Not everything's coming up roses in Death in Bloom, the first book in the Flower House Mystery series. Yet author Jess Dylan has a green thumb when it comes to planting the seeds for a great story.



After her singing career fizzles out, Sierra Ravenswood heads back to her small Tennessee hometown. Sure, working at the Flower House might not be her dream, but it's stable. When her boss suddenly leaves and puts her in charge of a bouquet-arranging workshop, she's almost excited. What's the worst that could happen?



Well. Murder. And soon all of Sierra's students are suspects.



The hook is just quirky enough to give a glimpse into the off-kilter world Dylan gradually reveals over the next 300 pages. With her boss giving her ownership of the flower shop for the grand price of $1, Sierra juggles taking control of a business while investigating a murder and navigating one of the most unconventional casts of cozy characters. Dylan has populated her tiny town with denizens more colorful than a garden—plus secrets and hidden motives abound.



All of this would be for nothing, though, if the mystery wasn't compelling. Fortunately, even in an animated world where Sierra's Granny Mae brews up home remedies and flower arranging is all the rage, Dylan offers up a puzzle that left me constantly guessing who the killer was. Sierra's a fun sleuth and the fact that most of the suspects are connected to the flower shop gives her some freedom in investigating them. Her overfamiliarity with the students makes for an interesting dynamic while also allowing for Dylan to naturally drop information that sets up this world. It's the perfect mystery for the first book in a series.



So, sure, not everything's coming up roses for Sierra Ravenswood. But based off this book, everything sure is for Jess Dylan.

I appreciate the publisher allowing me to read this book. I really enjoyed this one the plot kept me interested until the end which is not easy, and the characters were engaging and believable. I highly recommend this book.

A quick and overall enjoyable cozy set in a small southern town where Sierra is back home at 28, and suddenly in charge of the flower shop she works part time in when her boss disappears. He leaves her the shop to run and an adorable corgi puppy. Things don't get off to a great start when a customer drops dead in her flower arranging class and soon she is investigating. Sierra is a bit "woo-woo" at times in her attempts to manifest a perfect life, which can be a bit annoying but she grew on me. I loved puppy, Gus, and her granny was also fun.

I thought this book was a fun and easy start to a new cozy mystery series. I enjoyed reading it and look forward to reading more from this author.

What a cute and fun start to a new cozy series. I really enjoyed the setting and following Sierras adventure. I look forward to the next book in the series.

What a great addition to the cozy mystery genre. I really enjoyed this book and cannot wait for the next installment.

Death in Bloom A Flower House Mystery by Jess Dylan is the first in a new series and one that appealed to me from the first page. As is often the case with cozy mysteries, the protagonist Sierra has returned home in failure. She’s taken a part-time job with her hometown florist when the owner with no advance warning leaves on his own adventure. Then a customer and local business owner drops dead in one of her classes. Sierra needs to solve the case before she loses more than her job.

The small town setting with interesting business owners created the perfect backdrop for this mystery. The quirky renter and the many red herrings piqued my curiosity and kept me engaged. (I voluntarily reviewed an advance reader copy and all opinions are my own.). I thoroughly enjoyed this mystery and look forward to the next in the series.

A fun first in series. I really enjoyed getting to know the characters and I loved the flower shop setting. Definitely a page turner that kept you guessing until the very end. If you have enjoyed previous books by this author you will definitely want to read this series.

Sierra Ravenswood is back home after not making it in Nashville. She returns to her old job at the flower shop where a body is soon discovered. She needs to find the murderer before she is feet up in the roses.

Sierra goes from being a part-time employee at a flower shop to running the entire thing. The hows and whys of that are a bit complicated and not quite clear. The main part of the book is a murder during Sierra's first flower class at the flower shop. The murder has several twists and turns that kept me guessing. The characters are varied which bodes well for future books. Sierra's grandmother is easily my favorite character. I look forward to seeing how the series progresses in book two.

