I loved my 2nd visit with Cheesemonger Willa Bauer at her French-inspired cheese shop, Curds & Whey, in Yarrow Glen, California. Willa has a pet named Loretta, and I love how she is pampered on her island and her favorite activity when Willa isn’t home. A special event with a celebrity vegan chef in the shop doesn’t go as planned with authenticity in question.

The cozy was engaging to read, with Willa’s sleuthing leading to or divulging unforeseen red herrings. The subplots added more interest and were nicely woven through the storyline, including float preparation for the upcoming fall festival, the dog of the victim needing care, a break in friendship with one of Willa’s sleuthing partners, and romantic sparks coming to Willa from more than one direction.

Oh, how I love cheese! 🧀 Wonderful, delicious, tasty, comforting cheese! 🧀 Or, as Willa says,

“The great thing about cheese is that it never goes out of season.” 🧀

I learn something more about cheese with each book. I can’t wait to try the 3 recipes 🧀 🧀 🧀 at the end of the book, as each one sounded so flavorsome during the preparations in the story. ( )

"Gone for Gouda" features a cheese shop owner who inadvertently becomes entangled in helping to solve a murder. When Willa agrees to host Phoebe, a foodie influencer, at her shop for a cooking demonstration, she never dreams the whole event will end tragically.

Phoebe seems to have acquired a list of enemies as well as admirers. Her vegan cookbooks gain a popular following, but when Phoebe is revealed as a fraud, the cooking show is cancelled, her books end up in the trash, and she hides in her rented home as followers demand their money back. Willa and friends must keep the shop running as well as preparing for the local festival and recouping their losses from the cancellation. When her friends become suspects in Phoebe's demise, Willa works with law enforcement to try to nab the killer, while hoping one of her friends will not turn out to be the perpetrator--but they all seem to have motives!

While this book is part of a series, it can easily be read as a standalone novel. The action moves along quickly and the characters are realistic and interestingly portrayed. The novel contains no violence, explicit sex, or strong language. Readers will also learn a little bit about cheeses when devouring this clean novel! The sneaky ending leaves readers with a taste for reading the next book in the series.

I received this novel from the publisher and from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. The opinions portrayed here are entirely my own. ( )

I received an advance copy of this book via NetGalley.

Gone for Gouda continues an incredibly fun cozy mystery series set in a fictional California village of Yarrow Glen. Willa runs the cheese shop Curds & Whey. As this book starts up, she's a ball of stress as she prepares to host a major vegan social media influencer who is kicking off a book tour with cooking demonstrations. When the influencer is outed in new pics online that show her eating meat, things go from bad to worse--to much worse, as Willa finds the woman dead. When her assistant becomes a person of interest as the last person to see the vic alive, Willa goes into full amateur detective mode to find the real culprit.

This book was a solid four stars of fun. It's a speedy read with lots of fun cheese asides. Willa manages to strike the right balance of being nosey without being totally obnoxious. I have to admit, the actual culprit came as a surprise to me, which was great! I love when a mystery keeps me guessing right up to the end. ( )

cozy-mystery, murder, murder-investigation, friendship, friction, celebrities, cheesemaker, small-business, small-town, fraud, law-enforcement, pets, dogs, cheese-lore, lies, California****

It wasn't hard to guess who the victim would be! Willa has agreed to a lot of expense to showcase a celebrity chef who turns out to be more like evil personified. Guess who gets murdered and who gets to do the sleuthing to protect Willa's friend/employee. A really nice cozy.
I requested and received a free e-book copy from the St. Martin's Press, St. Martin's Paperbacks via NetGalley. Thank you! ( )