I purchased this novel at Borders Bookstore for a dollar. What a great deal!! Aside from the great price tag for a brand spanking new book, I was attracted to this novel because I love butterflies, mystery novels and because I also happened to visit the Grand Canyon for the 1st time ever with my husband in September of this year for his birthday. So, how could I resist buying this novel?

Amazon Editorial Review:

"Set against the backdrop of the brooding and sensual canyon, a young woman's heart awakens and a decades-old mystery is solved

When Jane Merkle arrives in the tiny town of Flagstaff, Arizona, with her much older husband on a summer day in 1951, she hasn't any idea that her life is about to change forever. After all, one of Jane's favorite sayings is "When in Rome, remember that you're from St . Louis." But over a summer spent with her sister-in-law, Dotty, and Dotty's lepidopterist husband, Oliver, in a village perched on the rim of the Grand Canyon, Jane discovers her latent ability with a butterfly net and her attraction to a handsome young ranger. Meanwhile, an unidentified skeleton is found on the premises of one of the village's most cantankerous citizens. With the help-and hindrance-of a colorful cast of historical characters, including an eccentric botanist who moonlights as an amateur sleuth, the murder mystery that has haunted the town for years is solved.

In her latest novel, set in the quintessential landscape of the Southwest, Margaret Erhart weaves history, science, and an intimate knowledge of the human heart to tell a fast-paced tale."

Alright, I really wanted to really like The Butterflies of Grand Canyon, but I found this novel to be rather s-s-s-l-l-l-o-o-o-w-w-w, dull, and boring for the most part. I had originally started reading this novel in 2011, but set it aside for other more interesting books and did pick up again until recently.

Aside from being a slow novel overall, I did find Margaret Erhart's writing to be beautifully descriptive at times. Some of the scenes described made you feel like you were really there with characters.

As for the characters themselves, well let's just say that I found most of them annoying.

I also felt that the storyline didn't quite move in the direction I had anticipated it would... Meaning that I thought The Butterflies of Grand Canyon would be more of a mystery novel in the traditional sense, but instead this novel reads more like contemporary fiction with a mystery as a subplot.

Congratulations on winning the 2013 International Women's Day RABCK!! I hope you enjoy reading this book. Happy reading and releasing. :-)

From the woman's day rabck. Thank you!

rabck from feistypom2love; the book is quite good. Billed as a mystery, I think it read more like women's fiction. Four couples, plus some assorted townspeople to keep track of. There's a skeleton in a curmudgeon's garage, some skulking around by some of the partners - with someone else, and a cold case that might or might not be related to the skeleton.

This one will move along in the "E" author bookring

Traveling on in the "E" author bookring. Enjoy!