Kristin's Bookshelf

Buried in a Book
Series: A Cozy Bookshop Mystery, Book 2
By T.C. LoTempio
Narrated by Christa Lewis | @liquidbelles
⭐⭐⭐⭐

After enjoying one of T.C. LoTempio’s Urban Tails Pet Shop Mysteries, I immediately requested this one on NetGalley when I saw it available, and even better, that it was an audiobook.

In this installment, bookshop owner Charley James gets pulled into a mystery surrounding a rare book that may literally be worth killing for. Even though this is book 2 in the series, it works perfectly fine as a standalone. There are a few mentions of a previous case that I assume ties back to book 1, but nothing that left me confused.

Overall, I had a really fun time with this one. The narration by Christa Lewis was fantastic, especially considering the number of characters involved. She was a new-to-me narrator, but I thought she did a great job giving everyone distinct voices and personalities. I did listen at 1.5x speed, which may be fast for some, but worked for me.

My biggest challenge was keeping track of the family at the center of the mystery. Between the book’s owner, the brother, the deceased sister, the niece, the estranged brother-in-law, the father, and all the additional supporting characters (co-workers, maids, detectives, reporter), there were definitely moments when I had to stop and mentally reconnect who belonged to whom.

One thing I’m still curious about is Charley being an author herself. It’s referenced several times throughout the story, but it didn’t feel especially important here, so I’m wondering if that plays a bigger role in book 1 or becomes more significant later in the series.

I also really liked how the mystery wrapped up. Throughout most of the book, it feels like everything revolves around the rare book itself. The value, the signatures, the history, but by the end, we learn it’s about much more than that.

I’ll definitely continue with this series as more books become available, and I already downloaded book 1 on Audible.

Thank you Netgalley for an ALC of this book.