The Garden Plot by Marty Wingate + a Giveaway

Hi, everyone! Today I'm part of the TLC book tour for Marty Wingate's The Garden Plot. There's also a tour wide giveaway with this one so do be sure to read through to the bottom to enter.

Pru Parke is in a precarious position. After interning at one of England's famed gardening spots and honing her skills to compete with her UK counterparts, she's given herself a year to find a position that will allow her to stay in England. With her year almost up and no solid job in sight, she's afraid it might be time to throw in the towel. In the meantime, she's keeping her hopes up and taking any garden job she can find, which is why she takes on the job at the Wilson's. A garden grown rampant and in need of an expert hand is a dream come true for Pru. But when she discovers a body in the Wilson's garden shed, that dream turns quickly into a nightmare. 

Generally, but admittedly with a few exceptions, you've probably noticed that cozy mysteries aren't my cup of tea. When I heard about Wingate's debut, though, I was more than a little curious. A Texas ex-pat and a garden theme set in England? I thought I'd give it a try - and I'm certainly glad that I did!

The Garden Plot is cute - bordering on being just a bit too much so for my taste but it's saved by Wingate's obvious knowledge of England and gardens as well as the added Roman history. Because a big part of the plot hinges on the possible discovery of a Roman artifact, this element is really very interesting.

I liked Pru and her various friends and acquaintances. There's just enough quirkiness to balance out the lightness for a jaded reader like me (I'm really not that bad, I just have a tendency to gravitate towards darker mysteries in general). And it's set in the UK - I'm a total sucker for that anyway :)

It was fortunate too that this one came up in my reading schedule when it did because I was suffering a massive book hangover thanks to Quebert and the best way to overcome that issue seems to be reading something completely different. With the exception of the murder, you kind of can't get much more different than Wingate's first Potting Shed mystery. There is a second book in the works and I will be looking forward to following more of Pru's adventures!

(As an aside, I've so far really enjoyed each of the titles I've reviewed from Random House's Alibi imprint. If you haven't yet checked them out, they do have something to satisfy every flavor craving in the genre!)

And now for the giveaway. To enter simply fill out the Rafflecopter below. Time is short so don't wait! As I mentioned this is a tour wide giveaway so if you've already entered on another stop there's no need to re enter here.

a Rafflecopter giveaway


To see more stops on the tour be sure to check out the TLC book tour here. And for more on Marty Wingate and her books, you can visit her website here.