First in a new cozy mystery series from USA Today bestselling author Amanda Flower!
Coming home to a run-down farm, gossipy neighbors, and a shady investor is a lot to handle… but a murderer on the loose is the final straw!
Shiloh Bellamy cashed in her big city job and 401K to return home to Michigan to save the family farm, but turning Bellamy Farms into a sustainable, organic … turning Bellamy Farms into a sustainable, organic operation—complete with a farm-to-table café—is no small feat. Especially when her new investor is found dead among the flowers just hours after the contract is signed. Everyone knows her father had a grudge against the investor, and word travels fast in a small town…
Now, Shiloh must clear her family’s name and track down the real killer before her organic farm dreams wilt before her very eyes. But with her father trying to stop any progress on his land, her cousin belittling her every effort, the farmhouse falling down around her, and the whole town believing her family at fault, Shiloh’s small town troubles are growing much faster than her crops. She’ll have to trust her own investigation or risk all her dreams drying up before they begin.
In the farmer’s market for a new cozy mystery? Farm to Trouble is:
From a USA Today bestselling author comes Farm to Trouble, a fresh new cozy mystery! When Shiloh Bellamy gives up her corporate life to revamp her family farm back home in Michigan, she gets more than she bargained for. With one person dead and the whole town against her, this amateur sleuth will have to crack the case—and get the farm up and running—before her goose is cooked!
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Farm to Trouble is the first in the new Farm to Table cozy mystery series by Amanda Flower, and I always enjoy finding the first in a new series! I hate to admit though, this one didn’t have me reading as fast as other cozies. I think the biggest thing that kept putting me off was so many grumpy or down right mean characters… and not just side characters, but Shiloh’s dad and cousin.
The flow of the book was a bit off for me too. Shiloh has so much to do around the farm that her father has neglected for years and she also has a murder to solve, but instead she’s taking forever to mow the lawn or do other chores, like clean out the barn.
And no one even gets arrested until maybe 50 pages left in the book. It just felt odd. Instead of wasting so much time writing these parts of the book, more tips woven into the story on organic food and farming would have made the story more interesting.
But even with these issues I am still looking forward to future books in the series. Huckleberry, the pug, is beyond adorable. Shiloh has so many cool ideas for the farm that I want to read more about them. The town is starting to flourish so it will be enjoyable to see how it becomes even better. And I really enjoyed how the romantic interest seems to be on a back burner with getting the farm going again more important. I also want to see if Shiloh’s dad continues on his path that he found towards the end, and to see what becomes of Shiloh’s cousin.
Farm to Trouble by Amanda Flower is the first book in A Farm to Table Mystery series. It contains Amanda Flower’s engaging writing style that makes the story easy to read. The author took the time to develop the characters and establish the setting. Shiloh Bellamy left Cherry Glen, Michigan fifteen years ago after the death of her fiancé, Logan. Her father, Sully injured his back and has asked Shiloh to return to help with the family farm. She quits her job, sells her home, and cashes in her 401K. Unfortunately, her father had sizeable debts which took all of Shiloh’s funds. She now needs an investor if she is to restore the farm and make it a success as an organic farm. Unfortunately, Shiloh is not privy to the local gossip and picks the wrong man to invest in the venture. When the investor ends up dead, Shiloh along with her father are prime suspects. Shiloh talks to various people in the town trying to get information to help her solve the murder. I hope we see more active investigating in future books along with action. There were little things that pointed at the killers’ identity. There is a secondary mystery involving money that Grandma Bellamy saved and hid away for Shiloh. She needs to figure out the clues if she wants to find it and save the farm. I like that we get to know Shiloh, her father, her cousin, various friends of Shiloh’s, and some of the townspeople. I enjoyed the descriptions of the Cherry Glen and the farm. Huckleberry, Shiloh’s pug dog, is a show stealer. He is such a cutie. Other scene stealers are Esmerelda the cat and Hazel, Quinn Killian’s eleven-year-old daughter. I have a feeling there will be a romance blooming between Quinn and Shiloh in the future. I thought the author captured the small town feel especially with the people’s attitudes. This was a cute story that I enjoyed reading. I look forward to the next A Farm to Table Mystery. Farm to Trouble is a charming cozy mystery with gossip galore, an insatiable investor, a high-strung hound named Huckleberry, tasty cherry treats, a cute convertible, and a mystifying treasure quest.
