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A Flower Shop Mystery #9
Sleeping With Anemone
I, Abby Knight, hometown florist, refuse to be cowed into giving up my stance against the unfair treatment of dairy animals. But why does gathering signatures for a petition suddenly make me a target for kidnapping -- and murder?
MILKING IT FOR ALL IT'S WORTH
Okay, maybe hometown florist Abby Knight shouldn't choose a home and garden show sponsored by Uniworld Food as the venue for her protest against the corporation's harmful farming practices. But being forced to leave the event won't stop her. Nor will a burning brick thrown through her shop window. After escaping three kidnapping attempts, Abby calls in her ex-Army Ranger boyfriend and her whole posse. And then the stakes are raised by murder.
Having Marco around 24-7 to protect Abby sheds new light on their relationship and gives her lots to ponder. Add to that pressure from both families for her and Marco to get hitched, and the possibility that the murder investigation may be on the wrong track, and Abby starts to think she'll soon be sleeping with anemones instead of arranging them.
MILKING IT FOR ALL IT'S WORTH
Okay, maybe hometown florist Abby Knight shouldn't choose a home and garden show sponsored by Uniworld Food as the venue for her protest against the corporation's harmful farming practices. But being forced to leave the event won't stop her. Nor will a burning brick thrown through her shop window. After escaping three kidnapping attempts, Abby calls in her ex-Army Ranger boyfriend and her whole posse. And then the stakes are raised by murder.
Having Marco around 24-7 to protect Abby sheds new light on their relationship and gives her lots to ponder. Add to that pressure from both families for her and Marco to get hitched, and the possibility that the murder investigation may be on the wrong track, and Abby starts to think she'll soon be sleeping with anemones instead of arranging them.
336 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published December 22, 2009
75 people are currently reading
1021 people want to read
About the author
Kate Collins
66 books951 followersIndiana native and former teacher Kate Collins is the author of the New York Times best-selling Flower Shop Mysteries, featuring feisty florist Abby Knight and the zany crew at Bloomers. Her books have made the New York Times Best-seller's list, Barnes & Noble mass bestsellers lists, the Independent Booksellers lists, and are available in large print editions in the U.S. and the UK.
3 of The Flower Shop Mysteries are on the Hallmark Mystery Movie channel!
Kate's historical romance novels and her children's books, JANEY WEBSTER, EB*, *EXPERIENCED BABYSITTER, and JASON JERVISS AT YOUR SERVICE, are available now as ebooks in all formats. Great reads for ages 9-14.
Kate graduated from Purdue University with a master's degree in education, taught elementary school for six years, but after the birth of her first child, gave up teaching to pursue a long-time dream of putting children’s stories to paper. After writing short humorous stories for children’s magazines and working part-time as a legal secretary, she sold her first historical romance novel in 1995, publishing seven historical romantic suspenses under the pen name Linda O’Brien before turning to her true love, mysteries.
3 of The Flower Shop Mysteries are on the Hallmark Mystery Movie channel!
Kate's historical romance novels and her children's books, JANEY WEBSTER, EB*, *EXPERIENCED BABYSITTER, and JASON JERVISS AT YOUR SERVICE, are available now as ebooks in all formats. Great reads for ages 9-14.
Kate graduated from Purdue University with a master's degree in education, taught elementary school for six years, but after the birth of her first child, gave up teaching to pursue a long-time dream of putting children’s stories to paper. After writing short humorous stories for children’s magazines and working part-time as a legal secretary, she sold her first historical romance novel in 1995, publishing seven historical romantic suspenses under the pen name Linda O’Brien before turning to her true love, mysteries.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 96 reviews
March 13, 2016
I pronounce myself delighted with this book I've just read, but read belatedly. This book felt right. It happened in the locale of Abby, the heroine. The sultry couple of Abby and Marco was restricted, although the guy's emphasis on waggling his eyebrow was distracting if not ridiculous. A few times I've wondered if I've judged previous books in the series unfairly. But then I remember some of them, and I really think I got things right then and I'm getting things right now. Read this book if you want to dabble in cozy mysteries. There aren't many that are better. Herein ends this review. The last of its kind this year.
May 12, 2024
3.25⭐
February 19, 2012
What an annoying heroine. She can’t commit and dithers about commitment with her boyfriend, ignores his professional advice (he owns a bar, has his own investigating service and is a former Army Ranger) and goes out on her own investigating and questioning people and being and all round pain the in the ass. Marco may have his faults (he can be a bit bossy at times; but Abby pays no attention other than getting a bit annoyed), but he’s a saint compared to her. Why he loves her and wants to marry her is beyond me. I think I’d cut my losses and find someone who wasn’t so impulsive and flighty.
