Cheryl R. (Spuddie) - 
Lisa P. (FamFatale) - In Gull Horbor Washington, the local bath and body store :Venus Envy" takes car of all th town's beauty needs with custom blended oils to relaxing spa services, and behind the counter is Persia Vanderbilt who not only has a nose for scents, but a nose for trouble as well, mixing scents and solving murder.
There's a new makeover maven in town, determined to put Venus Envy out of business. Nothing is out of bounds from stealing fragrance recipes to computer hacking and sabotaging supplies. Then one of her pushy saleswomen ends up dead and Persia begins snooping for evidence of wrongdoing. But can she find the goods before the killer decides to find her? Read the book and find out!
Ya know, I really put off reading this series even though when I found out that India Ink was the pen name for Yasemine Galenorn, I knew I had to read them. The series is very different from what I have read previously by this author, but I must admit...I love it! Although open to the paranormal, neither Persia nor her aunt have any claim yet to magick, just individual talents, honesty, integrity, and a deep devotion to one another.
In this book, we do see Auntie and Persia stage an argument in order to further their own investigation as to what is going on and who is behind it; but I really felt like not only was it done in a manner that was believable and not over the top, the pain even the pretense of such a thing happening brought to them was easily felt. Persia and Kyle find a little more peace in their relationship, and I'm not sure I'm altogether thrilled with the direction it appears to be taking. I guess I was maybe hoping for something else. (Nope, that's as close to a spoiler as I'm going on this one. hehe.)
I also immensely enjoyed the tongue in cheek humor/observation of the mindset of door to door sales products driven by women out to earn the company car. =) Don't worry, she doesn't say ANYTHING negative about Mary Kay, Avon, Tupperwar, or any of the like. She only uses the business model we are familiar with to establish the Belle mindset.
Put it on your must read list. This was fantastic. And, I must say...I didn't guess the killer this time. Kudos!
Persia has a lot on her plate besides a new man. Someone has stolen Persia's recipe book, and the computer has been wiped clean of all its files. Add a dash of a completely destroyed rose crop, mixed in with a dead body, and youve got a recipe for a good who-dun-it murder mystery in the palm of your hands.
I highly enjoyed this book and would reccomend it to others.
Ceylan G. (ceylang) - 
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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