Very enjoyable story! I think I liked this one better than the first! When we catch up with Courtney and her crew, life is going good. Then someone is murdered and Courtney's friend's mom (and possible future stepmom??) is accused. With the help of her fairy, Courtney tries to find the real killer. There was a part where I did guess who the murderer was, but it wasn't entirely obvious and I still enjoyed the entire ride. I can't wait for the next book (wait, is this even out yet???) and to see Fiona get all her wings!

Thank you NetGalley for a copy of the ARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Also, I really want to make a fairy garden now!!

Courtney's friend Wonda is founder her enemy's dead body at a fancy auction it seems like a open and shut case. Wonda was seen fighting with the woman just days before, but Courtney knows better. This has got to be one of my favorite series ever!

Wonderful characters.

The protagonist was a landscape gardener until she decided to sell fairy gardens. She owns a shop in Carmel that sells fairy gardens. And yes, she has her own fairy who is on probation. Her supporting characters are likable.

Alas, there is another murder mystery. Again, someone she cares about is suspected of killing the murder victim who was gravely DISLIKED by many people.

There are lots of red herrings and the conclusion was fitting, though I was surprised by who the killer turned out to be.

A Fairy Garden Mystery #2

This is the second book in the Fairy Garden Mystery Series. Courtney Kelly owns a fairy-gardening and tea shop in beautiful Carmel, California. A magical place with all things fairy and a perfect place to hold lessons and book club meetings. Always at her side is her cat, Pixie.

This series has all the components I need in a Cozy. Strong females, a beautiful setting, and a mystery!

This one has Wanda getting into an all-out hair-pulling, name-calling fight with the mean and snarky local art critic. Using that term loosely. Courtney uses the old but effective water hose method to cool them down. Only Lana, the nasty one is not letting go. Threats follow and before we know it Lana is dead. Stabbed with Wanda holding the murder weapon looking dazed and confused.

Now Courtney and her fairy friend must try and clear Wanda. But a lot of people wanted that woman gone. Even the husband.

Always a joy to be away with the fairies!

NetGalley/June 29th, 2021 by Kensington Publishing Corporation

A Glimmer of a Clue is a well-paced mystery set on the California coast with an appealing heroine and her supporting cast of friends and family. And fairies! As a bonus the reader gets tips on making fairy gardens and also delicious recipes. It is a win-win!

This series is fun and fanciful! The main character is the owner of a fairy garden store and is really inspiring me to make my own fairy garden as they seem like so much fun to create! This series has wonderfully well developed characters that draw you in and make you want to keep reading more and more about them including several fairies that help solve the current murder mystery that is afoot! I truly enjoyed this installment and am already impatient to read what comes next for these characters. In the meantime, I'll be making my own fairy garden so I can send wishes that this author will write more installments in this series more quickly! Or maybe that she has a writer fairy that can help speed things along!

A Glimmer of a Clue is a fun cozy mystery about a woman who owns a fairy-garden tea shop in California.. It starts when an aggressive trouble maker named Lana gets stabbed with a letter opener from one of her fairy gardens and her friend is found standing over the body. Now with the help of her resident fairy Fiona, she is trying to figure out what happened. The characters are really well-written and likable and the setting is fantastic. It has plenty of twists and turns to keep you guessing. I really enjoyed the story and look forward to reading more by this author.

Such a fun series, and this second book was equally as enjoyable. It is a cozy mystery with a little fairy twist. The characters are lovable, the scenery is incredible. Truly enjoy this series and looking forward to the next.
I received an advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Courtney Kelly and Fiona, her fairy friend, find themselves working together to prove Wanda Brownie did not kill the very unpopular Lana Lamar. And, when not sleuthing, Courtney, owner of Open Your Imagination, teaches folks how to make a fairy garden.

When Wanda accuses Lana of cheating, the argument between the two women forces Courtney to threaten to turn the hose on them unless they settle down. Then, the two women’s high emotions compel Fiona to sprinkle fairy dust on Lana and Wanda to calm them down.

During the Beauty of Art Spectacular, Meaghan and Courtney discover Wanda holding a letter opener “jutting from Lana’s chest.” Meaghan warns Courtney not to wake Wanda because she is sleepwalking. With a bit of help from a few fairy friends, Fiona and Courtney uncover other, more viable suspects as they collect clues and determine motives.

