by Cynthia Chow

Details at the end of this post on how to win a copy of Daisies for Innocence, and a link to purchase it where a portion goes to help support KRL.

It’s been a long year since her husband’s affair left Elliana Allbright humiliated and heartbroken in her hometown of Poppyville, California. Opening Scents & Nonsense, a customized perfume and aromatherapy store, has been instrumental in mending Ellie’s soul and finally allowing her to be happy again. Ellie loves nothing more than blending the perfect ingredients to soothe her customers’ souls and creating the exact fragrances guaranteed to fulfill their desires. It’s a gift passed down to her by her grandmother, whose journals document the lore, meanings, and benefits of fragrances and flowers. So when Ellie catches a strange whiff of lemon verbena, followed by a portentous message on her river rock feature, she knows it does not bode well.

The news that Josie Overland is dating Ellie’s ex-husband, Harris, is disconcerting, but only because she worries that her sensitive young employee will be hurt by Harris’s callous ways. It’s a fear that comes true in the direst way possible when Ellie discovers Josie stabbed to death in the store’s adjacent Enchanted Garden. Still as self-absorbed and passive-aggressive as when they were married, the self-pitying Harris wastes no time in casting suspicion towards Ellie. With Harris’s best friend leading the investigation, she must question Josie’s coworkers from the restaurant Ellie once co-owned and Harris continues to run. His budget-cutting changes have created turmoil at Roux Grill, and his own tumultuous final argument with Josie has him included among the suspects.

Assisted by her fellow Greenstockings, Poppyville businesswomen bonded together with a mission to support one another, Ellie uses her “scentual” talent to guide her toward who wanted the part-time bartender dead. A distraction arises in the form of Ritter Nelson, Ellie’s horticulturalist friend’s big brother and a high-school crush. Ritter may go a long way toward rebuilding her belief in the opposite sex, as long as Ellie doesn’t get herself arrested first.

Cattrell, who also authors the Magical Bakery Mystery series under the name Bailey Cates, once again casts a spell over readers with this charming mystery filled with likable characters and funny dialogue. Companions Dash the Corgi, and Nabokov the proprietary cat, complete the cast of this cozy debut, and they perfectly fit into Ellie’s 320-square-foot “tiny house” home. While the villain makes an early appearance, readers will return to this series for snarky BFF Astrid Moneypenny, intriguing scentual lore, and a genuinely compassionate and beguiling heroine.

To enter to win a copy of Daisies for Innocence, simply email KRL at krlcontests@gmail[dot]com by replacing the [dot] with a period, and with the subject line “daisy,” or comment on this article. A winner will be chosen January 23, 2016. U.S. residents only. If entering via email please include your mailing address, and if via comment please include your email address.

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You can use this link to order this book & a portion goes to help support KRL & an indie bookstore:

Daisies for Innocence

Cynthia Chow is the branch manager of Kaneohe Public Library on the island of Oahu. She balances a librarian lifestyle of cardigans and hair buns with a passion for motorcycle riding and regrettable tattoos (sorry, Mom).