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A Murder For The Books (Blue Ridge Mysteries Book 1) by Victoria Gilbert Review

Hi ForeverBookers, 

I’ve just finished reading “A Murder For The Books” by Victoria Gilbert, which NetGalley gave me access to review, so thanks to them! It was an okay read, but it won’t make my favourites of 2017 list. 

“A Murder For The Books” is the first in a series of mystery novels, about a young woman, Amy, living with her Aunt. She’s also a librarian in the local library. There’s also a romance story, which I really liked for Amy throughout “A Murder For The Books”. She sees a dead body in one of the back rooms at the library, one day and the real story of who murdered them starts from there...  

“A Murder For The Books” is told in first person, which I thought worked well. We could see what Amy was feeling directly about each event. In a Murder mystery novel this is what I wanted, to see the effect events were taking on the main character. But there was also, unfortunately quite a few boring aspects to the story, too. In a book called “A Murder For The Books”, I’d have thought the murder would more to do with the library and reading in general. This wasn’t the case, sadly. 

NOTE: There’s a tiny bit of bad language but apart from that, and maybe the descriptions of the dead bodies, which aren’t graphic, they just lets us know that the character is dead, anyone could read this...

I don’t really want to spoil any of the plot of “A Murder For The Books” because the mystery is the main thing surrounding this book. What I will say is that there are a lot of suspects and we go through each one, until the actual murderer is found. This became a little bit tedious but I was sold on the romance plot line so that’s what I was really reading for. 

What did I like about “A Murder For The Books”?

I liked our main character, Amy’s personality.

I liked the romance. It didn’t feel forced or rushed. It wasn’t the main theme of the book but I liked that it was included. I wish it had been a little more central to the overall plot. This would have raised my rating a little. 

I liked how the author chose to write in first person because we could see how and why Amy made the decisions she did. 

What didn’t I like about “A Murder For The Books”?

I didn’t like how the mystery seemed to become the only thing our main character cared about. She had friends and family but the mystery was always at the forefront of her mind. 

I didn’t like how the mystery didn’t seem to have anything to do with books, really apart from a diary/herbal of a character who died before he book even starts. I thought the mystery would be based more in the library, but it wasn’t at all. 

I didn’t like how the first 70% of “A Murder For The Books” seemed to be really slow moving. This was my take on it. It will be different for every reader, though as we all have different tastes. I even skipped quite a bit and I didn’t loose any of the plot, I don’t believe. 

Therefore I’m giving “A Murder For The Books” 2 Stars! It wasn’t a terrible book but it didn’t capture me as I’d maybe have hoped it would. I thought the mystery element would be exciting, when it unfortunately just wasn’t. The romance was really all I was reading for by the end, as well as just wanting to know who the murderer was. If the unnecessary parts had been cut the book would have been a much quicker read, I believe.  

My next review will be coming soon...

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