Review of Thanksgiving Past

Thanksgiving Past

Cottage on Gooseberry Bay, Book #2

Kathi Daley

5 Stars

Synopsis:  

USA Today Bestselling author Kathi Daley brings you a heartwarming mystery series about finding answers and fostering hope while building friendships and embracing the magic of life by the sea and small town holidays.

Ainsley Holloway came to Gooseberry Bay to find answers about her past. She came to find an explanation for the dreams that had haunted her after the death of the cop who’d both rescued and raised her, and she came to find the identity of the family she couldn’t remember but assumed at one point she’d been part of.

She hoped that by finding these answers she’d also find healing. She hoped that once she exorcised the memories buried deep in her mind, she’d find peace.

The Cottage at Gooseberry Bay is a series about, not only finding answers, but finding hope. It’s a story about family and friendship, and it’s a story about the ties that bind one resident of a small close knit community to another. It’s a series about shared holidays, festivals, and celebrations. It’s a series about shared heartbreak and hardship as well. And it’s a series about the bond that can be forged amongst strangers when tragedy binds two or more individuals with a common goal.

In book 2 in the series, Ainsley finally meets Adam Winchester. Intent of finding the answers she came to Washington to unveil in the first place, she begins to initiate herself into his life. Adam seems to have his own set of demons to deal with and isn’t nearly as cooperative as Ainsley hoped he’d be, but she’d dealt with men harboring inner demons before and she knew that with enough time and the right approach she’d break him.

Meanwhile, while digging into the histories of the founding families at the local library, she comes across an article that mentions a local tragedy which occurred five Thanksgiving’s ago. Ainsley figures she can use a distraction while waiting for Adam to come around to her way of thinking, so she gets the gang together and asks them if they would be interested in a joint effort to help her solve this cold case mystery. As they had a few weeks earlier when researching the death of a local clerk, they enthusiastically join Ainsley in her mission to find the answers that no one previously seems to have been able to uncover.   (Goodreads)

Review:

The characters are well rounded and well developed.  Ainsley has become very good friends with Parker, Josie and Jemma.  They make a very good investigative team, they all have different skills that they bring.  Ainsley is still trying to figure out what the dreams that she is having means and who the women are that she keeps seeing in those dreams.  And they have found a cold case that they want to look into, so that is what they are working on.  

The writing style does smoothly and the book is an easy read.  If you have read any of this author’s other books, you know that she excels in her descriptive writing and that helps to make her books more enjoyable.  You also know that she has more than one mystery to solve, which makes the book twice as nice.

I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a well crafted cozy mystery.  I am sure that book three will answer all of more of our questions.