I do really like this series, however this book to me felt it was too much description going on. THis is the seventh book in the series and the descriptions of all the charaters, pets, food, and the town was alot. I love the cozy mystery part of the book and the plot.



** I received a copy of this book from Netgalley in exchange for a honest review**

My third in this series although it is the seventh instalment, Daisy Swanson runs a tea garden she co-owns with her aunt. Daisy moved back to her hometown of Willow Creek, Pennsylvania, after the death of her husband. Daisy makes a great amateur sleuth and she gets involved when she is serving hot tea at a fundraiser for a homeless shelter and masked protestors storm the event who are objecting to a shelter being built in Willow Creek. Eli Lapp left his Amish community years ago, assisted by Hiram, a local lawyer. Hiram is also representing a fertility clinic in a lawsuit, the same clinic that Daisy's friend Piper was attending. Then Hiram is found dead after a fatal injection of insulin...

Dangerous situations arise in this charming mix of mystery, delicious-sounding foodstuffs, and furry friends. Daisy has a better relationship with her boyfriend and ex-detective, Jonas and I enjoyed reading about their growing and improving togetherness. She is a great character as she is personable as well as being compassionate and level-headed and her family is one of her main focuses. Engrossing and endearing, I shall be continuing with this series.

I received a complimentary copy of this novel at my request from Kensington Books via NetGalley and this review is my unbiased opinion.

Murder with Orange PekoeTea by Karen Rose Smith is the 7th book in a Daisy's Tea Garden Mystery, and another great addition.  Daisy Swanson is a widowed mother of two daughters, and along with her Aunt Iris own Daisy's Tea Garden, in Willow Creek, Pennsylvania. In this adventure, Daisy is serving hot tea at a fundraiser for a new homeless shelter. Unfortunately masked protesters show up because they don't want a shelter. When an attorney is murdered, Daisy starts sleuthing. There are a lot of different story lines in this series, so I suggest you read them in order to get the most out of the books. Once I started this book I could not stop reading it. It was a quick read that kept me guessing. I look forward to the next book in the series. I highly recommend this book for all cozy mystery book lovers, you will not be disappointed.
I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

This newest in the series is fabulous! I always welcome the opportunity to visit the idyllic area of Willow Creek in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. The elegant tea garden serves goodies from Daisy’s kitchen that sound so tasty, and recipes included. I was happy to see Brielle and Glorie again as well as meet Felix. I also appreciate Daisy’s ties to the Amish community and how a couple if significant women’s health concerns are noted. The mystery is well-plotted and executed, keeping me guessing throughout.

Daisy is a middle-aged widow with two daughters and a grandson. She and her Aunt Iris are partners in Daisy’s Tea Garden. Her best friend, Tessa, is Daisy’s kitchen manager and an artist. Vi and Foster, Daisy’s daughter and son-in-law Foster and their little Sammy live in an apartment over the garage. Her other daughter, Jazzi, will only be home for another year until she leaves for college.

This month’s special tea flavor is Orange Pekoe. Daisy’s Tea Garden is providing it, and pastries, at the fundraising kickoff for the New Beginnings homeless shelter to be built in Willow Creek. The land has been donated, and they are ready to receive donations toward building the shelter.

One attendee is a local attorney, Hiram, who is defending Hope Clinic against a class action lawsuit. Someone at the fertility clinic miscalculated setting the temperature where eggs and embryos were stored, accidentally destroying the contents by improper chilling. Several devastated couples who had paid significant sums of money lost it and their hope of a son or daughter of their own. Piper and Emory were one such couple; they would at least want their money refunded to pay back the loans taken for the procedures, but the clinic CEO refused.

Soon after the celebration, Hiram was found murdered in his office. The cause of death was quite unusual; whoever did it was clearly prepared. Determined to not get involved this time, Daisy focuses on her family, her business, and her friends. She and Jonas continue to build their relationship, which is sweet to watch.

A detective on the case asks Daisy to let him know if she hears any tidbits of conversations from her customers that could concern the murder of the attorney. Over time, the detective had ceased being an adversary and knew how well she observed and listened to people as she went about her work. The information she has provided has helped solve several cases. The one caveat is that she does not get involved with actively investigating, which is easy at first. But what could pursuing a few answers hurt…

The more we learn about the murdered attorney, the more suspects there are. Daisy isn’t looking for justice for him, but two of the suspects are people she doubts committed the crime. Despite her moments of doubt, she wants to see her friend and another young man out of the spotlight. I was stunned and saddened to find out whodunit. The case was completely wrapped up without any loose ends. I highly recommend this to those who enjoy well-crafted cozy mysteries that include elegant tea service, family and good friends, and pets.

