Dollycas’s Thoughts

Sierra Ravenswood had hopes of being a singer known across the country but that didn’t happen so she is back home in Aerieville working part-time at The Flower House as she decides what she wants to do with her life next. The eccentric owner of the place has taken off to places unknown and left her the ownership of the shop just as he was scheduled to lead a workshop on flower arranging. Sierra decides to go ahead with the class and everyone seems to be enjoying themselves until one of the participants keels over dead. Sierra assumes the man had a heart attack but soon learns he was poisoned by one of the treats on the snack table. This means everyone at the workshop is a suspect including Sierra.

Trying to decide what she wants to do with The Flower House takes a backseat to finding a killer especially after the store and its greenhouse are vandalized. She is also the new owner of her boss’s Corgi puppy named Gus. Her life is not taking an expected turn but her optimistic nature will not let her back down while Death is in Bloom.

As soon as I saw the cover of this book I wanted to read it. My grandmother had a garden that encompassed most of her lawn with just grass walkways. This cover made me think of her and just brought back so many wonderful memories are spending time in those gardens and learning about flowers from my grandmother.

I really enjoyed meeting Sierra. Many people would have fallen apart by everything she had to handle in this story but she is a strong woman who took it all in stride with only some minor breaks. Her daily affirmations were uplighting both for her and this reader.

Sierra’s family was mostly supportive She really drew strength from Granny Mae. That woman is extraordinary in many ways and a great resource for Sierra. I enjoyed that she reconnected with an old friend, Deena, and made a new friend in Calvin. All the characters felt true to life. Everyone really worked together to keep the shop going and sleuth out clues. I am anxious to see how the characters and their relationships develop as this series continues.

I was taken in by the history of The Flower House and the town of Aerieville. The author added some nice depth to the story with the backgrounds she provided readers and her descriptions of each place she took us within the pages of this book.

The mystery was well done especially for the first book in a series. I always say the first book in a series is a heavy life because the author needs to give readers a great mystery while introducing core characters with enough background to get us invested in their lives. Ms. Dylan did an admirable job at both. I do wish we had gotten to know some of the suspects better so motives would have been more evident. I was able to solve the mystery way before the reveal but I was totally entertained by the entire story.

Death in Bloom has set this series off to a blooming start. I want to visit Sierra, her friends, family, and The Flower House again soon.

Readers go to cozy mysteries when they want a break from the harshness of life. Yes, bad things happen in these stories, including murder, but there is not over the top violence. Also, books in this genre tend to feature likeable protagonists, pets, inviting small town settings and often the chance to learn about something…think baking or in this case a flower shop.

This title goes according to that formulation and will be enjoyed by fans of the genre. The protagonist has returned to the place where she grew up having faced stresses away from home. However, home doesn’t provide a stress free existence. As could be guessed from the title, someone is murdered in the flower shop.

There are suspects, townsfolk whom readers will like and, of course, a crime to be solved. All will be resolved.

This is the first in a new series. Cozy lovers may well look forward to any books that follow.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher. All opinions are my own.

This is a great start to a fun new series. I loved the flower shop setting, and the characters were delightful. The plot is well paced, and the book is well written. I cannot wait for book 2!

Death in Bloom by Jess Dylan is the debut in the A Flower House Mystery. This is a wonderful start to this new series.
Sierra has returned to her home town after fleeing Nashville when her dreams went up in smoke. She is working as a part time employee for the town flower shop. She has came up with a idea for an evening class and at the last minute, the stores owner leaves town and places the shop in her hands. As the evening is coming to an end, one of the participants drops dead. It is ruled death by poisoning.
This story has plenty of suspects and plot twists. I love the setting being in a small Tennessee town. The characters are likeable and relatable, Sierra is a strong protagonist and I love her Granny and her herbs. There is humor and friendship. I can't wait for book two!
I was given an ARC by St. Martin's Press via NetGalley for an honest review.

