At the Flower House, every rose has its thorn . . .
Sierra Ravenswood is the new part-time employee of the Flower House, a flower shop in Aerieville, Tennessee. It’s true she didn’t expect to be back in her hometown at twenty-eight-years-old, but after her dream of making it as a singer in Nashville crashed and burned, she’s just grateful to have found a soft place to land.
Because, after all, Sierra firmly believes in being optimistic and positive about life, so she’s sure she won’t have to work at the Flower House forever. But things take a decidedly negative turn when a customer drops dead in the middle of her new bouquet-arranging workshop at the store. When it’s discovered he was poisoned by a snack at the event, everyone at the workshop, including Sierra, is on the suspect list. To make matters worse, her boss has gone AWOL and left the store to her for the cost of one dollar, leaving Sierra in charge of both his store and his high-energy Corgi puppy, Gus.
The town is on edge, and Sierra knows that murder is something that an upbeat attitude and a bouquet of sweet-smelling roses can’t fix. She’s determined to figure out whodunit, before anyone else in town meets an untimely reason for needing funeral flowers.
Release Date: May 25, 2021
Series: A Flower House Mystery
Book: 1
Publisher: Macmillan
Imprint: St. Martin’s Press
Price: $7.99
After a failed singing career in Nashville, Sierra Ravenswood returns to her hometown of Aerieville, Tennessee. Sierra is now working part-time in the Flower House and her boss unexpectedly leaves her in charge of the flower shop. Sierra is nervous, but excited, to lead the shop’s very first class in bouquet arranging. The workshop starts out well, but turns tragic when one of the participants dies during a snack break. When local police determine Abe Ranker’s death to be murder, Sierra decides to conduct her own investigation to find the killer.
This book has an interesting setting, both the small town in Tennessee and the flower shop. Sierra is a quirky character who likes helping people. The breezy way the story is told reflects her offbeat personality. Sierra can be fun, but I couldn’t quite connect with her. There are a lot of side characters in the book and many of them weren’t really fleshed out enough for me to feel I had gotten to know them. The large cast of characters has the benefit of providing plenty of suspects and red herrings as to the identity of Abe’s murderer. I was surprised when the killer was revealed.
The best part of the book is the way SIerra, her friend Deena, and new friend Cal work together to get information to try solving the murder. They work well together and I enjoyed those scenes. It appears Cal is being set up as a future love interest for Sierra, but I see camaraderie and not much chemistry yet. The pace is somewhat slow, but that could pick up in future installments since the groundwork for the setting and characters has now been set. Although this wasn’t my favorite, there are some cute elements to the book that could result in a fun, new cozy series.
~ Christine
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