From a thankful heart: I received an ARC of this novel from the publisher and NetGalley, and this is my honest review.

Daisy Swanson lives in Pennsylvania's Amish country. This is where she makes her home and runs her tea garden. It's beautiful and peaceful until murder pays a visit. Hiram Hershberger, a local lawyer, is murdered. Who killed him and why? Daisy has a special talent. She listens and is able to get information to help find the truth. I like Daisy. She has a good heart and really cares for people. Seeing her with family and friends makes me smile. Hiram was involved in a controversial case. He was representing the fertility clinic in a class action lawsuit. It was a tragedy. Couples lost their dreams of parenthood. Could one of them be the killer? The tension grows when the police hit a dead end. Then Daisy is attacked with a stun gun. The Killer is worried. Is Daisy getting too close? Jonas knows that Daisy is struggling to get control of her life. I understood his concern. It's never easy to realize how vulnerable we are. I love seeing Daisy and Jonas grow closer and form a strong bond. Karen Rose Smith did an excellent job balancing a loving personal relationship with a violent murder. I was taken by Felix, the dog Jonas adopted. He's a protector and scene stealer. I couldn't put this book down. I love The Daisy's Tea Garden series.

this is a wonderful entertaining series! Interesting and complex, quirky characters with realistic story and unpredictable outcome. I love this series and this author! A must read page turner!

Daisy is happy to provide refreshments for an upcoming fundraiser where the proceeds will help in building a homeless shelter. On the day of said fundraiser a group of masked protesters make it known that they are against building a shelter. It looks like the leader of the group is a man named Eli who was once Amish but left the fold. Eli is arrested and his lawyer Hiram, a man who helped him leave the Amish lifestyle, is ready to bail him out. When Hiram is found murdered the next day Daisy's mind wonders to a conversation she had the previous day. Before all the hoopla Daisy met a young woman named Piper whose life had taken a down turn. Piper couldn't wait to be a mother but the local fertility clinic lost her eggs along with many other couples when someone messed up the cooling system for the eggs. Hiram happened to be the lawyer for the clinic that doused quite a few couples dreams, could one of them have been angry enough to murder? She also wonders about the relationship between Eli and Hiram, was it a good one or was there something else to it. Follow along as Daisy does her best to investigate without getting herself in trouble. Along the way she learns Hiram had some enemies the problem is figuring out who wanted him dead. As always this was a lovely read filled with a great plot and wonderful characters.

It's always a pleasure to spend time with Daisy, Jonas and their circle of family and friends along with a mystery to unravel. In this, the 7th in the series, Daisy is dispensing tea at a fundraiser in Willow Creek to support the building of a homeless shelter. Soon protestors show up. They are dead set against the homeless shelter. Then things become very complicated. One of the protestors, Eli, has connections to Hiram, (his lawyer) and Hiram represents a fertility clinic embroiled in a law suit over lost embryos due to mechanical failures at the clinic. Tensions are running high and soon somebody takes down Hiram with a lethal injection of insulin. The list of suspects is long as no one is all that shocked at his demise.
Now that Daisy and Jonas are settling into their relationship life is good, for awhile anyway. If Daisy isn't able to help catch Hiram's killer, she might very well be the next name on the killer's list. Even in the heart of Amish country danger isn't all that far away.
From the Lancaster, PA setting for Willow Creek, the tea and tasty treats, Daily, Jonas and all of the recurring characters I love catching up with, this is a series that gives the reader much more than just a well developed mystery to solve. It has heart.
My thanks to the publisher Kensington and to NetGalley for giving me an advance copy in exchange for my honest review.

What an exciting and fun read. I really enjoy visiting the town of Willow Creek and having Daisy as a main character. The supporting characters are equally as likable and essential to the series. One thing I will say is that the author crafts her characters with real life struggles. That quality grounds them, making them relatable and believable. The plot is engaging and the reveal really took me by surprise. Murder with Orange Pekoe Tea is a must-read. The series as a whole is one of my all-time favorites.

You'd think a fund raiser for a homeless shelter would be a good thing but unfortunately, there are unhappy people. Hiram, an attorney who represented a fertility center, is murdered! Daisy once again jumps into investigation mode. It's a classic cozy in many ways with the added treat, as it were, of looking at issues that can divide communities. Thanks to netgalley for the ARC. I've enjoyed this series but know that this will fine as a standalone.

I love this series. I would love to hang out at the tea garden. You can learn so much there. I would also like to have some furniture from Woods. Another location I love is Daisy’s house. The stories around these settings and the town of Willow Creek are great. The characters are wonderful and I love the friendships between the Amish folks and the town folks. I can’t wait to see what happens next. I received an ARC through NetGalley, but my opinion is my own.

