Description (from cover):
‘Roanoke, Virginia, is home to some of the country’s most exquisite gardens, and it’s Camellia Harris’ job to promote them. But when a pint-sized beauty contest comes to town, someone decides to deliver a final judgment…
A beauty pageant for little girls–the Little Miss Begonia Pageant–is holding its event in Elmwood Park, one of Roanoke’s loveliest. Camellia is called in to help deal with the botanical details, the cute contestants, and their catty mothers. She soon realizes that the drama onstage is nothing compared to the judges’ row. There’s jealousy, betrayal, and a love triangle involving local newsman–and known lothario–Telly Stevens. And a mysterious saboteur is trying to stop the pageant from happening at all.
But the drama turns deadly when Stevens is murdered, poisoned by some sort of plant. With a full flower bed of potential suspects, Cam needs to dig through the evidence to uproot a killer with a lethal green thumb.’
My thoughts:
I wasn’t all that much impressed with this one. The mystery conclusion was quite on the lame side and so predictable. Not one that really amazed me. I enjoyed the first one in this series, but this one really fell flat for me. The whole murder at the beauty pageant theme seems to me to be overplayed and not really enjoyable. One of the suspects is going in through a pretty brutal separation involving kids and adultery and of course the estranged husband becomes a suspect.
I am not much into plants and gardening, but I first picked up this series because it was new and it seemed like something new to try. The first one was pretty good like I mentioned before, but this one really makes me wonder if this is a series that I want to continue with. The next book will really have to blow me away to make this a series that I continue reading. I hate when I don’t enjoy a series like I had hoped I would enjoy. Unfortunately, this happens sometimes and yet sometimes it is just the reader. There are plenty of books that I don’t really enjoy that others do. I love that fact about reading that different things appeal to different readers.
I like the main character Camellia Harris in this one and think that she is a well-rounded and good character. It is just the mystery and the gardening theme that doesn’t appeal to me so much. I am not much of a green-thumb and plants are just plants to me. I appreciate that some people enjoy the beauty of plants and the relaxation of gardening that it can bring to people. I just think that this book would appeal to people who enjoy that type of thing and gets more of the botanical references.
Overall Rating: 1.5
Title: The Begonia Bribe
Author: Alyse Carlson
Series: Garden Society Mystery #2
Publisher: Berkley
Publication Date: May 7, 2013
Pages: 304
Genre: Cozy Mystery
Get It: Amazon; Barnes & Noble
Even though this wasn’t a book that I enjoyed all that much, perhaps it appeals more to you. I have one copy to giveaway to a lucky reader. Good luck.
a Rafflecopter giveawayDisclaimer: This book was purchased by myself and I reviewed this book without compensation of any kind. All thoughts and opinions are solely mine.
Girl Lost In a Book 
I am a fan of cozy mysteries and I like the subject matter of this one. Thank you for the chance to win. griperang at embarqmail dot com
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I love gardening so I think i will like the book.Kit3247(at)aol(dot)com
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This book has been on my TBR list for some time. I love flower related cozies! The flower shop mystery series by Kate Collins is one of my favorite. I just love the covers of this and the first in the series, so they're ones I would like to read because of that. Thank you so much 🙂
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I like the flower connection to the books—I'm a gardener at heart.suefarrell.farrell@gmail.com
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Gardening and the mystery sounds interesting. thanks. saubleb(at)gmail(dot)com
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