Below is the complete list of Karen Rose Smith’s Daisy’s Tea Garden Mysteries books in order. For this series, the chronological reading order is the same as the order of publication.
Publication Order of Daisy’s Tea Garden Mysteries Books
About Daisy’s Tea Garden Mysteries
Karen Rose Smith’s Daisy’s Tea Garden Mysteries is a ten-book cozy mystery series set in Willow Creek, a fictional tourist town in Pennsylvania’s Amish country. The novels follow widowed mother Daisy Swanson, who returns to Pennsylvania with her daughters after her husband’s death and opens Daisy’s Tea Garden with her Aunt Iris. What begins as an attempt to rebuild family life and create a successful local business soon places Daisy in the middle of murders involving customers, friends, employees, neighboring businesses, and people whose secrets have been simmering much longer than her tea.
Murder with Lemon Tea Cakes establishes Daisy’s new life in Willow Creek. The tea garden occupies an old Victorian building and serves soups, baked goods, specialty teas, and catered events to locals and visitors. When Iris becomes a suspect after the man she has been dating is murdered, Daisy begins asking questions to protect her aunt. The investigation also brings her closer to Jonas Groft, a former Philadelphia detective who now owns a woodworking business nearby.
Jonas becomes an important continuing character rather than a temporary romantic interest. Daisy initially guards the independence she has built since becoming a widow, while Jonas’s investigative background and protective instincts sometimes clash with her determination to handle problems herself. Their relationship develops gradually through the series, eventually moving toward engagement and marriage as both become increasingly integrated into each other’s families and daily lives.
Daisy’s daughters provide another major source of continuity. Her older daughter, Violet, begins moving toward adult independence, while younger daughter Jasmine, known as Jazzi, struggles with questions surrounding her adoption and biological family. Their changing lives prevent Daisy from remaining frozen in the role she occupies at the series’ beginning. She is simultaneously a business owner, amateur investigator, daughter, niece, mother, friend, and woman deciding whether she is ready for a new relationship.
The tea garden itself gives the mysteries much of their character. Seasonal teas, baked goods, catering events, community celebrations, and special menus bring Daisy into contact with a broad cross-section of Willow Creek. Murders emerge around antiques, schools, local businesses, charitable organizations, covered bridges, animal rescue, and long-unsolved crimes. Amish residents are part of the surrounding community without every mystery being built around Amish life.
Aunt Iris remains closely involved in the business, while Daisy’s longtime friend Tessa Miller works as the tea garden’s kitchen manager and pursues her own artistic interests. These recurring relationships create the comfortable ensemble expected from a cozy mystery while also changing noticeably over time. Weddings, career decisions, family discoveries, new pets, and romantic commitments continue between cases rather than resetting after each murderer is identified.
Smith also incorporates food naturally into the series. Daisy enjoys developing recipes, and the published novels include recipes connected with the tea garden’s offerings. Tea is similarly varied rather than functioning as a generic theme, with individual installments drawing attention to blends such as oolong, Darjeeling, Earl Grey, orange pekoe, and chocolate tea.
By Murder with Chocolate Tea, the tenth novel, Daisy is preparing to marry Jonas while becoming involved in a contemporary murder connected to a decades-old cold case. Her family story continues beyond the original series through the Tomes & Tea Mysteries, which follow Jazzi after she moves to Belltower Landing, New York, and opens a combined bookstore and tea bar.
Publication order is the most rewarding way to experience Daisy’s Tea Garden. The murders are largely self-contained, but Daisy’s romance with Jonas, her daughters’ growth, family relationships, and the changing tea garden accumulate steadily, turning Willow Creek into a community whose everyday life matters as much as whichever mystery happens to be brewing.