Elly in Bloom

Elly Jordan's marriage ended the day she found her husband with another woman. She left Georgia behind, moved to St. Louis, and poured everything she had into Posies, a boutique florist shop that caters weddings out of a converted carriage house. Between a chaotic assistant, a devoted best friend, and a steady stream of demanding brides, Elly has built a life that is messy, funny, and entirely her own.

Then an extravagant wedding contract lands in her lap, one that promises to change her business but drags her carefully buried history back into the light. Taking the job means facing the parts of her past she moved a thousand miles to escape.

Colleen Oakes's first novel is a warm, wry story about self-worth, female friendship, and the slow, unglamorous work of starting over. Elly is a curvy, sharp-tongued heroine who blooms not because a man arrives to save her, but because she finally decides she is worth the trouble.