This second adventure in the Fairy Garden Mysteries is an enchanting visit to Carmel-by-the-Sea, where fairies visit people who believe that fairies are real. Daryl Wood Gerber spins truly creative stories that make it easy for readers to suspend disbelief and imagine crafting a fairy garden that attracts fairies to drop by. An engaging read, A Glimmer of a Clue offers a lovely way to spend an afternoon.

A Glimmer of a Clue is the latest book in the Fairy Garden Mystery series by Daryl Wood Gerber. Fairy gardening shop owner, Courtney Kelly, gets embroiled in another murder when one of the props from a fairy garden she is offering for a charity auction gets used in a murder at the gala.

As always, Daryl's characters are charming. Courtney is very sweet, and her group of friends are ones I would like to hang out with. Courtney's fairy, Fiona, is a flying bit of sass and fun. I also appreciate that Daryl is slow playing Courtney's romance. The pace of it is nice and comfortable without being too "romancy".

The plot is fun. Courtney is a walking spitball of idea, throwing everything against the wall to see what sticks as she tries to clear her friend's name from the murder suspect list. This leads to lots of theories that have to be worked through, which keeps you guessing.

If you are looking for a cozy mystery on the sweeter end of the spectrum, this is the series you want. Delightful, cute, with a little bit of murder.

I received a copy of this book from the author. All opinions in this review are my own.

Enchanting whimsical mystery that's such fun to read. A setting and characters that make you want to visit the town and meet the people. Loved this second book in the series.

A Glimmer of a Clue is the second book in the Fairy Garden series by Daryl Wood Gerber. When not teaching
classes on making fairy gardens, Courtney with the assistance of her fairy Fiona, occasionally ends up
involved in a murder mystery. Fast paced mystery with a touch of romance! Thank you NetGalley!

I read the first book in the series A Sprinkling of Murder and liked it. I looked forward to reading the second book in the series. I enjoyed the book but the cocktail party scene jumped around between all the characters and different topics that I found it a little confusing. Once I got past that and into the murder it was good and flowed nicely. I enjoyed the characters and especially the fairies and reading about their world. All in all I look forward to the next in the series.

Courtney Kelly likes that she has fairy friends and enjoys her business of Fairy gardens and Tea shop but sometimes things are not always happy and fun. After breaking up a catfight between Wanda nd Lana in front of her shop, Courtney is hoping that they will stay away from each other but a few days later at a charity fundraiser, she finds Wanda over the murdered body of Lana holding the murder weapon. Wanda is dazed and not sure what happened. Can Courtney and her fairy friends find a way to clear Wanda of the murder?

What fun to picture the fairies whizzing back and forth trying to learn secrets from others! The characters are fun and the setting and mystery entertaining.

The second in a wonderful magical series. Every page makes me want to be in Carmel by the Sea visiting all the shops and with all the characters, including the fairies.
Delightful, imaginative people, places and stories. Getting to know them all is a delight.

A GLIMMER OF A CLUE, the second book in the Fairy Garden Mystery series by Daryl Wood Gerber, is an enchanting cozy mystery that is so sweet, you almost forget that murder is the theme! Starting each chapter is a literary quote that involves fairies, which adds a nice touch. Ms. Gerber’s use of fairies to both lighten the overall feel of the book and to assist the protagonist, Courtney Kelly, in solving the crime, adds to the appeal. As owner of the delightful shop, Open Your Imagination, Courtney creates an inviting spot for locals and tourists alike to while their time away in a charming atmosphere. I greatly enjoy the addition of Courtney teaching her customers how to create their own fairy gardens and, with plenty of details included, the reader should be able to create a fairy garden at home. With memorable characters, humans, pets, and fairies alike, I found myself immersed in the detailed magic of the story and couldn’t put the book down.

While the setting and characters are delightful, there is a murder mystery to solve and once again, Ms. Gerber proves she can craft a well-plotted whodunit! Courtney’s best friend’s mom (and Courtney’s father’s potential love interest) is arrested for murdering the town’s nasty newspaper columnist art critic during a fundraising gala. With plenty of suspects to keep the reader guessing, it was a fun ride to follow along with Courtney and her fairy-in-training, Fiona, as they sussed out clues. With clever misdirection to trip up the armchair sleuth, I didn’t see the culprit until the reveal. The author neatly ties up the strands of the clues and left me feeling like I wanted to visit Carmel-by-the-Sea and meet Courtney and her friends in person!

