A great murder mystery with plenty of twists and turns. Dakota is back in Aubergine for the weekend to spend time with her boyfriend, Charlie, to attend the reading of Mr Finch's will, and to attend the 10-year high school reunion being held at The Rose Palace. Her plans are somewhat disrupted by one of the reunion attendees dying in the middle of the dance floor during the event! Dakota has to put her sleuthing hat on again to try and figure it all out with Charlie. Blackmail and secrets, a missing jewel, and plenty of suspects. This wasn't quite as strong a story as the first book, but I'm enjoying the series so far.
Thanks to Netgalley, Storm Publishing, and Kristen Bird for the free ARC. All opinions are my own.

An Heiress's Guide to Death and Diamonds by Kristen Bird is a fun, twisty small-town mystery with plenty of scandal, secrets and sharp wit. When Dakota Green returns to her hometown for her high school reunion, the last thing she expects is to witness a murder at the Rose Palace. What follows is a fast-paced whodunnit filled with red herrings, dodgy motives, and enough family drama to keep things juicy.

The murder mystery itself is well-crafted, with a satisfying list of suspects and just enough clues to keep you guessing. I really enjoyed how each character had a believable reason to want the victim gone—it gave the story a realistic edge while still leaning into cosy crime territory.

That said, the subplot around Dakota’s inheritance felt a little over-complicated and at times took the spotlight away from the main mystery. Still, Bird does a great job of weaving in backstory from the first book, so you don’t need to have read it to follow along.

Personally, I found it charming and entertaining. If you like your murder mysteries with a touch of humour, Southern charm and a determined amateur sleuth, this one’s worth picking up.

3.5/5.

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Dakota proved herself as an excellent amateur detective in A Beauty Queen's Guide to Murder and Mayhem and is now back on the case after a death at her high school reunion. I love the strong female characters and their relationships with one another featured in this series. Every time I tried to stop reading at the end of a chapter to do adult things, I was hooked to read just one more sentence.

I was invited by the publisher to review this book. Dakota has a lot on her plate as she returns to her small hometown for a high school reunion. She is attending veterinarian school, is in a long-distance relationship with the town's sheriff, and has recently learned of her real parentage. But then there is a death at the reunion party, and the person who died is none other than Brett, a reality TV star. The prime suspect is Dakota's childhood best friend. Dakota is then thrust into a race against time, and must figure out who really committed the murder, figure out the truth about missing diamonds, decide whether to accept an inheritance, and pick through a ton of suspects.

I liked that this book had a variety of people to choose from who could have committed the murder, and their reasons were legitimate and relatable. But I could have done without the competing storyline of the inheritance. This is the second book in a series, and I felt the author did a great job of catching readers up so that they did not have to have read the previous book to understand this book's characters and storylines.

Thank you to NetGalley and Storm Publishing for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I was a little disappointed in this book compared to the first one. I found it to be repetitive at times, which really put me off. While I loved the main characters, I just couldn’t feel any connection with them. That being said, I will still read the 3rd in the series.

Dakota Green is home to attend her ten year high school reunion as well as deal with some family business and spend time with local sheriff and possible boyfriend Charlie Strong. What she hadn't planned was to be thrown into another murder investigation or to have to once again try to prove the innocence of someone close to her! With a whole graduating class to choose from and a victim who had ruffled more than a few feathers Dakota knows she has her work cut out for her and that's before she even has a chance to discuss a once in a lifetime job offer with her aunt!

Book two in the Dakota Green Mysteries begins a few months after the conclusion of the first with a second visit to Aubergine, Virginia, and the Rose Palace. I hadn't read the first book, and now I don't need to, as there are plenty of spoilers here to give the game away. On the plus side, I didn't work out whodunnit which, when it's realistic, which this was, is always good.

I was able to read an advanced copy of this thanks to NetGalley and the publishers, Storm Publishing, but the opinions expressed are my own. Unfortunately, I didn't enjoy this enough to continue with the series. 2.5 rounded up to 3 for the killer’s identity.