When Lou Prescott bought the bookstore at Holiday Bay, she wanted it to be so much more than a quaint seaside business. She wanted it to be home to the cozy gathering of friends, she knew in her heart, would come together to share their lives, their hardships, and their victories.
With the change of the seasons, comes shorter days, cozy fireside get-togethers in the courtyard, and a new mystery or Lou and her group of amateur sleuths to solve.
Kathi lives with her husband, kids, grandkids, and dogs in beautiful Lake Tahoe. When she isn't writing, Kathi likes to read (preferably at the beach or by the fire), cook (preferably something with chocolate or cheese,) and garden (planting and planning not weeding). She also enjoys spending time on the water when she's not hiking, biking, or snowshoeing, the miles of desolate trails surrounding her home. Kathi uses the mountain setting in which she lives, along with the animals (wild and domestic) that share her home, as inspiration for her cozy mysteries.
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Another book in the very readable, cosy mystery series, by Kathi Daley. Based in Holiday Bay, where the Inn at Holiday Bay is (and which was the first series set here), this series is about a Bookshop and its owner Lou. She is drawn into solving mysteries, which she comes across. She runs a few book groups out of the bookshop, one concentrates on cold cases, and the others are book clubs.
The bookshop is located in a courtyard with other shops including a florist, deli and wine shop. When the owner of the wine shop, Astoria, goes missing, Lou and her friends start to look for her.
The books are all standalone mysteries, but they're best read in order of publication to preserve continuity of the characters and wider storyline.
If you liked this book, try other series by Kathi Daley; The Cottage On Gooseberry Bay; The Inn at Holiday Bay; Tess & Tilly Cozy Mystery; The Resort at Castaway Bay and Rescue Alaska are all as good as this series is. I can highly recommend them all.
Once Upon a Harvest Moon is the fifth book in Kathi Daley’s The Bookstore at Holiday Bay series. There are quite a few familiar characters, along with new ones, since this series is a spin-off from Ms. Daley’s Inn at Holiday Bay series and Bistro at Holiday Bay series. The well-plotted storyline flows smoothly, the setting is charming, and the well-developed characters are three-dimensional, compassionate, and caring. The mystery in this installment is intriguing and complex, with no shortage of twists, turns, and red herrings. I highly recommend this series to readers who enjoy well-crafted, cozy mysteries.
Vanessa Blackstone’s aunt, Lou Prescott, recently lost her husband, so when Vanessa mentioned that she planned to sell her bookstore, Lou realized that a significant change was just what she needed. After moving to Holiday Bay, Lou partnered with Velma Crawford, who recently lost her business, Velma’s Diner, due to a fire, and has added a coffee and pastry bar, a cozy reading lounge, and an indoor cat lounge to Firehouse Books. Hazel Hawthorn, often affectionately referred to as Holiday Bay’s “cat woman,” provides rescue cats for the cat lounge and handles the adoption process. To accommodate its part-time members, the Tuesday night book club and gossip group is now the Thursday evening book club. Joel Stafford has created a group, Murder on Tuesdays, dedicated to solving cold cases to fill the Tuesday time slot. Lou, Velma, craft shop owner Ethel Covington, wine bar owner Astoria Walton, and Joel Stanford’s friend, Savannah Garrison, have formed the Wednesday night Senior Women’s Group, which they were stringently keeping at five members.
While sorting boxes of donated books, Eden discovers a diary written by Miranda Wakefield in nineteen sixty-four. Hoping to return the diary to Miranda or her family, Lou and Beck try to determine what happened to her. Meanwhile, Astoria has crossed paths with a man in town to probe a cold case involving the mysterious disappearance of Chastity Wells, a case that piques the interest of the Murder on Tuesdays group.
I love this series!!!!! Lou was having her Wednesday night's Senior Women's group book club. Astoria asked the members if they remember being sixteen? Each told of their experiences, found out Velma has a sister, they had a falling out a very long time ago. Astoria talked about her difficult divorce and having bad luck with her choice of men, but she has a new fella she wants to have meet the gang in Holiday Bay. His name is Sturgis and she wants to have a party for him to meet everyone. Sturgis is an author of true crime novels, he takes unsolved missing persons cases that are often proven to have been murders, he details the events leading to the disappearance of the subject then goes on his research and then visits the town and area where it takes place after having these dreams telling him where to look then finds the bodies. There are several people very leary of his so call skill. He has written eight books in the 1990's and decided to come to Holiday Bay to look for a missing girl aged between sixteen and nineteen. Lou found a diary of girl that may fit, so the Murder on Tuesdays book club, are taking this mystery on. And what they find is strange and disturbing to say the least. Now you have to get this book to find out what they found out, you won't be disappointed!!!!!!
