Palmetto Rose

Tipsy is hired to rid an old family home of a ghost where a young woman is struggling with mental health issues, as had her aunt before her. The ghost, however turns out to be quite the gentleman but Tipsy has an uneasy feeling about him while everyone else sings his charms.

With the young woman she’s helping being under psychiatric care, Tipsy runs into her ex husband’s new wife’s ex husband, Scott Brandt, who is the attending physician. Soon Tipsy is chasing ghosts and romance. Now the question is who can she really trust? Her gut that tells her the ghost isn’t what he seems and that Scott is the mean of her dreams, or everyone else who seems to think the ghost is kind and Scott is not for her? Only time will tell if Tipsy tips over and loses her paycheck and shot at romance or whether her gut has right all along.

This is the next to last book in this series and while that makes me sad, it makes for a lot of action and tying up of some story lines. Well written with a protagonist that is a strong single mother, artist, friend and clairvoyant, it’s going to be hard to say good bye to this series with the next book.

Palmetto Rose
by Stephanie Alexander

Tippy is one great Ghost Buster. I enjoyed this one very much. It a cozy, but full of life and ghost

This is the third installment of the TIpsy Collins stories and I have thoroughly enjoyed them all! I was saddened to learn that the fourth book will be the last in this series.

TIpsy is on the hunt for another ghost that is disturbing a family in their home - only to fnd out that there is actually two ghosts haunting the family. She's also stirring up a new romance with Scott Brandt, her ex-husband's new wife's ex-husband...try to keep up with that! I liked getting to see her personal life expand, with a new guy and her painting career taking off so grandly. And Henry, gosh I love him and his ways and was glad to see him make peace with his mother after so long.

Thank you to NetGalley, the author and publisher for a temporary, digital ARC in return for my review.

Great! Now i have to go back and read the other Tipsy Collins books. I love this woman. She;s so layered and unique. I never felt like I'd read her or her story before.

Tipsy is an artist. She's also a mother, a divorcee, a friend, and a clairvoyant. When someone comes to her with a job and offers her 100K to clear out a ghost Tipsy knows she's the woman for the job. With the help of her ghost friends and her abilities she navigates through the mystery at LeGrange House and finds out how it all comes together while still doing pick up and drop off for her kids and seeing her friends and exploring a potential romance with her kids stepmother's ex-husband.

I loved reading about these characters and Charleston is the perfect setting for this story. You can tell this book is also a love language to this beautiful city and now I need to book a trip back!

This is an interesting ghost story.
According to this book and also local lore, Charleston, especially Down Town, was a town with many ghosts. And Tipsy, our heroine, not only sees and converses with ghosts, but also speaks with the spirit of her departed Grandmother in her head, all the time. And no, she doesn’t have any mental issues, although truthfully, sometimes people in her situation, are thought to be either hallucinating or having mental breakdowns.
Tipsy, however, comes from a long line of women who can converse with ghosts, including her grandmother, who brought her up.
Ghosts come in many varieties it seems. Some that are tied to a particular venue and have no physical power, and others, like Henry who lives with Tipsy and is her firm friend, can not only affect physical objects, but can also, for short periods of time, move from one location to another.
Tipsy is an artists working part-time at her friend’s gallery and also, occasionally, acting as a ghost whisperer - helping them to move on to the next place. Not exorcism, but rather a way of working out their issues for remaining as a ghost and getting them to address them. Henry sometimes helps her with them.
And this is where the storyline really begins.
Tipsy is asked, for a large sum of money to help a young girl and to rid a house of a malevolent ghost. In the course of undertaking this commission she discovers a second ghost at the house, and a linked ghost at another house. The closed circle of up town Charleston and their interactions in their social life and marriages etc from the previous centuries have a strong influence in this linkage.
It is worth mentioning that at times there is some strong behaviour from the ghosts that can be a little scary but over the story a lot of past misdeeds are addressed and mysteries solved - for the ghosts.
Now, you may wonder where the Title of the book comes from. A Palmetto Rose is a fake flower create from sweetgrass and woven by the Gullah-Geechee people, who also make woven baskets from sweetgrass. No-one outside their community knows how to make them. They are not integral to the story but pop up every now and then as gifts etc.
The Gullah Geechee people are the descendants of West and Central Africans who were brought as slaves to North and South Carolina, Florida and Georgia to work on the plantations of rice, cotton and indigo. Sweetgrass is an aromatic herb native to North America and considered sacred by many indigenous peoples. Usually known as Hierochloe odorata the smoke from a small bunch is often used as a smudge for healing and meditation purposes. The scent is like vanilla in essence.
What did I think of this book?
This was my first story I had read by Stephanie Alexander but it is part of a series about Tipsy Collins and her ghost interactions. This being the 3rd in the series. However, I did not find that I had needed to read the previous 2 books as enough was explained that I could make sense of the previous occurrences in Tipsy’s life. Book 4 is planned to be the ending of the series and is, according to the author's blurb in the book, intended to have more of Henry’s story in it.

I enjoyed other books in this series and enjoyed this one, a solid mix of cozy mystery and paranormal.
Had fun and enjoyed the plot and the characters.
Recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher for this arc, all opinions are mine

This is the third installment in the Tipsy Collins series. Clairvoyant single mom Tipsy Collins spent the last year focused on her kids and her artistic endeavors. No dating. No fighting with her irascible ex-husband. No ghostly shenanigans. Life is drama free, but it feels stagnant, personally and professionally.

Enter a new supernatural mystery and a new beau, both replete with potential complications. After her teenage daughter ends up in the psychiatric ward, domineering retired executive Jillian Yates hires Tipsy to rid her historic Charleston mansion of spirits. The Victorian ghost-in-residence, Thomas Bonneau, is a charmer, but Tipsy senses something hiding behind his unusual amiability. In the meantime, her unexpected romance with psychiatrist Scott Brandt—her ex-in-law—stokes her former husband’s wrath.

I loved this story. I need to read the others in the series but this was the perfect introduction to the series. Loved the story and the characters.

Thank you to NetGalley for my ARC. This is my honest review.
This was a super cute read. I would highly recommend reading this series because it was easy to love. A ghost story that just makes you love ghosts. Read this book it’s a must! Mental health comes into play in this book and I like the way it was represented.

An artist that is up and coming. Messy home life with domineering ex- husband and still wants control of who she sees. AND she sees ghosts. Not just the one at her house. She sees others too. So she has a side hustle of clearing ghosts from houses. To help them leave she must find how and why they died. What a story. Interesting connects as she works through the mystery of death. I enjoyed the book.