The mystery itself was okay. Nice misdirection for awhile, but relatively quickly you catch on that huge corporate “suspect” Abby thinks is behind the kidnappings in her family (mistaken for her) and the harassment is really someone else and for some other reason entirely. The ending was fairly good, with her disabled former cop father defending himself and Abby against the killer. It was amusing in a sense, but Abby better get some sense soon or I won’t be able to tolerate this series.
The mystery itself was okay. Nice misdirection for awhile, but relatively quickly you catch on that huge corporate “suspect” Abby thinks is behind the kidnappings in her family (mistaken for her) and the harassment is really someone else and for some other reason entirely. The ending was fairly good, with her disabled former cop father defending himself and Abby against the killer. It was amusing in a sense, but Abby better get some sense soon or I won’t be able to tolerate this series.
April 21, 2010
OOOH! More murder and mayhem in the 9th book in this series. I finished this and was bummed out that I have to wait until October to read the next one.
I think this book hit all the right buttons for me. I loved how Abby was struggling with her thoughts on family and her relationship with Marco while sleuthing a mystery and trying to run her business. Sort of sounds like a "du!" but I think Cozy Mysteries often tend to compartmentalize things - so the characters seems a bit wooden and unreal. I feel like this book broke through that barrier and Abby seemed like more of a real person in this one than in any of the previous eight books.
I think this book hit all the right buttons for me. I loved how Abby was struggling with her thoughts on family and her relationship with Marco while sleuthing a mystery and trying to run her business. Sort of sounds like a "du!" but I think Cozy Mysteries often tend to compartmentalize things - so the characters seems a bit wooden and unreal. I feel like this book broke through that barrier and Abby seemed like more of a real person in this one than in any of the previous eight books.
May 19, 2019
This series is so much fun and I enjoy that the characters have stayed the same and are still so entertaining.
April 17, 2022
This is a clever, delightful mystery with a dash of romance. I greatly enjoyed the escape!
November 4, 2010
I just picked this book up not realizing it was part of a series. Its okay, nothing special. I found it hard to like the "heroine" of the story. Maybe if I had started out with book one I would have gottent oknow her and been more accepting of her attitude.
Read
July 28, 2012Much better than the Movie!
March 4, 2019
buy the entire series #FlowerShopMystery
Abby Knight decides to rent space at a Home and Garden venue little did she know that the sponsors are Uniworld Food whom she protests against for the inhumane use of cows for their dairy products. Upon her realization she attempts to voice her protests only to be physically removed from the venue. They don't know Abby that well do they for she stands for justice and will right the wrong!!! Only after this things get worse for her from a burning brick thrown into her flowershop window to narrowly escaping abduction. The thing is now anyone linked to her or who look like her also narrowly escape abduction. Then there's a murder and Abby and her boyfriend and her family all join in whether to help fight Uniworld and to solve a murder.
I am obsessed with #FlowershopMystery
Abby Knight decides to rent space at a Home and Garden venue little did she know that the sponsors are Uniworld Food whom she protests against for the inhumane use of cows for their dairy products. Upon her realization she attempts to voice her protests only to be physically removed from the venue. They don't know Abby that well do they for she stands for justice and will right the wrong!!! Only after this things get worse for her from a burning brick thrown into her flowershop window to narrowly escaping abduction. The thing is now anyone linked to her or who look like her also narrowly escape abduction. Then there's a murder and Abby and her boyfriend and her family all join in whether to help fight Uniworld and to solve a murder.
I am obsessed with #FlowershopMystery
August 29, 2018
While I didn't dislike this story, I also didn't like it as much as the others in the series. I found Marco to be bossy and demanding, and Abby was clearly using her best friend Nikki's boyfriend, Greg Morgan, for information on a case, and Abby's niece Tara was using Abby as an escort to a concert for her birthday. In short, the characters annoyed me more than they endeared me in this installment of the series.
December 23, 2022
I wasn’t too keen on this series in the beginning. I felt like Abby was arrogant and took ridiculous risks, but as the series has progressed she’s become a lot more laid back. She was overly critical of Marco in this book, when someone has tried 3 times to kidnap you I think you should be ok with being chaperoned. More than ok, you should be appreciative that someone cares enough about you to want to do that for you. But Abby doesn’t take it well. Overall good mystery and fun plot.
September 10, 2017
Love Abby and her friends and family. Her adventures always lead her into hot water, but somehow she gets out intact and solves the crime. This time she thinks the new supplier of dairy products is threatening her because she is protesting against the use of hormones in their cows. But it turns out the threat is far more dangerous. A delightful read.
