Dearly Depotted

Dearly Depotted
By:Kate Collins
A Flower Shop Mystery, book 3

Dearly Depotted starts on July 4th, the day of the big party that Abby is doing the flowers for at Trudee DeWitt's and also her cousin Jillian's wedding. Which happens to be about three weeks after the end of book two, Slay it with Flowers, which is probably one of my favorite things about this series, one book is just a continuation of the previous without long gaps between the events.

So you know, with Jiilian's history, this is not going to be smooth. Jillian's calls many times throughout the day threathening to run away, to call off the wedding, and Abby can't let that happen, Bloomers needs the money that the wedding is bring in bigtime!

Of course, it wouldn't be a Flower Shop Mystery without a death and an investigation, which of course will have to involve Abby and Marco, who gets roped into standing in at the wedding for a fallen groomsman, who happend to sprain his ankle the day before the wedding playing tennis.

You know, the character development is great. Abby and Marco have been trying to build a possible relationship since book one, they know they are attracted to each other, and they tend to do things together, but is it enought to build a relationship one. This is great, it is not a hop into bed on first sit kind of relationship, it's a slow growing thing, and that is great. Too many books anymore have the romantic characters hopping into bed together at first chance and it dooms the story and relationship for me.

i am enjoying this series, and Abby's playful yet tough, smartass attitude is great, it sounds like me when I was younger, read before kids here, and so I think that is part of the draw of the books. That and there is is humor in everything, it might be a murder mystery but it is done with humor overall, and so that makes it a great light read, and right now during tax season, that is just what I can use!

Take a look, and if you read the book, please let me know what you think!!

Slay It with Flowers

Slay It with Flowers
by: Kate Collins
A Flower Shop Mystery Series, book 2

So I told you about Mum's the Word the first book in the Flower Shop Mystery Series. Well, now the second book in the series, Slay It with Flowers.

Once again, the setting is the ficitional New Chapel, Indiana and this book is set probably a mere weeks after the first book. That alone draws you in, we see all the characters almost exactly as they were when the last book ended, so there is nothing that has gone on while we were gone that changes them in anyway so it is easy to pick up the story in this book and carry on.

Abby has agreeed to do the flowers for her cousin Jillian's upcoming wedding, which we heard about in Mum's the Word, but this is set around the bridesmaids and the groomsmen all being in town about three-four weeks before the wedding for fittings and to get to know each other, like they all don't already know each other already. The bridesmaids are all sorority sisters, except Abby, and they do tend to fit the steorotype, but what can you say, it's a novel. The groomsmen are all fraternity brothers, and the groom and his brother, Abby's ex-fiance, couldn't be more opposite if they tried! I loved it! What great character development!

Of course, we get to see more of what kind of a realtionship Marco and Abby might be developing and also feel out all the other characters. For all everyone says about not wanting Abby to get involved, or stick her nose into another murder investigation, it is the family and friends that end up encouraging her to get involved again this time! I loved reading the way each and everyone looks out for her, but at the same time wants her help for their own reasons, and that makes the story all the more real and human.

You know, I loved this book. It kept me guessing until the end, and I was pleased and surprised with the outcome. I loved the local flavor again of reading a book set in Indiana, and in fact I think the town and the local college, sound very much like the town in northern Indiana that my husband was raised in, so that makes it more enjoyable to read too.

I want to give you information about the book, and would love to encourage you to read it, because I think it was a fun, easy read, but I don't want to give away any of the details of the book. I just think that ruins the book. So I tried to give you enough to get you wanting to read the book, without ruining the whole story.

I hope you enjoy! And if you do read the book, let me know what you thought! Please!!

Mum's the Word by Kate Collins

Mum's the Word
by Kate Collins
A Flower Shop Mystery - First in the new series

So you know that I love these quirkly little themed mystery series, and I have read and reviewed for you a number of them, the last one I did being a Knitting Mystery Series. Well, I found a new series, A Flower Shop Mystery series, and the first book is Mum's the Word.

So I sat down last night and read this one. It is cute and a good read. One thing that I liked, it is set in Indiana, where I was born and raised and still call home, so that was a fun little detail that made it neat to read, and they mention Indiana University, where I attended, met my husband, graduated from and got married at, so the connections probably made me like it a little more than others might like it.

Abby Knight is the lead, and she is a young woman, who "failed" law school and bought a Flower Shop. Now, I say "failed" law school because it is mentioned that she failed, but there seems to be another story underneath her failing that has not been uncovered yet, I just get the feeling that there is more to it and that. She clerked for a lawyer in town, and is still on good terms with him, and he figures in the story line as a friend, someone to advise her and since she still meddles in law affairs, her helper. She also knows that he takes alot of pro-bono work, so she invloves herself to help find information he needs for cases. I think she might be too naive for law school, she still believes in justice and paying for wrong deeds, and the good guys always win.

The story starts with her car getting hit in a hit-and-run, which runs into a murder. You think this is going to be the main story line, but there is the divorce of a friend's sister that meddles with that line, and you have two sets of bad-guys in the story and which ones go with which crime mixes and twists, until it is the very end, when Abby figures it all out, that we figure it all out, and it takes the retelling of events to those concerned, her roommate Nikki, employee's Lottie and Grace and the bar owner Marco, that we actually figure out that there are two different crime stories running, and it just happens that the two crimes crossover into each other and get us confused as to who goes with which crime!

I have to say I loved it!! It kept me reading till the end. I was all for the one crime ringto be the big bad guys and they were behind everything, when it turned out that the divorce had the real bad guys, and the hired bad guys just kinda got mixed into it. I loved that it kept me thinking and waiting and on the edge of my seat till the end. I loved that they figured it out and that it was a score for the good guys. I mean, this story even included a crocked cop, a sexy neighbor, a high school crush and an ex-fiancee. It was well written and drew you in.

Book Two in this series will be Slay it with Flowers

I have about four of these at home, and will work on getting you all a series in order listing soon! In the meantime, pull up a chair, grab a warm blanket and a cup of joe and enjoy the story!