Second in the Persia Vanderbilt Bath and Body cozy mysteries set on an island in Puget Sound. Persia and her aunt Florence have suddenly been having fierce competition from Bebe's Botique, as the ruthless owner, Bebe Wilcox, sets out to close down Venus Envy and make a real name for herself in the scent and cosmetic business. She'll stop at nothing, pulling all sorts of dirty tricks and starting false, malicious rumors about Persia and Florence's shop and products. When someone sprays insecticide all over their organic rose gardens, Persia and Florence stage a falling out so that Persia can accept a job offer she's received from Bebe to infiltrate their company and find evidence about the dirty dealings. When one of Bebe's top sales associates ends up dead, they wonder about how sensible their plan is. Still, with Persia on the suspect list, they know they need some evidence to save their struggling company, so they follow through with the plan. This was an okay, light read...I didn't like it as well as the first one and judging from the ending of this book, the next one will be taking a turn for the more romancey side. Ugh! Some of what took place just seemed a bit too fantastical and unrealistic and there seemed to be more focus on clothes, makeup, etc. in this one--which I suppose is only natural given the subject matter! *grin* But I think I may just stop here in the series and save myself some future agony as the whole 'heroine can't decide which man she wants to pick from the smorgasbord available to her' thing just turns me right off.

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Second book in the Bed & Bath series and as well done as the first. I'm really enjoying this series and like it even better than the Chintz & China mysteries she writes under her real name (Yasmine Galenorn). Great characters, lots of fun.

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Enjoyable cozy. Persia is a bit more edgy than the characters in other cozies that I've read. She's physically very strong and active, with a huge appetite. Along with murder solving there's a lot of food talk going on.

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First book I've read by this author - would definitely look for others by her.

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Very good! She has excellent characters development.

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A Blush With Death by India Ink
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A Blush with Death is the second book in the Bath and Body Mystery series by India Ink. I read the first a long time ago, then found the second and third at a used book store the other day, so now I can move on.

Venus Envy is a bath and body shop in Gull Harbor, WA. Auntie owns the shop and employes her niece Persia Vanderbilt as her custom fragrance blender.
Persia has a sensitive sense of smell that allows her to pick up on subtle undertones in a fragrance. This works well in her Aunt's shop where she custom blends fragrances for her customers. but also for the line of body products, lotions, oils, bath salts and such that they sell at Venus Envy.

Things were going great until Bebe Wilcox moved to town and opened a competing shop. The problem with Bebe is that she doesn't want to play by the rules, she wants to be top dog right now, and the only way to do that is to run Venus Envy out of business, which she works hard at by spreading rumors about the products at Venus Envy, that the are inferior and shoty materials were used to make them, which is not true of the Venus Envy products, but is true of Bebe's products. Then the roses are sabotaged. Auntie and Persia grow their own roses, and in fact went to all the trouble to make sure that they were certified as organic, but the gardner finds pesticide residue on the roses, so he rushes samples to a friend at the University lab and he gets results back quickly and to Auntie and Persia, someone deliberately put a strong pesticide, and a large amount on the roses. In fact so much that all the roses will have to be dug out, and at least three feet of soil under them and all replace, but it will take two to three years before the roses are mature enough to harvest their petals for the Rose Water that is a hugh seller at Venus Envy!

There isn't enough proof to get police chief, Kyle to do anything, so Auntie and Persia take matters into their own hands by staging a public argument and Persia moving out for show, then getting a job at Bebe's to snoop!

This is just an awesome book. There are recipes in the book for a number of the oils that are talked about in the story. It's a well-written book and the characters are real and easy to relate to in some ways, and different than people you might know in your own life, but at the same time you can relate to them. I really enjoyed the book, and the concept of the upscale Bath and Body shop in a small town. It's a fun read.

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Great,light weekend read! I love all of Yasmine Galenorn's aka India Ink books that I have read. She develops wonderful characters that you feel you'd know them if you ran into them on the street.

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I am very fond of all of Yasmine Galenorn's books. The Bath and Body series has the most sensual recipes attached.

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