Death in Bloom is a new series opener for a new small town cozy mystery series by Jess Dylan. Released 25th May 2021 by Macmillan on their St. Martin's Press imprint, it's 320 pages and is available in paperback and ebook formats. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links. I've really become enamored of ebooks with interactive formats lately.

This is an engaging and well written small town "shopfront" cozy with a young female protagonist (complete with unexpected puppy, slow burn nerdy potential romantic interest, and wise grandma dispensing charms and baked goods with equal abandon). The pool of suspects is small, and although the denouement and resolution are fairly easy to guess beforehand, they're well written and satisfying. There's a nice foreshadowing twist at the end of the book which I didn't see coming. It works perfectly well as a standalone, and is a nice lead-in to the next book in the series. The language is clean, and there's no graphic violence or sexual content. This would be a good choice for lovers of light cozies, the kind with whimsically eccentric small town characters, a town diner, and pets.

Four stars. This will appeal to cozy readers.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

I think this book is a great start to a promising new series. Sierra Ravenswood and the rest of the characters are definitely likable. I also thought the setting of Aerieville, Tennessee was charming. There were also plenty of red herrings to keep the reader guessing. I particularly enjoyed the fact that I wasn't quite sure who the murderer was.

This was a good book 1 in Flower House Mystery series. It introduces Sierra Ravenswood the new part-time employee of the Flower House, a flower shop in Aerieville, Tennessee. She has returned to her hometown after her life goes haywire in Nashville. She takes over the Flower House and starts classes and special projects to drum up business. When a local bully drops dead in the middle of her first flower arranging class it could be the end. As she and friends investigate they discover a crooked building inspector/zoning officer and some unsavory plans for the town. Some great characters that should grow in future books. I received a copy of this ARC in exchange for a fair and honest review.

There are a lot of moving parts in the beginning of a new series, but this one does it well. Sierra is at loose ends when she comes home after chasing a music career in Nashville. She works part time at the Flower House and suddenly finds herself in charge when owner Felix heads off on a geocaching adventure. While hosting a flower arranging class, unlikable garden center owner Abe keels over, dead. Suddenly, it seems almost everyone is a suspect. A unusually helpful tenant arrives to live in the Flower House building and Sierra also cares for Felix's dog, Gus. It was very entertaining to learn about these new characters, properties of flowers and the area.

If you have readers looking for a wonderful new cozy mystery series, this is a great one to recommend. Very appealing characters, a fun-to-solve mystery, and a perfect small town cozy setting.

This is a solid start to a new series. The characters are likable. The back story is interesting. The mystery is full well-paced with plenty of red herrings to keep the reader on their toes. I will be revisiting this series soon

All thoughts and opinions are my own, and in no way have I been influenced by anyone.

Although I thought that started slow, I thought that this was an enjoyable book. The murder happens fairly quickly but it took a while for me to really get into the story. The twists and turns and multiple suspects kept my guessing up to the end.

The characters are interesting although I would have liked to have know more about the 'missing' boss but I'm sure that future books will fill this gap.

I really enjoyed how even until the last moment I wasn't 100% sure who the murderer was. That made it so fun and I was having trouble trusting any of the characters. I did figure out pretty quickly that Calvin was probably harmless and just being suspicious over Felix's geocaching adventure. I did feel like the first half of the book was a little stressful to read. It felt like it was jumping all over the place. I just wanted Sierra to take one minute to calm down and set up a plan in place. But I guess her reaction was probably pretty authentic to someone going through what she did, it was just hard as a reader to really get into the book and enjoy what was happening at first.

Death in Bloom is a fun cozy mystery. Sierra's boss disappears to search for treasures and leaves his flower shop to her. Unfortunately for Sierra the first event she organizes ends with someone being murdered. Sierra finds her boss has even left his puppy to go on his adventure so she adopts the pup and tries to keep the flower shop running while the police try to find the killer. It's a great start to a new cozy mystery series. Thanks to NetGalley and St Martins Press for my ARC of this book.

Nice and intriguing cozy mystery!
From the very beginning, the plot becomes to form with strange situations that will wound up to a disappearing, murder and a mystery to be solved in a small flower shop.