Dollycas’s Thoughts
After a traumatic event, Shiloh Bellamy hit the road for California landing herself a dream job. A job that enabled her to send money home to keep the family farm afloat. But her father’s health is failing and so is the farm so she heads home to Michigan with high hopes of making Bellamy Farms a totally organic operation. She also plans to add a farm-to-table café to increase the farm’s bottom line. She knows to enact her plans she is going to need an influx of cash so she makes a contract with an investor right there in her hometown. When she arrives home she sees the farm is in much worse shape than she thought and her father is outraged to find out his daughter has agreed to take money from Jefferson Crocker.
The next day Shiloh arrives at the local farmer’s market to meet with her new investor but when she finds him she knows there will be no meeting. The man has been murdered and thanks to a loudmouth vendor almost everyone believes Shiloh is a cold-blooded killer. Others believe her father committed the crime. So now Shiloh has her work cut out for her. Her investor is dead, the farm still needs to be revived and now she has to find a killer to clear her dad and herself of murder.
Amanda Flower is a prolific cozy author who never disappoints. As soon as I heard about this series I booked a date on my calendar for Farm to Trouble. In this new series, we meet Shiloh Bellamy, her father, Sully, her cousin Stacey, her lovable pug, Huckleberry, along with assorted neighbors, friends, and other residents of Cherry Glen. While she has passed we also hear plenty about Shiloh’s grandmother. She was a hard-working woman who kept her family on track. She left behind quite a legacy as Shiloh recalls several times things her grandmother said and did. The author took her time and allowed her characters to develop over the course of the story while leaving plenty of room to grow as the series continues.
Ms. Flower captured the attitudes of small-town life perfectly. The cliques, the mean girls, the gossips, the hoity-toity, but a couple of good souls as well. Cherry Glen is a typical midwest town striving to find its footing in the progressing world. Change isn’t easy and many Cherry Glen residents are doing their best to avoid it.
The mystery was very well done featuring a victim who had plenty of enemies. The man liked flexing his financial muscles without a care about the people he left in his wake. Shiloh and Sully just happened to be his current mark. Being gone for so many years made it hard for Shiloh to know who to trust and she didn’t receive a hardy welcome home from many people but she still delves into an investigation to catch a killer. I was totally spinning my wheels until the actual guilty party was revealed. I at least had the person on my list but they were nowhere near the top. Ms. Flower penned a story with excellent twists. I did question some of Shiloh’s behavior with so much on the line but every person has their own way of processing actions and information.
Farm to Trouble has set this series off to a marvelous start. All the mysteries exposed within the book are not wrapped up by the final page. I am really looking forward to Shiloh solving the puzzle her grandmother left behind. I also feel there are some other things Shiloh needs to deal with from her past so she can truly move forward.
Ms. Flower has planted some wonderful seeds that I project will bloom into a very entertaining series. The story has a real true-to-life feel. There is some real family drama and there is a lot of hard work ahead for Shiloh to get close to realizing her dream plans. I think it is going to be very interesting to see the paths the author sets for these characters.
Farm To Trouble
Farm To Table Mysteries, Book #1
Amanda Flower
5 Stars
Synopsis:
First in a new series!
Shiloh Bellamy cashed in her big city job and 401K to return home to Michigan to save the family farm, but turning Bellamy Farms into a sustainable, organic operation is no small feat. Especially when her new investor is found dead at the farmers market not long after the contract is signed, a contract that the whole town knows her father was wholeheartedly against.
Now, Shiloh must clear her family’s name and track down the real killer before her farm dreams wilt before her very eyes. But with her father trying to stop any progress on his land, her cousin belittling her every effort, and the whole town believing her family at fault, Shiloh has to carry the investigation on her shoulders or risk all her dreams drying up before they begin.
Review:
Shilo has a big challenge ahead of her, turning her failing family farm into a successful organic operation. She also has to get her father on board with her plan, which will not be easy. And when her investor is found dead, the task seems insurmountable. She has her work cut out for her if she is ever going to get the farm up and running. She will need the help of her father, her cousin and her neighbors to find the killer.
The writing style flows smoothly and it defines the characters very clearly by their actions and words. The author is very talented in her descriptive writing and these descriptions pulled me into the story from the very beginning. I felt like I was right there on the farm, watching all of the action taking place. The mystery was well plotted and not easily solved. There were enough suspects to consider and clues to sift through.