Murder with Orange Pekoe Tea by Karen Rose Smith is a 2021 Kensington publication.

While providing refreshments for a Willow Creek homeless shelter fundraiser, Daisy learns of a fertility clinic disaster, which dashed the hopes a young couple hoping depending on it to start a family.

Before she can learn more, masked protesters, who oppose opening the shelter arrive on the scene. One of those involved is Eli, a young man who left his Amish community, with some advice from Hiram, his attorney.

It comes to light that Hiram also represents the fertility clinic in question. When Hiram is found dead, Eli becomes a suspect, as do those hurt by the fertility clinic. Despite Daisy’s reluctance to get involved, she is slowly drawn into the investigation.

Meanwhile, Daisy’s family life is as busy as ever, but at a most satisfying stage- as her relationships seem to have stabilized a little- giving her more time to help others, and apply her detecting skills.

This is one of my favorite cozy mystery series. It is always nice to drop in and see what my old friends have up to, and see how everyone is doing. Often times, I would get more caught up in the family saga than in the mystery, but in this installment the mystery was more front and center- and what a mystery it was!!

Briskly paced, fraught with emotion and tension, the dual threads of Eli, and the fertility clinic, kept me engaged and on my toes at the same time.

I enjoyed how the Amish was prominently featured in the story, and as always, the wonderful teas and food. Once more, my affection for the characters have deepened, which is one of the main draws to this series.

I think the mysteries are becoming more complex as the series progresses, and are as deeply compelling as the lives of the recurring characters.

This is another stellar chapter in this beloved series! Can’t wait for the next one!

2 stars

Slow and hard to follow. This is part of a series. You really need to read the entire series to make sense of this book.

The community is hoping to build a homeless shelter and Daisy is helping by catering the get to know you event. When a group of protesters disrupt the party, local news captures an argument between a local lawyer and an upset client of the local fertility clinic. When the lawyer ends up dead, Daisy is talked into asking questions to find the murderer. Things come to a head when she is personally attacked and she draws closer to figuring out who the killer is. Plenty of suspects, lots of twists and a good surrounding story all make for a good read and a good addition to this series.

I really enjoyed this book. From beginning to end I was hooked on this and could not get enough. It moves along at a very comfortable reading speed making for a relaxing read. The characters are amazing and you cannot help but fall in love with. The story grabs you keeping you interested until the end and then you are wanting more. This is a must read, no doubt about it.

Daisy and her Tea Shoppe are helping to raise money to build a women's shelter in their small town however, there are people who are not in favor of this coming to be. Daisy has also met a new friend, Piper, who is going through a difficult time because of an electrical accident at the fertility clinic. However, during the fundraiser, masked protestors appear and the disturbance has townsfolk nervous. The lawyer representing both one of the protestors as well as the fertility clinic is found murdered and Daisy feels a need to help her new acquaintance who appears to e a prime suspect.

I really enjoy this series but I had a hard time with the connections between the Women's shelter project and the fertility clinic problems - were we just trying to get more suspects? Isn't there a better way? The two didn't seem to go together. But I still enjoyed visiting with Daisy and her family and friends.

Cozy mysteries and tea are two of my favourite things, so I was excited to settle into a few quiet evenings with this one. The premise for the mystery was interesting: a lawyer is murdered after taking on the case to defend a fertility clinic where staff error led to the failure of some in-vitro procedures. The daughter of one of Daisy's friends is a client of the clinic and her husband was caught on camera threatening the lawyer, so as much as Daisy tries to demur becoming involved in the investigation, she gets pulled in anyway. 

The novel was pretty good. It was a fairly easy read, the characters were likeable, and the reveal, when it came, took me by surprise. It's also the 7th book in the series, and while I've only read one of the other books, long-term readers will likely enjoy seeing the deep dives into the series characters' lives. For example, Daisy's older daughter Vi is dealing with motherhood, and going to mommy groups. Her younger daughter Jazzi is getting ready for college, leaving Daisy with a bit of pre-empty nest syndrome, which Daisy's boyfriend Jonas seems more than ready to fill. And there's also a sweet subplot about a family of three women (teenage girl, mother, and grandmother) trying to figure out a living arrangement that'll keep everyone happy, which I think may resonate with some readers dealing with a similar family situation. 

