Harlow Jane Cassidy has been back in Bliss, Texas, now long enough for Buttons and Bows, her dressmaking business to only thrive but start expanding. She was raised in Bliss, but left for New York for awhile to pursue her fashion design dreams. Family business called her back to Texas, and she found herself staying for a variety of reasons. One of the things currently keeping her in Bliss is her boyfriend Will, an architect.

She and Will have settled into a nice relationship, including Will's daughter, the high-school aged, Gracie. Similar to all the Cassidy women, Gracie has found out that she, too, has a charm that she must learn to both be at peace with and learn to harness and control. Thanks to Butch Cassidy, all of his female descendants have a certain charm to contend with. Since Gracie is distantly related to Harlow, Harlow has been helping her become comfortable with the charm and what it means for the rest of her life.

With homecoming season in full swing, Harlow is busy designing and creating dresses for many of the local young women. In addition to dresses, Harlow is also helping the young women with the traditional mums. These mums have been made annually and are decorated with trinkets that are meaningful to each person. Each mum takes awhile to make, but Harlow would hate for anyone to go without since they've been such a tradition for so long in Bliss. However, all of the homecoming festivities are overshadowed with grief when the father of Gracie's boyfriend is killed in a car accident. Worse, the police suspect that Gracie's boyfriend, Shane, is responsible for the death of his own father.

Shane's mother, Miss Reba, asks Harlow to investigate, knowing Harlow's past reputation for solving crimes. Harlow is reluctant to step in since the local police chief is now her step-father and she'd like to keep family peace -- not to mention that if she finds out that Shane actually was responsible, she knows it would break Gracie's heart. However, she commits to looking into things despite her misgivings. Her investigation turns up secrets that she never imagined, and as she keeps digging, she isn't sure how comfortable she is revealing the information she has discovered, let alone how this information helps narrow down suspects, rather than narrow down the list.

As usual, this was an excellent instalment in the Magical Dressmaking Mystery series. Harlow's sense of humour, intelligence, and compassion make her both a great amateur sleuth, as well as a wonderful role model for the high schoolers she works with during this book, including Gracie. The solution to the mystery was unexpected in the best of ways, and the same can be said of both the culprit and the revealing of who the culprit was. All in all, this remains one of my favourite series.