I would highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a well crafted cozy mystery. You know when you pick up a book to read by this author, you are in for a real treat.
I voluntarily reviewed an ARC of this book provided by the publisher, Poisoned Pen Press, and NetGalley, which I greatly appreciate.
Shiloh Bellamy left her career as a successful Hollywood Producer when her 80 year old Father needed her to come home and take over Bellamy Farms. She was already paying the mortgage payments and all back taxes on the estate. Shiloh had signed an agreement with an investor for money to go towards turning Bellamy Farm into an organic farm. She had high hopes to make big changes and turn the farm into a profitable business. Arriving at her home in Michigan Shiloh wasn’t prepared to find Bellamy Farm in such a run down state of neglect. She would have her work cut out for her. Her Father fought her ideas and didn’t like the investor she had chosen . Then as if things weren’t already bad enough her investor is found dead at the farmers market and the Sheriff rules it as murder. His number one suspects are Shiloh and her aging Father. Can things get any worse for the Bellamys?
This is the first book in The Farm to Table Mysteries. I thought it was entertaining, baffling and unpredictable. The ending had me on the edge of my seat. I loved the narrator and thought she did a great job with changing her voice for each character. This was a hard book to put down. I will be wanting to read all the other books in this series as they are released.
I recommend this book to readers of Cozy Mysteries and fans of Amanda Flower.
I borrowed an audio copy of this book from the Hoopla library. A review was not requested. All thoughts and opinions expressed here are my own.
I’m a Flower fan, but this story was disappointing, the characters weren’t compelling and Shiloh was too wimpish. The fact that a 38 year old woman just throws herself back into a physically demanding job like farming after being in her previous job for 16 years and working the property by herself is pretty hard to accept. Even if she does mention she’s going to be sore. The killer also outs themself which I dislike in a book.
I received my copy from Netgalley in exchange for my honest review.
Shiloh Bellamy has packed up and cashed in her life in Los Angeles to return home to Michigan and her family farm. Shiloh wants to turn Bellamy Farms organic and eventually have a café on the property. But when Shiloh finds her investor dead, things take a dark turn. Shiloh must clear her father and herself from murder so she sets out to find the killer.
This is first in a new series and it’s a great read. The book’s fairly well-written with wonderful characters and the story kept me hooked. There were a few errors in the book as well as a couple loose ends that will hopefully be taken care of in the next book. The mystery will keep you guessing. I’m looking forward to the next book and highly recommend this one.
Cozy Mysteries are my kryptonite. I devour these books (usually in one sitting) and love finding new series to get into. Amanda Flower is a new to me cozy author, but I can tell you right now she’s going to be one of my favorites! This book had everything I was looking for; a close-knit community (even though they need to warm up to Shiloh a little more), friendships and potential love interest (maybe Quinn???), family, adorable pets that act as secondary characters we all come to love, and a fantastic who-dun-it! I wasn’t expecting the killer to be who was revealed and I certainly didn’t expect there to be a second mystery added to it, which makes this book a big winner for me! If you can shock a reader with a cozy mystery, then you are writing it RIGHT!
If you’re a fan of the farm-to-fork dining style, organic farming, or just faming in general then this is a book you won’t want to miss! Shiloh is looking to be a fantastic heroine and I can’t wait to see what she ends up doing with her family farm! We still don’t know as this isn’t resolved in this book but that works for me because it makes me even more excited for the next one!
:
Overall I enjoyed reading this first book in a new cozy mystery series. Shiloh has returned home to help her father save the family farm. To help she signed an agreement with an outside investor. When he is found dead and her father and her are the prime suspects she sets out to solve the mystery. There is a lot of backstory in this book. I enjoyed the small town setting. The mystery was good and the solution made sense. The book does end with a small cliff hanger and unsolved mystery. I look for word to reading the next book in the series. Enjoy
Read 2.24.2021
I need to preface this review with this; I love Amanda Flower as an author. I currently read three of her other series [with one more on deck] and I L O V E those books/series. So when I was approved for this book in her new series, I was one excited girl.
Sigh.
All I can think is that even really good author’s can have a dud once in awhile right?