This was a cute story and a nice start to a new series. I read it fairly quickly and although it lagged a bit in spots, overall it was a good mystery.

Sierra is a part-time flower shop employee, a dreamer and a hopeful music artist. When her boss at the flower shop suddenly "retires" and flies off to who knows where, he deeds his store to Sierra. Unfortunately, a man, whom no one really liked, is murder during a flower arranging class and everyone is a suspect, even Sierra. Multiple break-ins, some sneaky restauranteurs and an adorable new stranger all have Sierra's hackles raised as she tries to puzzle out whodunit, along with her newly acquired Corgi, Gus.

I enjoyed the flower shop aspect of this as it almost became a character in itself. I liked the descriptions of the flowers and the bouquets created in the story. The murder plot itself was a little blasé but charming cast of characters, both two and four footed, made this an enjoyable read.

I would definitely read another (or several) books in this series.

This is a charming cozy series debut! I loved the charcters, the setting of rural Tennessee and the sleuth. Thank you to the publisher and to Net Galley for the opportunity. My review opinions are my own. Death in Bloom is the first book in Jess Dylan's Flower House Mystery series

Set in the rural town of Aerieville, Tennessee, our protagonist is Sierra Ravenswood. She has returned in her late 20's to her hometown because her dreams of being a singer have failed. She is going to work part time in the local flower shop and likes her work and is trying to rebuild her life . Her boss and shop owner Felix disappears on a trip soon after her arrival and leaves her in charge just before the first flower arranging class. He also leaves her the shop for the sum of 1.00 and his very hyper dog. Confused but determined to make the shop successful , she holds a flower arranging class as planned. When a murder occurs at the shop she has to face that she is under suspicion and may lose the shop she hoped to save.

This was a well crafted sleuth that kept me guessing to conclusion. I loved the supporting charcters and the small town culture of Tennessee. All in all a very successful cozy debut !

I tried several time with this book but just could not get into it. The premise is interesting with Sierra who works part time at a flower shop and gets thrust into teaching a class on flower arrangment. At the class one of her students suddenly dies and when it is declared as a murder she is determend to find the killer. The problem I had with this book is I found it way to new age and woowoo, to the point of ridiculous. The charcters at times seemed much more caricature than real.

This is the first book in the Flower House mystery series, introducing readers to Sierra Ravenswood, who is a new part-time employee of a flower shop in her hometown in Aerieville, Tenn.
Sierra has returned home after trying to make it in Nashville as a singer. This isn’t what she saw herself doing at the age of 28.
But, she’s determined to do her new job to the best of her ability, and arranges to teach some workshops, the first of which is a bouquet-arranging event. Things don’t go so well when a customer drops dead after eating a snack at the workshop. Sierra is on the suspect list, along with everyone else who attended.
And her new boss has left town, asking her to take over the store — and his dog, Gus.
Sierra has a full plate as she learns the business and tries to solve the murder.
Good read.

Death in Bloom by Jess Dylan is the debut of A Flower Shop Mystery series. Sierra Ravenswood wishes to be a country music star, but things did not go well in Nashville. She is back in Aerieville, Tennessee where she works parttime at the Flower House. She has two protective parents and a younger brother named Rocky. There are some interesting characters in this story with my favorite being Sierra’s grandmother, Granny Mae. Granny Mae is a kindly woman known for her home remedies and other special concoctions. It was nice to see Sierra change by growing stronger and more confident. She seemed to be a person at loose ends and unsure of herself at the beginning of the story. The author took the time to set the stage for the series by describing the town (the main residents, shop owners) and giving us Sierra’s background. The mystery needed to be stronger. It is a simple whodunit that can be solved quickly. It was obvious who was going to be murdered (the mean guy) as soon as the person was introduced. The clues needed to solve the mystery are obvious (I wish they were more subtle). The murder happened so early in the book that we did not get a chance to know the victim or the suspects (or their motives). I like how the language of flowers was incorporated into the story (it is fascinating). I loved Gus, the Pembroke Welsh corgi pup that Felix owned, and Sierra took in. He is a cutie that provided smiles and laughter. I like the side story involving Felix and his jaunt. I hope we find out more details in the next book. Death in Bloom is a good start to A Flower Shop Mystery series. I am sure the author will up her game in Petals and Poison. Death in Bloom is an upbeat cozy mystery with a poisoned powder, a cute corgi, a missing manager, a mystery renter, beautiful blooms, and a sleuthing singer.

