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Bailey Cattrell

Autore di Daisies For Innocence

3 opere 218 membri 16 recensioni

Serie

Opere di Bailey Cattrell

Etichette

Informazioni generali

Altri nomi
McRae, Cricket
Sesso
female

Utenti

Recensioni

To have the ability to sense what scents make people peaceful would be a pretty cool skill. That its inherited from groovy Gamma even better. An enchanted garden, essential oil splendiferousness and a Corgi best friend made this light read a goodie.
 
Segnalato
Andy5185 | 7 altre recensioni | Jul 9, 2023 |
I had been looking forward to this book, because I was pretty impressed with the first one. Although I'm a fan of Cattrell's other work, I really fell for this series' backdrop of a woman who creates a beautiful garden and uses what she grows to distill her own essential oils, mixing custom perfumes in her small shop. I'm not overly interested in the perfume angle, but the gardening and the tiny house she lives in all sound, not to put too fine a point on it, enchanting.

This sophomore entry doesn't disappoint as far as the garden and the distilling goes, and the slight hint at paranormal gifts that was in the first one is expanded upon here, but there's a love triangle in the making, which is always disappointing. Luckily, the murder mystery was pretty good; the resolution managed to take me almost completely by surprise.

I'll definitely read a third one, if it's in the offing, and there's a recipe for lavender shortbread in the back of this one I'm itching to try.
… (altro)
 
Segnalato
murderbydeath | 4 altre recensioni | Feb 8, 2022 |
The series name implies a cutesy factor in these stories, but thankfully, there isn't. Even the brief mentions of fairy houses the MC has throughout the garden have a more mysterious, spooky edge to them.

While getting ready to open their town's historical museum, the Greenstockings (women's business organisation) finds a sealed up butter churn they believe is a time capsule. During the opening ceremony, they find a number of items from the gold rush days, including a rather sizeable nugget. Later the night, the local historian is murdered in the museum with all the items stolen - except for the nugget, which had been taken by the police to the bank.

While the mystery goes in unexpected and interesting directions, the murderer was telegraphed by the author from their first appearance, so the ending held no surprises for me. It didn't keep the story from being interesting though; the plant lore sprinkled throughout, and the solid female friendships, as well as the low key romance, all held my attention and kept me reading. There were some bits that didn't work so well here and there; parts that felt awkward, as if the editor added them to 'zest' the story up, but they were mercifully brief.

An enjoyable read by a reliable author; I always look forward to the new release notices for these books.

I read this one for the Murder Most Foul square in Halloween Bingo
… (altro)
 
Segnalato
murderbydeath | 2 altre recensioni | Jan 25, 2022 |
Bailey Cattrell is also Bailey Cates is also Cricket McRae. This is the third series she's written that I've read and if the first book is any indication of what's to come, it'll be the best yet.

The first series she wrote was as Cricket McRae and it was a Home Crafting series. I loved it; the MC was intelligent and independent and I found the different home crafts in each book fascinating. The second series, currently ongoing, is the Magical Bakeshop series she writes as Bailey Cates. It's cute, the magic is interesting and I enjoy them, but the MC is a bit more wide-eyed innocent and there's an air of immaturity (in the sense of age and experience).

In Daisies for Innocence the author has come full-circle while retaining a little of the magic of the Bakeshop series. Ellie's a little more world-weary, and she's coming out the other side of that time in life when you really figure out who you are. Gardening, the meaning of flowers, and aromatherapy are the backdrop and the subtle magic here is closer to magical realism than paranormal. She weaves interesting facts about flowers and crafting natural products into the narrative gracefully and while it's clear that the author believes in living light upon the Earth, she's never preachy about it.

The plot is well-structured and the mystery all comes together towards the end so there's no telegraphing the murderer early on (although in retrospect there was one scene...). My only real complaint about the book was the unrealistic animosity and lack of professionalism shown by one of the detectives and the over-compensation of the other. Both threw the rhythm of the book off a bit since neither were subtle; otherwise, this was an excellent start and I'm really looking forward to the next one.
… (altro)
½
 
Segnalato
murderbydeath | 7 altre recensioni | Jan 20, 2022 |

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Statistiche

Opere
3
Utenti
218
Popolarità
#102,474
Voto
3.8
Recensioni
16
ISBN
17

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