Title: Bed Of Roses
Series: Bouquet Of Lies
Author: DV Fischer
Publisher: Love N Books Press
Release Date: 9th December 2025
BLURB
I’m afraid of death.
Working at a funeral home will do that to you. And when my parents died, that fear became impossible to ignore. I needed out. A clean break. So I ran to a forgotten little town in Utah where no one knew my name.
The rental was cheap, a so-called fixer-upper. I didn’t mind the work. But no one warned me how bad it really was—shattered windows, Pepto-pink toilets, peeling yellow wallpaper. Oh, and the bloodstains on the floor.
Or that the last tenant vanished without a trace.
They also didn’t mention the man sent to do the repairs: brooding, intense, hot… and freshly released from prison.
Bed of Roses is the first book in a dark, atmospheric romance duet where secrets rot beneath the surface and desire blooms in the unlikeliest places. Perfect for fans of Haunting Adeline by H.D. Carlton, The Ritual by Shantel Tessier, and twisted slow-burn romances that flirt with danger—and don’t hold back.
REVIEW
I think the book cover fits the book amazingly well, the roses, rose petals and barbed wire, when you read the book you’ll know! I also think that the roses & rose petals could also represent Tegan and the barbed wire Cole really well too.
The main female character Tegan’s parents have recently died and her rather callous boss at the funeral home she works at made her plan and run their funeral just like she would any other. Filled with that trauma and her grief Tegan attends her last therapy session with Dr Lynn informing him she is leaving her job and leaving Chicago to start afresh in Utah. Dr Lynn strongly advises against this saying that the fear of death Tegan has and her grief are things that need facing and that she should face them in Chicago instead of running off. Tegan is adamant she is leaving, in fact she has sold almost all she owns to fund the journey and initial costs of relocating to a small house that’s in desperate need of renovation in Fairview. Tegan chose the property at Fairview because the rent was reduced on account of her doing the renovation work and the fact it’s close by to Mount Pleasant, and her new job in her best friend dating back to university days, Tori Townsend’s new shop. Tori heartily encouraged her friend to leave the sadness behind in Chicago and start anew in Fairview & Mount Pleasant. Tori is a realtor but also owns a small metaphysical store, if like me you were a little unsure exactly what that is, it’s a store that sells spiritual, mystical and holistic items.
When Tegan arrives at the small property in Fairview, she can see just from the outside it needs work, but she can also see the beauty in its surroundings and its potential. Having said that I think she is still a little shocked at the state of the inside of the property, she wasn’t expecting as many cobwebs and as much dust. It is abundantly clear to see no one has lived there for quite some time. Her landlord Derek Wordon, shows her around and after a bit of gentle encouragement from Tegan, he reveals that the property has not been inhabited since his brother Neil went missing a year ago. Derek also slips into the conversation that there will also be a handyman by the name of Cole that will be working on the property with her that he hadn’t mentioned before. Derek informs her that Cole has already sorted out the plumbing and electrics.
What Derek isn’t telling her is that Cole has recently gotten out of prison where he was sent at the age of seventeen for committing killing someone. No one else in the area want anything to do with Cole, but Derek has given him a job at his property and rents him a trailer to live in. It’s insinuated that Derek has only done these two things to infuriate his step brother Sherriff George Smith who hates Cole and is connected to why Cole went to prison.
At first there is tension between Cole and Tegan as its clear he is not keen on her being at the property, he would prefer to work alone. Tegan on the other hand doesn’t know what to make of Cole, she doesn’t know why he went to prison and just takes Dereks word that though Cole may be a bit rough around the edges he will do her no harm. The awkwardness around each other soon turns into a simmering passion for each other. What starts out as using each other to scratch the itch of not having had sex in a while soon turns into something so much more.
It soon becomes apparent that Tegan and Cole may both be haunted by their pasts but that Tegan is being haunted in the property they are renovating. Whilst Tegan is at the property, she first notices rose petals in random places, then when she is in the shower she sees the outline shadow of a large man. When she races around to see if Cole or anyone else is in the property with her, she glances in the mirror and sees the man standing in the rose bushes in the garden of the property near the pasture.
Characters I loved were of course Tegan and Cole, two haunted, broken people who come together awkwardly, with little to no expectations of each other, not even calling what they have a relationship but it blossoms into romance and more.I also liked the sassy, think before she speaks Tori and couldn’t becoming a little fond of Derek Wordon, who gave Cole a chance when no one else in the area would, not only employing him, but renting him somewhere to live too.
Scenes I loved and that had me feeling various feelings and emotions, were surprisingly the rather sinister ones where Tegan sees the shadowy figure and then receives the first random rose petals and then finally a bed of roses! The soft kind of mushy scenes I loved were, the hospital scene where Tori has sent for Cole is both amusing, heartfelt and a little bit of an eyes brimming one all rolled into one. The poignancy, and peacefulness of the scene when Tegan and Cole visit his sisters grave and Tegan educates Cole that people take flowers when they visit their loved one graves. I loved the way Tegan spoke to Cole’s sister and then to Neil Wordon whose body was finally recovered and buried in the cemetery.
I smirked at and saw the humour and irony in the scene where Derek Wordon parts with the reward money he had set up for anyone that could catch his brother Neil’s killer. He knows they deserve the money and have earnt it fair and square but it still stings Derek that he has to part with it!! I felt mixed emotions of amusement and suspense (though I’d guessed what was about to happen) reading the hospital scene where Tori has sent for Cole. It then had my eyes brimming a little, followed along with a sense of relief.
I should probably warn that there are quite a few steamy, raunchy, descriptively explicit scenes and a few intimacy act details that were kind of aggressive and rough. I would normally avoid books with them in like the plague but having read this author’s other books too and learning that such scenes are all part of a wider plot and not just there for the sake of it I decided to read this book and I’m glad I did.
My immediate thoughts upon finishing the book were Wow, what a journey this one takes you on. I have to admit I immediately loved bad boy Cole, especially when he warmed up to Tegan. Bed Of Roses was funny, sad, poignant, and it sure was....er...explicitly steamy!
Summing up Tegan and Cole both been through sad, traumatic things, no wonder they are both haunted by their pasts. When Tegan and Cole initially meet it’s because they are fixing up an old house but they end up fixing each other as well as catching a murderer and preventing that murderer from killing again.
I really loved Bed Of Roses and I can’t wait to read Field Of Lilies and discover what is in store for Tori and Killian. I’m hoping Tegan and Cole may feature in it too.
No comments:
Post a Comment