After Sierra Ravenwood returns to her hometown from Nashville after losing both her job and boyfriend to the same woman. She goes to work at the flower house the place she used to work at in high school. When a man is murdered at a flower range in class Sierra is teaching, she's one of the suspects in the murder and starts to investigate. And it doesn't help that her boss is off on a treasure hunt and is out of reach. Sounds like a country song to me.

I wanted to read this book since I read the sneak preview in Cozy Case Files 12. Luckily I was granted my request to read an arc copy from NetGalley. Unfortunately it was granted a day before the release and I didn't want to rush through it. I enjoyed the characters, the setting, and plot. Enjoyed the subplot of the boss in leaving town on a Fenn type treasure. Looking forward to the next book in the series.

I was kindly provided an e-copy of this book by the publisher and/or author via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Death in Bloom is the first installment in A Flower House Mystery series by Jess Dylan. In it, Sierra Ravenswood, a new part-time employee at Flower House in Aerieville, Tennessee, is surprised to find her boss has skipped town and left her in charge of the floral shop. One of her first orders of business is to run a flower arranging class. By the end of class, one of the students is dead.

Nobody is sad to see the man dead, as he was the local grumpy curmudgeon who never had a nice word for anyone. And with everyone in the class considered a suspect, Sierra needs the case solved so she can get on with her life. The police seem focused on the wrong suspect, so Sierra decides to do some investigating. Along the way, she learns that she's been given the chance to either keep or sell the store. A mystery man moves into the apartment above the shop, and he's a bit suspicious. Solving the case turns out to be thornier than she expected.

I enjoyed Sierra as a main character. She's quirky, a little lost in terms of what she wants to do with her life, but determined not to work at the family business - a gym called Dumbbells. Walking her puppy is the only kind of workout she appreciates. With a large cast of periphery characters, there's something for all cozy mystery lovers here. I'm looking forward to more installments in this series.

Thank you to @netgalley and @stmartinspress for providing me a copy of this book for review purposes.

Dylan establishes a very likable and positive main character in Sierra Ravenswood, a young woman who has put her Nashville dreams on hold and moved back home to the small town of Aerieville, Tennessee.

I enjoyed the characters in the series, especially Sierra. There were plenty of suspicious people and red herrings to make me wonder who the murderer was. The details about flowers and floral arrangements were fun and provided a unique theme compared to other cozies.

It took me awhile to get used to the very informal word choice, but this style did fit Sierra’s casual and sweet personality.

The book comes to an exciting conclusion, and Dylan leaves a lot of potential for growing friendships, romantic relationships, and ongoing mysteries, always a good tactic at the start of a cozy mystery series.

Overall, this book is cute, light, and fun, definitely worth a try for cozy fans!

For lovers of a cozy mystery, this book is for you! The first in the new series called "Flower Shop Mysteries," Death in Bloom is a strong beginning of the story of Jess Dylan and the flower shop where she works. During her first flower-arranging workshop, someone suddenly dies, and as all cozy mysteries go, Jess needs to figure out who killed the victim and why. There is good characterization of the main characters, with some red herrings, and I especially like that Jess is a sympathetic character. She's sweet and positive, and readers will quickly get behind her in her sleuthing. Oh, and there's a dog, of course! Highly recommend to lovers of the genre!

