A Middle-Aged Widow’s Awakening to Love and Cannabis

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Laurel Dewey’s Betty’s (Little Basement) Garden Raises Awareness Of Medical Marijuana
 
Laurel Dewey, the Colorado author best known for her Jane Perry mystery series, has written what her publisher is calling “the first mainstream novel to take a serious look at medical marijuana.”
Betty’s (Little Basement) Garden introduces a dynamic heroine — 58-year-old Betty Craven, elegant former beauty queen and recent widow– who finds herself getting involved with medical marijuana as well as with an intriguing and independent man.
Betty Craven is the epitome of elegance, class, and perfection. Her prize-winning garden is the envy of her neighbors; he impeccable manners and epicurean skills have made here the “hostess with the most-est.” But all is not what it seems.
The truth is that Betty’s idyllic world is quickly disintegrating. Widowed and left with a modest income, Betty’s gourmet chocolate shop in Colorado has gone belly up, leaving her floundering for purpose and meaning. Tied to a house in disrepair that she can’t sell, and mired in paralyzing grief for her dead son (lost to a drug overdose five years before), this patriotic former Texas beauty pageant queen comes to the shocking and debilitating conclusion that her entire life has been wasted.

That realization hits hard, and the rebellious spirit that Betty has silently kept under lock and key springs to the surface. When that happens, her staunchly conservative world changes drastically, causing Betty to question every belief and opinion she’s ever held. 

Toke of the Town editor Steve Elliott enjoys his copy of Betty’s (Little Basement) Garden

No matter how hard she tries, Betty Craven will never be the same again. 
 
Driven by memorable, colorful characters and packed with intrigue, humor, romantic tension, and enlightening facts about the healing properties of cannabis, Dewey’s novel gently raises awareness of this timely subject matter while drawing readers into the story. Betty gradually comes to question her long-held beliefs and principles, let down her facade, and rediscover her true and amazing self.                                
 
Betty’s (Little Basement) Garden keeps readers riveted and rooting for Betty through every startling twist. In Betty, Laurel Dewey has created a captivating activist for not only medical marijuana, but also for women’s liberation, especially in midlife and after crises. Betty’s (Little Basement) Garden is partly drama, partly romance, and thoroughly entertaining — and it has that all-important “ring of truth” to it, which makes for an effortless suspension of disbelief.
Laurel Dewey wrote this powerful novel partly based on her own experiences living in rural Colorado, and partly on her own extensive research and knowledge. While Jane Perry fans may not realize it, Laurel Dewey has written two books on plant medicine (Plant Power and The Humorous Herbalist), along with 10 booklets and hundreds of articles on alternative health.
She is also the author of a Silver Spur nominated Western novella and three novels in her Jane Perry suspense series — ProtectorRedemption, and Revelations — along with the Jane Perry novelettes An Unfinished Death and Promissory Payback and the story collection Unrevealed.
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Betty’s (Little Basement) GardenThe Story Plant; June 2012; $16.95 Paperback; ISBN-13: 9781611880380
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