Sleeping with Anemone

Okay, maybe Abby Knight shouldn't have chosen a home and garden show sponsored by Uniworld Food as the venue for her protest against the corporation's harmful farming practices. But being bodily removed from the event won't stop her campaign. Nor will a burning brick thrown through her flower shop's window. After she narrowly escapes being kidnapped three times, Abby calls in the big guns-her ex-Ranger boyfriend Marco and her friends and family. 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.

I simply adore this series. I've been reading it since the first book years ago. I love the way Abby has a knack to be at wrong place at the "wrong" time. And I love the way that Marco doesn't discourage her in finding the answers that she needs.

This time around she finds herself in trouble with a international company wanting to open a dairy venue in her neck of the woods. She isn't afraid to protest the opening and encourages other people to do so. But when a series of accidents involving her loved ones begin, she realizes that she may be in over her head. Not only does she have to deal with scary threats but she also has both her family and Marco's pressuring them to get married.

I enjoyed the story. I found Marco and Abby's extra time together a little tedious, there's only so much grouchiness I can take, and Abby was having a fine time behaving like a over grown whiner. I love that the author showed more of their families and their interaction, I got a kick out of Abby's mom's attempt to make jelly beans. The mystery itself was interesting, just when I thought I might have figured it out, something else would happened and throw me off.

There was a little bonus at the end of the book, an excerpt for the next book in the series, and that little excerpt really has me worried. And I have to wait until the fall to see what happens next!

Sleeping with Anemone by Kate Collins (3.5/5) Contemporary Mystery; Published: Signet (2/10); Series: # 9, A Flower Shop Mystery; Books 2010 (24);