THIS was not what I was expecting from the author that I love so much. This was a lame, “use every trope available [and use most of them poorly] to a cozy author”, weakly written, WHAT WAS THAT REVEAL/ENDING kind of book. One that I didn’t enjoy [not even an adorable pug named Huckleberry could save this since the MC feels she can and SHOULD be able to take him anywhere and everywhere with her] and once I started, would put down and not even want to gravitate back to. It took forcing myself to finish this so I could review it and move on. in my opinion, this book isn’t worthy of the what the author typically puts out and to say I was disappointed is a huge understatement.
Thank you to NetGalley, Amanda Flower, and Poisoned Pen Press for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Book one in what promises to be a good series. I’m already waiting for book two to see what happens next. It has realistic believable characters, descriptive settings that I can picture the characters in, and an interesting plot with clues leading to a variety of perpetrators, but not giving away the actual guilty person until the end of the book. It an unexpected twist at the end, Agatha Christy style. I don’t think this book will disappoint.
After fleeing a small town in Michigan, Shiloh lived in California to be a television producer. After getting a call about the health of her aging father she has decided to come back home to help take care of him and the family farm. To bring it back up she decided to make a deal with an invester……. however, when she stumbles across a body, Shiloh may lose it all….
For a first book in a series it’s a good one. Family values of coming home to help with parents is a great value to have. The details of the farm, and a small town are on point. The hardships of coming back home. It’s all really realistic. Dynamics of family life after being away, and changes in the town. All make the story even more realistic. This all of these together makes for a good read. I cannot wait to see how they slowly transform the farm, and to see what craziness happens next.
Farm to Trouble was my first Amanda Flower book and certainly won’t be my last! I will definitely continue this series and am pleased to see that Flower has a whole backlog of cozy mysteries I can dive into.
Series starters for cozy mysteries can be tough–an author has to get out a lot of backstory and introduce a large number of characters without boring the reader to death. While Farm to Trouble has some of this, this first-in-series curse is largely avoided in this book, and the story feels appropriately paced. It has all the hallmarks of a great cozy series: a long-term project (the fixing up her family farm), potential love interest(s), kooky friends, family members, and townsfolk, adorable animals (Huckleberry the pug!), and police chief that is the right mix of absolutely annoying but not completely incompetent. I pride myself on being able to solve mystery novels by the 70% point, at least, but this one definitely kept me guessing until the end and had multiple layers to keep things interesting!
A great series starter that’s definitely hooked me for more books to come!
Thank you to Poisoned Pen Press for my copy of Farm to Trouble. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
5 stars – 8/10
First in a new series we meet Shiloh Bellamy who is returning home to take over running her families farm. Shiloh left home years ago and hasn’t looked back since, returning home means leaving a successful job behind. Her fathers health is failing so she hopes by returning the two can make peace with one another and look toward the future. Shiloh takes on an investor knowing with all the changes she plans to instill will be costly, what she hadn’t realized was just how bad the farm was doing. To make matters worse her father hates her investor and tells her she needs to fix it. When said investor turns up dead the police are not only looking at Shiloh as a main suspect but her father as well. Shiloh doesn’t feel she can trust the police to look beyond her father and herself so she is determined to figure out who the killer is on her own. It doesn’t help that she doesn’t receive any help from her family at all. Follow along and see if Shiloh can figure out the clues to who the killer is or will things make a turn for the worse?
Fantastic new series from Amanda Flower! I absolutely loved this book and was drawn in from the very beginning. Shiloh Bellamy has returned home to her family’s farm after being in California for 15 years. Her father is in poor health and has let the farm get run down. Shiloh returns to see if she can save the farm and help out her father. Unfortunately, things are worse than she had expected and it’s going to take a lot of work to bring the farm back. The investor Shiloh had obtained shows up shortly after she arrives home and her father is none too pleased to see that it is Jefferson Crocker, a man who has been buying up buildings all over town and wants to build a wind farm that goes right through his farm. The next morning, Shiloh arrives at the Farmers Market to meet with Crocker only to find him shot dead. When Shiloh and her father become the prime suspects, Shiloh sets out to find the real killer. I really enjoyed the characters in the book and I could feel everything that Shiloh did as she tried to make things right. I loved the twist to the murder and definitely did not see that coming. I am looking forward to reading more of this series and seeing Shiloh get the farm back to a working farm (and finding her grandmother’s treasure), seeing Shiloh and her father grow closer and mend their relationship, and hopefully eventually seeing a romantic relationship with Shiloh and Quinn. I highly recommend this new series!
