Cottage on Gooseberry Bay Books 1-3

By: Kathi Daley

Narrated by: Angel Clark

Length: 12 hrs and 41 mins

Publisher's summary

USA Today best-selling 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 had come to Gooseberry Bay to find answers about her past. She’d come to find an explanation for the dreams that haunted her after the death of the cop who’d both rescued and raised her. And she’d come to identify the family she couldn’t remember but knew in her heart she’d once belonged to.

Ainsley hoped that by finding these answers, she’d also find healing. She hoped that once she’d resurrected 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 series about family and friendship.

It’s a series about shared holidays, festivals, and celebrations.

It’s a series about shared heartbreak and hardship.

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 one in the series, Ainsley arrives in Gooseberry Bay only to find there will be no easy answers as she’d so naively hoped. Unwilling to leave before she gets what she came for, she rents a cottage on the sea where she and her dogs, Kai and Kallie, can settle in and wait. Her first night in town, she meets a young woman who is later found dead. The local sheriff has labeled the death of this young woman a suicide based on a text message she’d sent before she died. But Ainsley, who’d spoken to the victim only hours before the text was sent, isn’t quite as sure of the easy answer the sheriff would like everyone to believe. An investigative journalist by trade and cops daughter by upbringing, Ainsley never had been the sort to walk away from unanswered questions, so with the help of new friends she meets along the way, she initiates a parallel investigation which seems to indicate the sheriff’s real motivation in trying to sell the suicide angle to the community is to protect the interests of a very rich and very powerful man.

In book two in the series, Ainsley finally meets Adam Winchester, who agrees to help her find the answers she is looking for. Meanwhile, Ainsley joins forces with Parker, Jemma, and Josie as they search for the truth about what might have happened to the family who vanished five Thanksgivings ago.

In book three in the series, Ainsley decides to set aside her search for answers to her past and enjoy her first Gooseberry Christmas by volunteering along with the rest of the gang for the Christmas Festival on the boardwalk. Normally Ainsley didn’t bother much with Christmas and all its trappings, but this year she is excited to join in as most of the locals are prone to do. Of course it does put a bit of a damper on the festivities when a body is found in the tree lot where the gang had offered to help out, but that doesn’t stop Ainsley from making the most of the season in spite of the crazy investigation she can’t help but get pulled into.

©2020 Kathi Daley (P)2021 Kathi Daley

Every other word is “I said”, “She said”

Between the Narrators voice and the author this was a very hard book to listen to. If you try to get past the narrators high pitched, nails on a chalkboard voice you will have to deal with the author’s repetition. I think 3/4 of this book is “I said”, “She said”, “they said”.

I just can’t

About 20 minutes into this I had to stop. I just couldn’t do the readers voice very squeaky almost animated

A Fun Cozy Mystery

The Cottage on Gooseberry Bay is a series by Kathi Daley that came out last year. If you want to jump right in, this boxed set is the way to go. The narrator is Angel Clark who has captured Ainsley's personality and is a delight to listen to.

Book 1 is Halloween Moon. Ainsley Holloway, along with dogs Kai & Kallie, have come to Gooseberry Bay looking for answers to her past. She started having dreams after finding a diary in her adopted dad's possessions that lead her to believe she has family in Gooseberry Bay that she can't remember. Ainsley rents a cottage, meets Parker, Jemma and Josie and quickly becomes involved in a mystery in addition to finding clues to her past.

In Book 2, Thanksgiving Past, Ainsley meets Adam Winchester and hopes that he's the key to finding some clues that will help her get information about her family. She and her friends are also trying to find out what happened to an entire family that disappeared on Thanksgiving five years earlier.

Book 3 is Gooseberry Christmas and it's time for the Christmas Festival. Ainsley is excited to celebrate with her new friends so they decide to help out at the local tree lot. When a body is found on the lot, of course they want to get involved with solving the crime. With the holidays and this new mystery, Ainsley decides to wait to get more information about her possible family.

Cottage on Gooseberry Bay is a fun, cozy mystery series that has heart, adventure and you'll fall in love with these characters just like I did. I'm excited to see where Ainsley's search takes her and what mysteries come her way!

Thank you Kathi Daley for the audible code! I enjoyed listening so much and this is my honest review.

holidays and small towns

l was so excited to start this series of three books. Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas are such special times for me. This audio book has all the feels and not only a mystery to solve but shows how small towns are special partly due to the characters that settle there. Highly recommend.

Like it

I really liked this story, it was good. Every story in this box set was a good mystery.