Not only does Courtney serve a delicious tea with yummy treats at her fairy-themed garden shop, but several of her good friends in town own eating establishments. As a result, reader beware, you’ll be drooling while enjoying this book. Ms. Gerber includes several recipes for foods mentioned in the story at the back of the book. She includes sweet and savory along with gluten-free and regular alike.

Courtney Kelly owns a fairy garden shop in Carmel. She helps people create their own fairy garden while she cultivates hers, and communes with her own little fairy, Fiona. Fiona in turn helps Courtney in order to gain her full set of wings. Courtney's been asked to create two gardens for people to bid on for a local fundraiser by her friend Wanda, who is her best friend Meaghan's mother. But while at her shop one morning she hears a commotion, and goes outside to see a fight between Wanda and Lana Lamar, an art critic, and it's turned physical. Lana has Wanda by the hair and refuses to let her go. So Courtney does the only thing she can: she grabs a hose and waters both of them down to stop the fight.

But Lana isn't about to be deterred, and continues to hound Wanda, even up to the point of the fundraiser, where she has no problem making a scene with anyone and everyone. When Wanda feels a bit tired, she goes to lie down, and later Courtney hears a crash and runs toward the sound. She finds Wanda kneeling over Lana's body, holding the end of the letter opener stuck in her -- the one that Courtney had used in the now-smashed garden. Now Wanda is the main suspect, and if Courtney doesn't find the true killer, her friend's mother won't wake up from this nightmare...

This is the second in the series and I found it just as delightful as the first. The idea of a little fairy helping Courtney solve a murder is indeed a cute plot addition, and it makes for a fun read. While Courtney starts looking at Lana and who would want her dead, she comes up with a plethora of suspects, none of whom seem to have solid alibis. There's also a couple of secondary plots which keep the story going without a lull in the action, and these are engaging as well.

I do like the fact that whatever information Courtney digs up, she immediately transfers to Detective Summers. While he gets annoyed with her, at least she's offering up what she discovers and doesn't try to accost her own suspects and accuse them of murder face-to-face. One gets tired of protagonists who confront suspected murderers without the police knowing about it. Courtney is intelligent and caring, with her heart and mind open to not only seeing fairies, but helping others as well. I do like her character.

When the ending comes and the murderer is revealed, I pretty much had gathered who it was early on, but finding out the motive for murder was what I was waiting for, and I wasn't disappoint in the outcome. All in all, I do like this series and wait eagerly for the next book. Recommended.

It is sometimes difficult to suspend my disbelief in Daryl Wood Gerber's A Fairy Garden Mystery series, but in 'A Glimmer of a Clue' I was engaged by an expert mystery with many twists and turns. The characters, even the fairies, are delightful and there is some humor and romance. I wasn't certain who committed the murder which is always a joy as I'm reading a mystery. I look forward to the progress of the relationship between Courtney and Brady, and maybe a softening in Kip's attitude toward Courtney's fairy.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley. The opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own.

This book is fine. Fine. I can’t especially praise it’s graces, but I can’t totally condemn it either. The fact of the matter is that I think I like the premise more than the execution. The major faults in this book are in the characters. As a reader, I am character focused. I care more about interesting people than what happens, and I am motivated to read what happens to interesting people. My first instinct is to say that there are too many characters. Usually, if a book needs a character guide, there are either too many characters or uninteresting characters. In this case, it’s a little of both. There are many characters in this book that are a tiny bit interesting, but they could become fully interesting if only there was enough time/pages to dedicate to them all. But that would result in a 1000 page book. The most colorful characters though are the fairies which is good since this is a fairy garden mystery. The fairies add color, life, and humor that is missing from many of the human characters.

I don’t usually read books in which fairies appear and talk to people. However, Ms Gerber does such a good job introducing us to a woman who owns a gardening shop where she promotes fairies that I can’t help but like the two books in this series, and I hope there are more to come. Courtney has a fairy of her own, Fiona, who encourages her while trying to improve her own circumstances. There’s a hint of a love story going on, which makes the book a little more fun, along with the relationships already maturing. All the characters are well portrayed and the areas of action are well described, and you feel like you’re part of the story line. The book also has lots of twists so you don’t know the identity of the murderer until the end of the book. I received an arc of this book from NetGalley and the publisher. All opinions expressed are my own.