December 11, 2017
Oh Lordy, not another mystery about should she or shouldn't she get together with this guy and we're 9 books in....this is in general becoming tedious. Yes, it's where there might be pleasant tension, but still....Ready the beginning 100 pages, last 50 and thought, Yup, that's enough of my life for this book. It's ok. It's just not quite good enough.
January 7, 2021
Somehow (lol) Abby is in the thick of a mystery that seems to involve not only her, but her cousin and niece as well in a case of mistaken identity. Threats, kidnappings, a break-in and a missing shipment of anemones lead everyone in circles, all while the Knight and Salvare families ratchet up the heat on Marco and Abby for a date- and answers!
March 27, 2024
DNF @ 25%
This was not for me, only got about a quarter of the way through. Though I love a good mystery, the characters in this story were all fairly flat and unlikeable and the plot became so ridiculous I couldn't finish it. I found the overly descriptive sections to be especially choppy and simplistic. We read this in my book club and all came to the same consensus unfortunately.
This was not for me, only got about a quarter of the way through. Though I love a good mystery, the characters in this story were all fairly flat and unlikeable and the plot became so ridiculous I couldn't finish it. I found the overly descriptive sections to be especially choppy and simplistic. We read this in my book club and all came to the same consensus unfortunately.
Read
January 20, 2025Always a struggle with series books, do I enjoy the ways in which the protagonist gets the mystery solved? And what about their relationship and auxiliary characters? There is a tension between moving things along and utilizing resources (such as police or the handsome PI boyfriend). I will read more in this series but can see that tension starting to get to a tipping point for me.
April 3, 2023
Abbey Knight is a favorite protagnist of mine. I enjoy the flower shop mystery series for the excellent plots, well plotted sleuths and enjoyable charcters. This is a good addition to the series and a do not miss read for fans of The Flower Shop Mysteries.
November 10, 2017
wasn't too into this one. the plot was kinda boring but the ending was wooow. 😉
August 14, 2019
interesting.
April 21, 2020
i like the characters in the book -- and the flower shop !! I bet this is going to be a fun series to read.
May 2, 2020
Funny tale of a hunkie unkie, a flower shop owner, her family, a kidnapping and a few dead bodies.
February 20, 2022
easy enjoyable escape
I like the whole series! Just spicy enough with a little humor, a little suspense and a happy ending! Perfect escape book…
I like the whole series! Just spicy enough with a little humor, a little suspense and a happy ending! Perfect escape book…
September 12, 2022
I had to re read some of the things to allow them to make sense..
March 2, 2023
Another good one. I'm sure enjoying this series.
March 10, 2023
This was a very complicated mystery and I loved all the twists and turns. I also love the main characters. This continues to be a great series.
April 10, 2023
Cow milk, flowers, berets, brooches, and mistaken identities. Marco and Abby get engaged.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 4, 2023
Missing broaches, missing flowers, lists to decide on marriage. This is a cute version of flower cozy.
June 12, 2023
Let's just say that the investigators completely misjudged the motive for a good chunk of the book. Wow, what a close call when they finally figured it out!
July 17, 2023
So much fun!
April 3, 2010
I am a huge fan of Kate Collins and her Flower Shop Mystery books. I love her characters, especially the heroine Abby Knight. Abby owns a flower shop after leaving her law degree and like all the best characters she is full of light and shade. She often finds herself in sticky situations because she wants to do the right thing – defend the defenceless and right wrongs – a true knight. If you were ever in trouble, you’d want Abby fighting in your corner!
Of course things don’t often turn out how they should and she needs to have someone to rescue her. This rescuer comes in the form of her hunky boyfriend, Marco. A former Army Ranger who now owns the bar down from her flower shop, he loves the way that she always wants to do the right thing – even if it causes more than one headache for him!
The book starts out with Abby on one of her crusades, protesting against the cruel farming practices of Uniworld Food and managing to tick off big wigs at every turn. She is exhibiting at a home and garden show where she is also collecting signatures for her petition. The only problem is that Uniworld is sponsoring the event and soon security is called to escort her out. unfortunately she has other problems in the form of her mother’s sweets that she was giving out as a promotion (her Mum has great ideas, but often ends up with not such a great product) which lead to a dramatic and hilarious show down that had me laughing out loud.
