From Jess Kidd, the bestselling author of Things in Jars who “is so good it isn’t fair” (Erika Swyler, nationally bestselling author), the first in a cozy mystery series about a former nun who searches for answers in a small seaside town after her pen pal mysteriously disappears.
I believe every one of us at Gulls Nest is concealing some kind of secret.
1954: When her former novice’s dependable letters stop, Nora Breen asks to be released from her vows. Haunted by a line in Frieda’s letter, Nora arrives at Gulls Nest, a charming hotel in Gore-on-Sea in Kent.
A seaside town, a place of fresh air and relaxed constraints, is the perfect place for a new start. Nora hides her identity and pries into the lives of her fellow guests. But when a series of bizarre murders rattles the occupants of Gulls Nest it’s time to ask if a dark past can ever really be left behind.
- Murder at Gulls Nest by Jess Kidd
- Published by: Atria Books on April 8, 2025
- Genre: Mystery, thriller, historical fiction
- Pages: 325
- Dates/Time Read: 5.9.25 – 5.14.25 (5 days); 7 hours 56 minutes
- Format: physical copy, hardcover, Once Upon a Book Club edition
- Add to Goodreads
- Buy on Amazon
- ⭐⭐ (technically 2.5)
This is the April selection for the subscription box from Once Upon a Book Club (OUABC). This is one of the prettiest books that I have received from OUABC. Most books are not special editions. They’re typically the same exact paperback or hardcover book versions that you would get from Amazon or any book store. The design of this one is pretty much the same, but a pretty light blue instead of the bright yellow/orange you see in this post. But the best part was the sprayed edges of the book. I’m a sucker for a gorgeous sprayed edge!!!
Y’all, please forgive me for my subpar photography skills! haha Right now, I’m just working with my outdated Samsung Galaxy phone camera. Maybe if this book blogging thing really takes off, I’ll learn more about how to create aesthetically pleasing photos for it. For now, you’ll just have to deal with my embarrassing, low quality photos.
Enough about that, though, let’s get into the discussion about the book!! While this book is the prettiest book that I’ve ever gotten from OUABC…it is also the worst book I’ve read from the subscription. *womp womp* I gave this book a 2.5 ★review, and the 1/2 star is solely because of the special edition aesthetic. I think the trope for this book would be considered “cozy mystery”, but I’d say it was more of a “boring mystery”. I just could NOT get into it!
I honestly considered, once or twice, DNF’ing the book. I finished it only because A) I paid for the damn thing (I will DNF a free book faster than you can say DNF, but if I paid money for it…I refuse to NOT finish it) and B) I really enjoy opening the gifts along with the book, and the last gift was on page 316, might as well finish the last 10 pages. I’m also guilty of having this irrational thought when I’m reading a horrible book: “It will get better…the ending will make up for it!” Does it? NO! It never ever ever does!!! I guess you could say that the only thing that isn’t disappointing in a bad book, is that it continues to disappoint. lol At least it’s consistent.
I found none of the characters very likable, therefore, it just led me to not really care what ends up happening to everyone. We follow Nora (the FMC), who goes to Gulls Nest in search of her friend, Frieda. Both are former nuns who were at the same convent together. Nora’s friend has suddenly stopped writing to her, so Nora “just knows” that something has happened to her. Following her gut feeling, she leaves the convent and follows to find her friend. She books the same room at the boarding house, and unbeknownst to the other members of the house, she immerses herself into their lives to try to find clues about where her friend is. Within 24 hours of her arrival, a member of the boarding house is found dead. Was he murdered? Did he commit suicide? What is the connection between his death and her friend’s disappearance?
The Inspector who gets called to the scene is convinced that it was a suicide, but of course, Nora doesn’t agree. She inserts herself into the investigation, much to his dismay. Like an annoying fly that you can’t get rid of, Nora continues to meddle and poke her nose into every nook and cranny of the house members’ business, and I think this scenario is where I started to feel disconnected from the plot. Granted, this is set in the 1950s, but I just don’t buy that an inspector would allow an ex-nun, whose only training in solving a murder is reading detective novels, to insert herself into the investigation. Come on!! Who does Nora think she is? Agatha Christie apparently! lol
“Isn’t it sometimes the way,” observes Nora, “that the person we think we know best is the one we know least?” – pg. 278
But what about the plot twists?! Every mystery has to have a good plot twist, right? And yes, they do! But the ones in Murder at Gulls Nest are just…meh. One of them really didn’t seem to have anything important to add to the story. You learn that the overbearing “housekeeper” turns out to be the owner’s mother-in-law, and the husband is disabled, living at a nursing home. So what? What does that have to do with anything? The other twist thankfully does play into the whys of the murders, but you learn about it in such a rush, and then the mystery is solved, book is over. It just felt so jarring.
Let’s talk about the ending. The big climax happens in the next-to-final chapter of the book. I had to return to the book and reread the ending just to remember what to say about it; that’s how forgettable it was. It honestly made little sense. Nora solves the mystery and stumbles upon the murderer having tea with the young daughter of the owner of the boarding house. She walks in on her attempt to poison the girl. Why? This is what stuck with me and bothered me. It never explains why she would be trying to kill the girl. The other people she murdered or harmed, ok, I got. But other than the girl being weird, why would she be trying to kill her?
Overall, I just found the book a little boring for my taste. There’s mystery, and there’s murder. But all of the characters are one-dimensional, and not all that likable. There are too many breadcrumbs and unnecessary details that get in the way of my feeling invested in the characters or plot. I might have enjoyed it a little more if the climax had a bit more fleshing out, and maybe drawn it out a little more. The author, it seems, intends for this to be a series. Maybe it will get better? If she releases book 2 in the series, I’ll probably read it. But only if I can grab it from the library or on an eBook at a discounted price.
For those who may be curious about the gifts that came with this subscription box, it included an embroidered corner bookmark, some bath salts that smell like roses and chamomile, a fuzzy hot water bottle (I didn’t even know anyone uses these anymore! Why wouldn’t you just use an electric heating pad? haha), and a crystal sugar bowl. I jokingly said to my mom, aka live-in dog nanny, that they must not know how my mom likes her coffee and tea, because the sugar bowl is so small. It would be about 1 sugar serving for her! lol Check out the pictures below at your own risk. I already warned you I’m not a professional photographer! lol
Deviant Angel Reads 
Leave a comment