This is the first book in the Bridal Shop Bouquet series, written by Beverly Allen, which is the pen name of author Barbara Early who recently started the Vintage Toy Shop series. After reading this book, I can’t wait to read her other series. She has a really fun writing style!
My Goodreads review:
Bloom and Doom by Beverly Allen
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I don’t know a lot about flowers and have never really been too interested in them but I’m really glad this was picked for a June book club discussion. I had been wanting to read it because I knew that even though I wasn’t a big flower fan, it still had to be a good background for a mystery series and boy is it!
Audrey Bloom and her cousin Liv co-owned a florist shop in Ramble, Virginia that they had been running for five years. They were starting to get some interesting customers like the mayor’s daughter who had a huge wedding planned. But one of the recent customers, a former childhood friend of Audrey’s named Jenny, wasn’t going through with her wedding. When her fiance’ turned up stabbed to death in his car outside her apartment, of course Jenny was the prime suspect. Audrey felt an obligation to look into the case and with the help of handsome baker and business neighbor, Nick Maxwell, one night of sleuthing actually turned out fairly hilarious.
There was a little side mystery as well with the girls’ longtime friend and flower grower, Larry. He was acting a little suspicious and not letting anyone into his newest greenhouse. At the same time, the police chief had been investigating some marijuana growing in the area.
Everything worked out great in the end with a pretty exciting showdown with the killer and a couple of people had some exciting news towards the end as well. The killer was a total surprise to me!
I love this author’s writing style, with humor sprinkled throughout the book but not overdone. If it wasn’t in actions, it was in the description of things told from Audrey’s point of view and I found myself giggling more than once. The author is also known as Barbara Early so this makes me even more anxious to read her Vintage Toy Shop series!
Cuddle Up With a Cozy Mystery 