That being said, the book felt overstuffed with subplots for me, many of which didn't feel relevant to the mystery. I'm not sure if it's simply because I haven't gotten to know or care about many of these characters yet, but often, a plot thread would appear, but either not really go anywhere, or fail to catch my interest. For example, the novel begins with a fundraising event to build a homeless shelter in the town, which is crashed by protesters led by a young man named Eli who'd grown up Amish but chose to leave the community. Eli and his motivation for protesting became a huge part of Daisy's investigation, but the reveal felt anticlimactic, and while there was a scene where Daisy forces his girlfriend to confront some hard truths, we also never quite see the fallout between the couple. Worse, the homeless shelter is barely ever mentioned again. Perhaps it'll play a big role in a future book, but otherwise, it felt like a big buildup that didn't really go anywhere.

Some aspects of the case also didn't make sense. The clinic's plan for defending against lawsuits is to pin the blame on the clinic tech who'd made the error, but only the CEO and the lawyer knew who the tech was. When the lawyer is killed, the CEO flees the country and still refuses to reveal the tech's identity, for fear of his life, and much of Daisy's investigation focuses on finding out who this tech is. But if the whole defence strategy was to blame the procedure's failures on the tech, why would the CEO care so much about protecting their identity? On top of that, some of the clinic's clients apparently prefer to go after the tech rather than the clinic as a whole, but I don't understand why. Unless the staff person was super rich, wouldn't it be much more lucrative to sue the clinic? All the focus on this staff member's identity made me imagine all sorts of dramatic possibilities why they would have been protected by the CEO and targeted by clients, so the eventual reveal was anticlimactic. 

As well, a minor quibble, but beyond dozens of scenes with characters drinking orange pekoe tea, the special of the month from Daisy's tea garden, the tea in the title doesn't really play much of a part in the mystery. The murdered lawyer did happen to be drinking a cup with a bag from Daisy's tea garden when he died, but Daisy never seriously seems like a suspect, and from the droves of customers requesting the special, that detail turned out to be incidental at most. I was hoping for more. And to be honest, part of me kept wondering why orange pekoe was such a specialty at a tea garden. Isn't it one of the most common grades of black tea? I feel like most grocery store brands use orange pekoe. Wouldn't a tea shop spotlight a more unusual blend or a rarer type of tea? 

Still, overall, this is a pretty good mystery, and despite what I feel was a surplus of subplots and characters at times, I did become invested in a few of them. Like I said, I didn't guess the villain. I also enjoyed seeing Daisy and Jonas reflect on the future of their relationship after Jazzi leaves, and there's a super adorable subplot about Jonas getting a dog. 

+

Thank you to Kensington Books for an e-galley in exchange for an honest review.

Once again Daisy is embroiled in a new mystery. Set in Amish country this bucolic setting is perfect for that cozy small town feel. The suspects are varied and the plot is interesting. I enjoy reading along and trying to solve the mystery. Each and every time Karen Rose Smith delights! I would definitely pick up this read.

This one is definitely a good 5 stars for me. I love a good murder mystery where there are several characters that come together and all have something to hide and a motive. While our protagonist did not, she certainly had her hands full with a fundraiser to open a shelter in a place where others were not so happy about it. Daisy has a new friend and that friend has had some complications in her life with trying to conceive and having the fertility clinic mess up and shooting her dreams to the ground. Someone at the fundraiser does not want any of it in his town but who would kill to prevent something so good? This is one that you will have a hard time putting down.

Murder with Orange Pekoe Tea is the seventh installment in the A Daisy's Tea Garden Mystery series featuring tea shop co-owner Daisy Swanson and set in Amish County town of Willow Creek in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Daisy is serving up tea at a fundraiser for the new homeless shelter and people are having fun, enjoying tea and delicious treats when a crowd of protestors descends on the gathering. The police quickly break up the demonstration and discover the leader appears to be Eli Lapp, an Amish man who left his community at an early age at the encouragement of the local lawyer, Hiram.

Hiram is also defending the Hope Clinic, a fertility clinic that has experienced a mechanical failure and lost numerous eggs and embryos belonging to local couples hoping to have a baby. When Hiram turns up dead, the victim of a lethal insulin injection that appears to have been given after he was felled by a stun gun, nobody in the community is really surprised. Now it's just a matter of figuring out who in the town wanted the man dead and despite objections from her boyfriend Jonas, Daisy begins to investigate and quickly finds herself the next target.

A fast paced plot with the return of many series regulars. It's refreshing to see Daisy's relationships with her daughters, parents and Jonas continue to evolve. I was happy that a new pet arrives on the scene, and from a rescue! The author does a great job of combining the Amish and English communities and establishing meaningful relationships between two very different cultures.

I received an advanced copy of Murder with Orange Pekoe Tea from NetGalley via Kensington Publishing. While not required to write a review I am happy to offer my honest opinion.