pleasant English voice, easy on the ear, clear and with good intonation.She modifies the emotion according to the text and voices each protagonist individually, even if some of the characters seem to have disproportionately rough accents. It is a good reading but one which, for this reader, did not quite fit the stories but nevertheless helped breathe life into some of the numerous characters.

An enjoyable, if rather flat, read in an interesting location - the cafe. The who-dun-it? aspect is also intriguing, allowing the reader to assess and guess at the perpetrator from clues dropped along the way. My thanks to the rights holder of this Waterfell Tweed box set who, at my request, freely gifted me with a complimentary copy, via Audiobook Boom. Recommended for fans of non taxing cozy mysteries who enjoy the chance to work out the perpetrator in advance of the ending.

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Easy listening

I love cozy mysteries and this boxset made for a good, entertaining listen.
The stories are short which means you can listen to one full story in a few hours.
Each individual mystery is very well written with good, fun characters. The mysteries are not overly complicated but they will still keep you interested and guessing. I really enjoyed the narrator's performance and I look forward to listening to the rest of the series.


I voluntarily reviewed an advance reading audio copy.

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A sweet treat for cosy mystery lovers

Waterfell Tweed itself is a rather twee village which feels as though it could be anywhere across Britain, as it doesn't have a very distinct regional personality. This makes it easier to imagine it being the 'local' country village with which each reader is familiar, but does make it a little more difficult to imagine the author's vision.

This series is best described as 'chick lit' though I do wish there was a better term for it. The mysteries are a little predictable but that goes with the territory when reading a cosy, and the books are all lightweight listening with sweet, clean, ‘girly’ themes and emotionally-driven plots. I haven't listened to many other books in the ‘women’s fiction/rom-com’ genre but once I got to know the characters I enjoyed it. I needed something that was very easy to listen to this week, and it was no chore at all to sit back and drift off into a little bookshop bakery.

These books feature several female characters from various generations, and initially I felt that I would have preferred the stories to have been from the perspective of one of the older women; perhaps Dory of the 'Black Widows Club'. But, regardless of age, the common thread linking all three books is that they are predominantly stories about women, perhaps even more so than they are mysteries. The investigations into the various deaths are just the mechanism by which we come to learn about how the women of the village really live. Sandy slowly comes to see that behind closed doors there are widows rebuilding their lives, sisters learning to be a family, mothers struggling to feed their kids, and wives battling their husbands' addictions. Once I understood that, the books grew on me with each subsequent title in the collection.

I would listen to other Waterfell Tweed collections like this one, as they are great for days when I need to rest and not invest my attention in anything too cognitively or emotionally draining, but still wish to be entertained.

There were two plot points that I found irksome, and the first involved Sandy's sister, Coral. Coral's previous career as a journalist is frequently referenced but never really utilised. My second gripe was with Sandy's love-interest. Their acquaintance started out well and looked like it was going to be a nice, slow burn with a few bumps in a road which would ultimately bring them together. But it all felt a bit unbelievable when Sandy suddenly declared her love for someone she wasn't sure if she had actually even been dating. Instead of feeling romantic it seemed rushed to give the collection a Happy Ever After.

There were a few niggling inconsistencies in the books, which was only noticeable because they were packaged into a trilogy which I listened to back-to-back.

A lovely touch to these books is the inclusion of several recipes. Some are part of the main story, and others are included at the end.

The narrator, Nano Nagle, has a pleasant and expressive voice which brought each of the characters to life very nicely. She handled the broad age-ranges well, and all her characters had personality. I found her delivery a little languid so sped up the audiobook to 1.10x playback speed, which made it flow better to my ear. This is always personal preference, however, and I know many people who usually slow down narration, for whom Nano Nagle's performance would be perfectly suited just as it is.

Overall, I feel that this collection of novellas would be the perfect lightweight summer holiday listening for anyone who enjoys cosy mysteries and village bake-sales. They may be good fun for people who like M C Beaton's Agatha Raisin series, though they are rather different in tone, and for anyone who enjoys stories about a community of women. (Though my favourite pick in that particular genre is Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows.)

*I received this audiobook free of charge in exchange for an honest, unbiased review.

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Enjoyable

I quite enjoy cosy mysteries, they are a pleasant listen and I usually like to fit them in between gory thrillers or while I'm at work to relax.
This was no different, set in the British town of Waterfell Tweed really made me feel at home, coming from a small village myself. Although where I live is nowhere near as exciting.
This is a boxset of 3 separate stories, so great for a short listen and I had a break between each one to listen to something else, the stories are gripping but fun...hopefully there will be more to this series.

Please note, I did receive a free copy of this book in return for an unbiased review.

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A Great Introduction To The Series

This is a great introduction to the Waterfell Tweed series. An introduction to Sage's daughters (Sage being Connie's sister from the Mystic Springs series). I didn't think I'd like audible books but it's great to get to listen as I'm sewing. I can follow along easily and love knowing that I'm not missing out on reading. I love how it enables me to get the best of both my favourite things...sewing and reading. I can't wait to see how both of these series of books move forward.

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2 people found this helpful

Enjoyable Light Hearted Listen

I did enjoy these 3 books. The characters are likeable and the stories light hearted, for murder.

I will be looking out for others from this author, it was a good find.

I was given this free review copy audio book at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

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