Pushing Up Bluebonnets by Leann Sweeney

This is a mystery--one of a series starring adoption PI and Houston heiress Abby Rose. And I've kind of decided not to review more than one book in a series, so this is the only Abby Rose book I'll write about here.

In this one, Abby is asked by small-town police chief Cooper Boyd to identify a young woman, an unknown victim of a murderous "accident".
Abby uses her particular brand of investigation to ferret out the secrets of several families. She doesn't foolishly put herself in the way of danger, but still scrapes through some adventures in the course of her searches. I like a sensible heroine! She's down-to-earth, smart, compassionate and human. I do like our Abby.

In fact, I really like this series. It was a happy discovery! I've been reading so many e-books lately and those are such a mixed bag. Self-publishing is exciting, certainly, but some books are awful, some are just "meh" and occasionally the reader finds a really good one. I might even say that I rarely find a really good one. I feel like I've been wading through a lot of disappointing books lately. It makes the better writers really stand out.

This one, however, is not an e-book, nor is it self-published. Leann Sweeney is well into her Abby Rose series, and they're pretty dang good. The writing is clever and the dialogue is natural, the stories are fresh, and the characters are very likeable. I also like the idea of an "adoption PI". What an interesting line of work that might be! It's nice too, when the police and our main character can work together. I think I like that better than when the private detective (or the amateur) and the "official" detectives are at odd. Mostly, anyway. Depends on the writer, I suppose.

Some negatives: there are some swear words. The ones in this particular book were minimal, but I read one in this series that contained a few really offensive words. Also, Abby has a boyfriend whom she sleeps with. There are no love scenes. I probably won't actively seek out more of this series, but I have enjoyed the ones I've read (lent to me by my sister-in-law, who I enjoy trading books with. Thanks, D!).

Sex: It's there, but not descriptive nor titillating.
Bad language: Some, but no F-bombs in this particular book.