Shiloh has returned home to Michigan to help her dad with the ailing farm with the help of an investor. What she didn’t expect was to find the investor dead and her dad the main suspect. Can Shiloh save both her dad and the farm?
I finished Farm to Trouble at 4 am. Since then I have been trying to find a way to spin my full review positively. I have loved everything I’ve read by Amanda Flower until now.
Negatives
1. The narrator of the audiobook was definitely not for me. Too monotone. I had to stop listening.
2. Shiloh’s dad’s attitude towards her was horrible. So critical of everything. It was hard to read.
3. A lot of background information.
Positives
1. The last 25% of the book was great.
2. A secondary mystery was introduced that runs into the second book.
3. Enjoyed learning about bird migration and the dangers of wind farms.
Overall rating 3.5 out of 5 stars
I will for sure try the second book. My issues with the book are mine. You may find this is the best cozy mystery you’ve read and I hope you do.
I received a complimentary copy from the publisher, Poisoned Pen Press, through NetGalley. All opinions expressed in the above review are entirely my own.
Clean & cozy read. Great characters and plot. Looking forward to continuing the series!
I received a complimentary advanced electronic copy of this book from Poisoned Pen Press through NetGalley. A positive review was not required. Opinions expressed are completely my own. Additionally, while I do recommend this title by this publisher, it does not mean I recommend all titles by this publisher.
Farm to Trouble by Amanda Flower is first in the new series, Farm to Table Mysteries.
Shiloh and her pug sidekick, Huckleberry, have returned to Michigan from LA to help her father on his farm. She is bringing big plans but has a small wallet Her father has given her free rein, so she finds an investor. Unfortunately, he’s the most hated man in town that has been buying up all the property for a wind farm. Shiloh’s been back less then twenty four hours when she finds the investor, murdered at the farmers market. She goes to the top of the suspect list, her father second. Shiloh knows in order to avoid jail, she is going to find the killer herself.
This easy to read Cozy has plenty of suspects and plot twists that has you guessing to the end. There are likeable characters with a back story of young Shiloh. There is humor and a hint of romance.
I was given an ARC from Poisoned Pen Press via NetGalley for an honest review.
Farm to Trouble by Amanda Flower is a new series featuring a totally new heroine: Shiloh Bellamy, who is returning to Cherry Creek, Michigan after years away in Los Angeles, building a career as a television producer. She has returned now to help her father save the family farm. She has been helping, financially, from afar, but now it’s time to roll up her sleeves, and join the farm to table movement. She is shocked when she arrives at the farm, to see the shape it’s in. She hadn’t realized. Good thing she had a loan in place. She couldn’t do it without an infusion of cash. Sadly it turned out that the lender was hated by nearly everyone, most especially by her dad. Then he ends up dead. This is not good. She and her dad, and 80-year-old in a walker are both suspects. It is all so complicated.
Shiloh had run away after her grandmother died and then her boyfriend, the love of her life, in a car wreck. People blamed her. He was coming to see her. She had a broken heart and she ran. Now she was home and her father’s closest neighbor was Logan’s best friend, Quinn Killian, whose father was the chief of police. She couldn’t even go into the cafe, because people stared and her and blamed her, despite the fact that everyone hated Jefferson Crocker, but they still stared at her. She stood strong. She believed in herself and in her dad. She believed in her farm. She was creative and intelligent and they would not beat her. She is a terrific protagonist. They mystery was decent enough and there was not an Amish person in sight. New for Flower. It is an auspicious beginning and I am looking for great things from this new series. Go, Amanda Flower!
I was invited to read a free ARC of Farm to Trouble by Netgalley. All opinions contained herein are solely my own. #netgalley #farmtotrouble
First in a new series. Some stories make you look back on your life and make you wonder if you would have changed anything. Well, Shiloh made the decision to leave the big city and return home to make the family farm an organic oasis. This is a charming book of change, decision making, and family (all in a good way) written to entertain. Grab this wonderful book, a cozy blanket, and a great cup of hot chocolate and enjoy a few hours of ultimate pleasure.
I received an ARC from Netgalley and this is my voluntary, honest review.