A promising start to a new series, DEATH IN BLOOM by author Jess Dylan, has the smell of success. Ms. Dylan has planted a seed of a mystery that will have your suspicions growing even as you start pruning back subjects. I'm looking forward to picking up the secA promising start to a new series, DEATH IN BLOOM by author Jess Dylan, has the smell of success. Ms. Dylan has planted a seed of a mystery that will have your suspicions growing even as you start pruning back subjects. I'm looking forward to picking up the second installment when it blooms in November.

Death in Bloom by Jess Dylan was my introduction to the author and I enjoyed it. Thank you Netgalley for the advance reader copy in exchange for an honest review. Sierra Ravenswood works at Flower House part time. Felex Mayford is the owner and interested in geocaching, an outdoor treasure hunting game using GPS coordinates to find items hidden by other players. Sierra is teaching a class on flower arrangements, when a man collapses. This is a great story about a woman who has tried to follow her dreams. She tries to stay positive, even in the face of failure, and go forward. Good advice, for everyone. This book had a good plot, full of twists and turns.

This is a great start to a new series. Sierra is working at Flower House back in her hometown of Aerieville, Tennessee. When her boss disappears and a murder occurs in the flower shop, Sierra is determined to figure out what is going on. I really liked the characters. Sierra is a good lead and I connected with her right way. The mystery was well done and it took me until the end of the book to figure out the killer. I am looking forward to more in this series. I received this book from Kensington publishing and netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Death In Bloom is a great debut cozy mystery in A Flower Shop Mystery. Series. This is an enjoyable cozy mystery. Sierra Ravenswood is a former Nashville singer and now works part-time at Flower House flower shop. Her boss Felix disappears and she is now in charge of his puppy, Gus. Odd things start happening. Sierra is left to run a flower-arranging workshop but an attendee ends up dead. The main characters are likable and Sierra's friend Deena is a good sidekick. Calvin shows up saying Felix offered the apartment above the shop to him. There are only a handful of suspects but this cozy mystery kept me guessing until the end. Quite enjoyable and the series is off to a good start. #DeathInBloom #StMartinsPress #NetGalley

The cover of Jess Dylan’s first Flower House mystery, Death in Bloom, is almost as busy as the poor amateur sleuth. However, I like the cover art and Sierra Ravenswood.

Sierra’s back home in Aerieville, a small town in southeastern Tennessee. She’s been back for four months, working part-time at Flower House, the local florist’s, while the rest of her quirky family works at Dumbbells, a small health club owned by her parents. She’s enthusiastic about her job, and even invites a high school acquaintance to attend a flower arranging workshop her boss, Felix Maniford, is offering. But, that night, Sierra only sees Felix for a couple minutes before he rushes out, leaving the keys, the business, and the workshop in her hands.

Sierra doesn’t feel she’s worked there long enough to teach, but she’s muddling through with her small group. There’s an undercurrent of tension due to the presence of Abe Ranker, owner of the local garden center. There’s even more tension when Abe falls over dead. Sierra guesses he had a heart attack, but the police think otherwise. And, Sierra, along with all the businesspeople in the class are now suspects in a murder investigation.

With Felix gone and Abe dead, Sierra’s life is turned upside down. When Calvin Foxheart turns up, saying he’s the new tenant for Felix’s upstairs apartment, she’s uneasy, but he’s willing to help her with the plants and the shop. Then, she learns Felix doesn’t plan to return. He’s left her the shop, if she wants it. He also asked that Abe take care of his new corgi pup, Gus. With Abe dead, Sierra is more willing to take on Gus than the Flower House. But, for now, she has a new dog. She’s running a business. And, because someone tries to break into the Flower House, more than once, she finds herself asking questions about Abe and his murder.

Dylan introduces an interesting cast of characters with Sierra, Calvin, and Gus. Then, there’s Sierra’s wonderful Granny Mae, the local herbalist and wise woman, who tells Sierra to “Catch the killer.” If you read cozy mysteries for the characters, as I do, you might want to try Jess Dylan’s Death in Bloom.

