Simply Marvelous

by Shelby Lewis

romance; multicultural; fiction

Unknown Binding

Reviews

[Matt · Rating 2 out of 5]

My first “Arabesque” romance, this one also had a light, cozy mystery plot toward the end. Daisy is a small town florist staging her first flower show in Guthrie, OK; she is in a relationship with Kennth, a PI who visits from Wichita and who wants to make their relationship to the next level. She has, I guess we’d call them intimacy issues—she doesn’t want to surrender her independence, for a lot of reasons, and also wants to maintain control over her business, of which the flower show is the most visible component. There’s a lot of local color here, which I really appreciated: I felt like we were in Guthrie for a reason, and there’s some funny, over the top characters like Daisy’s mom, etc. The writing itself is a little odd, to me at least—an awful lot of internal description, most of which sounds like self-help, self-actualizing kind of talk. The primary conflict is Daisy’s need to maintain her autonomy and learn to trust. Then there are two murders at the flower show, which Kenneth needs to solve, with help from Daisy. It resolves itself well. The sex is pretty PG-rated, and a lot less graphic than I expected. There's nothing wrong with this book, but it plays it a little too safe to be memorable or make me want to read more from Lewis.

[Joyce Humphreys · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book.