When she returns to the shop, a burning brick is thrown through the window and it turns out that it wasn’t just the security at the garden show that were ticked off with her. Things escalated when her truly irritating cousin Jillian and her teenage niece were kidnapped. This final kidnapping and the body linked to it was the final straw and Marco takes it upon himself to be a permanent body guard. Unfortunately such close quarters makes her question whether or not they should marry. Poor guy, he is really put through the ringer keeping an eye on Abby. She is obviously feeling suffocated and it is her nature to rail against unnecessary rules, so she decides that the only way she can get back her freedom is to sort everything out and get to the bottom of the kidnapping, which means finding ways to escape Marco.
In true Kate Collins style, there are several intertwining plot lines. One minute you think that you have an idea of what is going on, only for it to be turned on its head. In the end, you never see the whole picture until Abby does – which also means you go along the same dead ends too.
As well as the scene in the home and garden show, my favourite part of the book (which also had me in floods of tears) was the final scene with Abby and her Dad. You can see where she gets her strength from and it was a beautiful moment between father and daughter. Throughout the series, you get the feeling that Abby’s tendency to search for the truth is as a result of her Dad’s accident (a former policeman, shot in the line of duty and now in a wheelchair) and that she often mourns that with the accident he also lost the part of him that was the policeman. This is proved wrong with the final showdown. Even though he is in a wheelchair, her Dad still has a heart and head of a policeman, because of this I think that she has a growing realisation of who her Dad is.
I wish this book lasted a little longer, even though I tried to eek it out I still finished it within a day, but I am so excited about the next one. There was comment in passing about her Dad using crutches to get to Marco’s apartment which makes me wonder if he is getting ready to walk Abby down the aisle! Of course the final page with the checklist was a brilliant way to end the book, with just enough romance to warm your heart.
Visit http://www.katecollinsbooks.com/ to see a plan of the flower shop and other snippets of information that aren’t in the book. Abby also has her own Facebook page too – I love these extras, with the internet it seems a fairly simple way of giving fans of the books a little added extra.
Of course things don’t often turn out how they should and she needs to have someone to rescue her. This rescuer comes in the form of her hunky boyfriend, Marco. A former Army Ranger who now owns the bar down from her flower shop, he loves the way that she always wants to do the right thing – even if it causes more than one headache for him!
The book starts out with Abby on one of her crusades, protesting against the cruel farming practices of Uniworld Food and managing to tick off big wigs at every turn. She is exhibiting at a home and garden show where she is also collecting signatures for her petition. The only problem is that Uniworld is sponsoring the event and soon security is called to escort her out. unfortunately she has other problems in the form of her mother’s sweets that she was giving out as a promotion (her Mum has great ideas, but often ends up with not such a great product) which lead to a dramatic and hilarious show down that had me laughing out loud.
When she returns to the shop, a burning brick is thrown through the window and it turns out that it wasn’t just the security at the garden show that were ticked off with her. Things escalated when her truly irritating cousin Jillian and her teenage niece were kidnapped. This final kidnapping and the body linked to it was the final straw and Marco takes it upon himself to be a permanent body guard. Unfortunately such close quarters makes her question whether or not they should marry. Poor guy, he is really put through the ringer keeping an eye on Abby. She is obviously feeling suffocated and it is her nature to rail against unnecessary rules, so she decides that the only way she can get back her freedom is to sort everything out and get to the bottom of the kidnapping, which means finding ways to escape Marco.
In true Kate Collins style, there are several intertwining plot lines. One minute you think that you have an idea of what is going on, only for it to be turned on its head. In the end, you never see the whole picture until Abby does – which also means you go along the same dead ends too.
As well as the scene in the home and garden show, my favourite part of the book (which also had me in floods of tears) was the final scene with Abby and her Dad. You can see where she gets her strength from and it was a beautiful moment between father and daughter. Throughout the series, you get the feeling that Abby’s tendency to search for the truth is as a result of her Dad’s accident (a former policeman, shot in the line of duty and now in a wheelchair) and that she often mourns that with the accident he also lost the part of him that was the policeman. This is proved wrong with the final showdown. Even though he is in a wheelchair, her Dad still has a heart and head of a policeman, because of this I think that she has a growing realisation of who her Dad is.
I wish this book lasted a little longer, even though I tried to eek it out I still finished it within a day, but I am so excited about the next one. There was comment in passing about her Dad using crutches to get to Marco’s apartment which makes me wonder if he is getting ready to walk Abby down the aisle! Of course the final page with the checklist was a brilliant way to end the book, with just enough romance to warm your heart.
Visit http://www.katecollinsbooks.com/ to see a plan of the flower shop and other snippets of information that aren’t in the book. Abby also has her own Facebook page too – I love these extras, with the internet it seems a fairly simple way of giving fans of the books a little added extra.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 96 reviews