Publisher Description When Lou Prescott bought the bookstore at Holiday Bay, she wanted it to be so much more than a quaint seaside business. She wanted it to be home to the cozy gathering of friends, she knew in her heart, would come together to share their lives, their hardships, and their victories. With the change of the seasons, comes shorter days, cozy fireside get-togethers in the courtyard, and a new mystery for Lou and her group of amateur sleuths to solve
MY THOUGHTS:
I do love Autumn, pumpkins, and colorful leaves--- Once Upon A Harvest Moon has all of that, and more! Kathi Daley always delivers the best characters--they feel like friends--, the coziest atmosphere and a good mystery. A treat to read. Enjoy.
This was a shocking but good story. What I liked was how the characters of this series intertwine with the other two book series set in Holiday Bay. This series and story, like the Inn at Holiday Bay had several mysteries going on at the same time. I found one of the mysteries more intense, sit on the edge of your chair type, than I have read before in any of the Holiday Bay books. It certainly kept my attention. The details were well plotted out, which helped build reader tension as the story unfolded. I also liked the time of year setting, and how the characters convey a real community feel.
Something I learned at the beginning of this series was that it's not all about the mystery or murder at hand although that's the main part. It's also about some awesome friendships that people of Holiday Bay of all ages enjoyed with one another. I really wish I was actively reading the other Holiday Bay series and I definitely plan to. But until then, the list of characters always helps remind me who's who.
The two cold cases were both very different with one involving a friend of Lou and her friends who went missing. Once the search was on, I couldn't stop reading. A super satisfying ending and Halloween was had by all.
While going thru a box of donated books an old diary is found. From the contents it seems to have been written many, many years ago by a troubled teenage girl. The last entry is disturbing to Lou when she reads it, and asks her friends from the book club to assist her is finding out the real story of who the girl was and what happened to her. But a more pressing case drops into the laps of the senior book club; one of their own goes missing under very mysterious circumstances. Will they be able to find her before it is too late for her...
Lou Prescott bought the bookstore in Holiday Bay and turned it into a cozy gathering place for friends. Now the season is changing with shorter days and the amateur sleuths have a new mystery to solve.
Kathi Daley is one of my favorite cozy mystery authors, this is a wonderful series and this book's no exception. It was well-written with well-developed characters and a fast-paced plot. The sense of friendship is strong in this captivating story and the intriguing mystery was fun to solve. I loved this book and am looking forward to the next one. I highly recommend both book and series
Amazon synopsis: When Lou Prescott bought the bookstore at Holiday Bay, she wanted it to be so much more than a quaint seaside business. She wanted it to be home to the cozy gathering of friends, she knew in her heart, would come together to share their lives, their hardships, and their victories.
With the change of the seasons, comes shorter days, cozy fireside get-togethers in the courtyard, and a new mystery for Lou and her group of amateur sleuths to solve
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
This book has more than one mystery for Lou, Velma and their friends to solve. The cold case mystery of a missing teenage girl and then a darker mystery than leads them to not only solving possible decades old serial murders but saving a friend. The twists and turns with both cases kept me guessing until the end. This was not a typical cozy read for me but was totally engaging from beginning to end.
This series gets better with each book. Bringing in more characters from the Inn series and the Bistro series keeps me more interested. I have to admit though I saw through one of the storylines in the first or second chapter. Not sure why one of the characters didn't pick up on it until way later. Anyway, this is an interesting took.
Kathi Daley continues to write excellent cozy mysteries. Once again the mystery involves an old case and a group of friends manage to solve the mystery by working together. Small town mystery stories always intrigue me as I live the friendships and overall community feelings that are in these books.
I love how Kathi works in crossovers between several of her series. This one dealt with years old missing girls and a accidental death from 60 years ago. Lou, Beck, Velma and the gang jump in to figure out what happened and things take an interesting turn. Kathi also has a great way of story line continuity across all of the series.
As each mystery unfolded I became more concerned but when they started to solve them I was releaved and ready to move on to the next. The final mystery with Astoria was the most concerning. When they solved the last one it was both surprising and quite a relief.
Astoria introduced her new guy to her Holiday Bay friends. She said he found bodies of females who had been killed and no body was found. Forgot his name but his method for finding the bodies appeared similar plus he wrote books about each of his cases. Ms. Daleys' books are always well written and a pleasure to read.
Interesting wondering who’s the killer. If it was the writer or not Where were the friends being held. Making sure they had a way to contact the cops if they found them
I always like the different stories in Holiday Bay and this one turned out to be one of the best. Two mysteries one obviously investigated and a second one developing in the background. So good!
Very interesting read, although I guessed the true calling of the char suppose to be able to dream where a cold case body lies, the story line and the solving of the current cold case is well planned out to keep you reading.
The group is excited to meet Astoria's new beau but he's a no show or the dinner they planned and from there things really take off, there are lots of twists and turns and surprises that turn everything upside down. Great red.
The Bookstore had a great story to tell with several mysteries, well worth the reading time! Sometimes people are not what they pretend to be, and this causes horrible consequences.
Enjoyed it, but I will admit, I figured out who was the bad guy before the book club did. The results were a bit dramatic, but I’m not the author. Still a great read and I’m looking forward to more.
I found the exchanges between the characters often awkward. The plot was clear early yet it seemed to take forever for the characters to figure it out.