When a genre is over-saturated with books, a new one needs to make a huge impression to get both bought and read and then further ones bought. This one grabs your attention by the cover, keeps it with the great characters [though Sierra is a bit much in the beginning - <i>"How could I explain the vision I'd created for myself? I dreamed of an exciting, romantic life, with a partner worthy of movie star billing."</i> Really? I thought she was an adult, not 15. Geesh. Made me want to gag. Thankfully, some of this gets worked out in the end] and then WHOOSH, just dies with the writing. It just was...meh? It took too long to get where we needed to be [this could have easily been 50-60 pages shorter], there were W A Y too many red herrings [though a couple of them were really good and one I was absolutely sure was the killer and was wrong], and there was a lot of unnecessary running around to get to the "truth". It was very difficult for me to stay engaged.

There were really good aspects of this book - the killer is hidden very well, the characters of Deena and Calvin are excellent side-kicks [I loved watching Deena blossom ;-) ] and the location of a flower shop is new and fresh and fun [when Sierra was working. She DID do her job, but she also shoved a lot of HER responsibilities onto Calvin [who she had just met and didn't know from Adam], or just shut the doors completely to run around and "solve" the murder - if you are worried about losing your job and business, perhaps you should be doing your job first, but what do I know?]. The thing that saved this book for me was the reveal and the end. There were a couple of moments where I went "OH PLEASE", but for the most part, I loved how it ended; with hope and laughter and friends and family [THE best character in this whole book is Sierra's granny. OH MY GOSH I love her].

I can hope that if the author writes a second one that the writing will be a little more coherent and cohesive [and not so long] and that the characters are a little more fleshed out [with less running around] - if that can happen, this would be an excellent series that people would flock to. Even with its flaws, I would read a second one, because I have read many a not-so-great first book in a series and decided to read the second and those are some of my most favorite books now, so never say never. And always, always, always, be ready to give a second chance.

Thank you to NetGalley, Jess Dylan, and St. Martin's Press/St. Martin's Paperbacks for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Death in Bloom is book one in the new cozy series, A Flower House Mystery. Now I’m a sucker for stories with a florist protagonist. I’ve read and enjoyed quite a few over the years. I love learning about the flowers, watching the arrangements come together and witnessing the drama unfold in the shop. This book was fantastic. It was entertaining, fresh and full of equal parts humor, intrigue and plenty of sleuthing!!

I enjoyed the quaint setting in this Tennessee town. The shops seem charming, the characters are eclectic and I can’t wait to learn more about our main cast. Sierra was a fantastic lead. I loved her sarcasm and the fact she was spontaneously thrown into her new position once the owner of the flower shop suddenly left/disappeared. I’m definitely curious to learn more about her quirky, mysterious love interest, Calvin. They had a fun, flirtatious chemistry that I look forward to watching develop as the series grows. Gus, the adopted Corgi, was an entertaining addition to the storyline. I loved all of his puppy mischief. Grandma was by far my favorite character. Give me an older character, full of wisdom, superstitions and peculiar herbal remedies any day.

There were two great mysteries in this book. Figuring out who murdered our victim and collecting clues about Felix, the boss who suddenly left for an interesting adventure. The main mystery was great. It contained local friends and business owners so it was a fun way to learn about the town, while also being incredibly leery of everyone you met because there were plenty of red herrings to pick through. I selected the wrong suspect and enjoyed the twist at the reveal. Being a former geocacher myself, I liked hearing about Felix and his obsession over this seeking hobby. I like how we are slowly getting tidbits about his story especially with Sierra always missing his return calls.I believe it will definitely develop into a larger storyline.

Needless to say, I’m already hooked on this series. Can’t wait to meet up with these characters again and watch the Flower House bloom under Sierra’s management.