Abby Reede

Overall this was a cute little read.

The mystery left a lot to be desired, the flow was a bit disjointed in places so it pulled me out of the story. I wasn't really able to believe the reasoning behind some events.

The dialogue and banter was great though, an array of characters within the town. There's a lot of great potential for the series. I loved that Tracy didn't have to have her Aunt die just to get the story going. It was a breath of fresh air for the genre to see her join in and show more work along side her family member instead of inheriting due to death.

I also enjoyed how well everyone's plot line was wrapped up at the end, no loose ends that were opened but not addressed. Every character receives a close out. show less

I've read many cozy mysteries about women returning to their home town at various stages of their life and for various reasons with many either helping an entrepreneurial relative or becoming an entrepreneur. However, I could not recall one of the businesses being a florist shop and as I love flowers I wanted to give the story of Tracy Adams and her Aunt Rose a try. I loved the name of the florist shop, "In Season" and the town coffee shop of "Grind It Out."

An early description of the show more florist shop started by Tracy's aunt and uncle shared...

"The last time Tracy had been to the shop she was struck by just how frumpy and old-fashioned the interior appeared in relation to the new shops that had opened around town."

Upon Tracy's closure of the shop so that she and her aunt could refurbish and set up a reopening event description then shared,

"...Tracy hustled back to the shop where Rose was still hip-deep in the florist materials, advertising gear, cans of paint and other refurbishing supplies that Tracy had left for her to begin the marathon session they were embarking on."

I found that to sadly be a missed opportunity to not have more vivid descriptions of how the shop was transformed within a week from old to new. With the treasure trove of floral varieties today it also seemed sad that the only flowers mentioned were the carnations of the title and roses appeared in one character's garden. The cover art was more colorful than any description within the interior of the cozy. This cozy could have been ablaze with descriptions that fill the senses upon entering a florist shop in person and that some highly creative webmasters have even created online.

A light story to fill a few hours of reading time but not enough to encourage my interest to read more of this series. show less

This book was not really my cup of tea. I don't expect a lot from the books I read, but there were too many little things that bothered me.

While the book is clearly set in Oregon, it would seem that the author is British as she uses a lot of terms and turns of phrase that I see in British literature. While this was a bit of a disconnect, it was even worse that she would jump back and forth between American terms and British terms.

I also didn't feel like a lot of the text contributed to the show more plot line. The story included a lot of things that had absolutely nothing to do with the current mystery at hand. It seemed more geared toward setting up the story for future books than moving the present plotline forward.

It was a fine read for a rainy day at the beach, but not something I would pick up if I had other options. show less