Gardenias and a Grave Mistake

Diana Flowers Floriculture Mysteries Series, Book 1

By: Ruby Loren

Narrated by: Esther Wane

Flowers, favors, and a cake with a body in it...what a way to start a wedding!

Diana already regrets saying yes to her neighbor's ridiculous wedding flower demands, but when she discovers a body in the middle of the multi-tiered centerpiece...it's really taking the cake!

The man in the cake has been murdered. Diana suspects that one of her neighbors may be the killer. And she already knows that some of them are keeping skeletons in their closets. Sometimes literally.

Murder would send most people running for the hills, but Diana has a blossoming business to think about. She needs to get to the bottom of her neighborhood's dark past, or her new cut flower business could suffer a blight!

©2018 Ruby Loren (P)2019 Tantor

Difficult Listen

The narrator had a very difficult voice to listen to, very emotionless and too fast to understand well. Really took away the enjoyment of the book. Tried to slow it down, but 0.7 rate was too slow.

Fantastic cozy mystery!

I absolutely love this series. I decided to come back and write a larger review for the first book now that I have completed the whole series. They only get better! If you are a gardener or enjoy flowers at all you will absolutely love this sweet series. I recommend it to anyone whether you like gardening or not, but it's especially perfect if you enjoy spending time in the garden or are someone who really loves flowers. It's cleverly written the characters are fun and engaging and I really really like the reader. I can't believe that there are people who are complaining about the narration. It's one of the better narrated small series I have found. please check out this book and leave a good review if you have time so hopefully they will keep making this series! I can't wait for the next books to come out :-)

Neurodivergence for the win!

Becomes clearer in the series' future books, but love a good ADHD-and-Autistic duo!! IYKYK. If you're not one of us, this is still a very enjoyable book with a meandering but cosy storyline.

I did not expect to love this as much as I do

I really enjoyed this story. I thought the narrator did a great job and I loved her calming British voice. I thought the mystery was well thought out and well constructed. I only had it figured out towards the end of the book. and at the end the conclusions were done nicely as well. I really really liked the main character, I identified with her quite a bit. I like her logical way of thinking, probably coming from her scientific background. it makes a lot of the story not seem very far-fetched. I will definitely be reading the rest of this series.

Twists

This book was filled with some twists that interconnected the story in ways you didn’t suspect!