Blue Dahlia (Garden Trilogy, Book One)

Nora Roberts is one of my favorite authors and this book hasn't changed my mind highly recommend

Stella Rothchild widowed at a young age with two boys to raise, uproots her life and moves to Tennessee to take a job managing a thriving nursery. Almost immediately, she feels at home at the home her employer Roz Harper provides her and her sons. As they bring in another lost soul Hayley into the fold, Stella feels a bond with the other two women, and feels like she belongs at Harper House, and couldn't be happier about her decision to move. When she meets landscape designer Logan Kitridge, sparks ignite, and as Stella finds herself drawn to Logan, things start to happen that she can't understand. It appears that the ghost living within the confines of Harper House doesn't like Stella and Logan exploring a relationship. While everyone admits to the ghost always being a presence, they have never suffered the ire that the ghost directs toward Stella. This is a very well written mystery, and the characters are wonderful. While we are introduced to the key six main characters, the supporting characters like David are priceless. Only pieces of the story of the Harper bride are disclosed, and the rest of the story promises to be exciting.

Stella Rothchild widowed at a young age with two boys to raise, uproots her life and moves to Tennessee to take a job managing a thriving nursery. Almost immediately, she feels at home at the home her employer Roz Harper provides her and her sons. As they bring in another lost soul Hayley into the fold, Stella feels a bond with the other two women, and feels like she belongs at Harper House, and couldn't be happier about her decision to move. When she meets landscape designer Logan Kitridge, sparks ignite, and as Stella finds herself drawn to Logan, things start to happen that she can't understand. It appears that the ghost living within the confines of Harper House doesn't like Stella and Logan exploring a relationship. While everyone admits to the ghost always being a presence, they have never suffered the ire that the ghost directs toward Stella. This is a very well written mystery, and the characters are wonderful. While we are introduced to the key six main characters, the supporting characters like David are priceless. Only pieces of the story of the Harper bride are disclosed, and the rest of the story promises to be exciting.

I enjoyed this book very much and looks forward to the next one coming out soon. This book has disappointed some people and I can see why -- it is slower-paced and less "zesty" or "sparkly" as most of NR's books are. I believe that is due more because of the situation for Stella in this book. A young mother in the prologue whose young husband dies tragically in a commuter plane accident. Her life has been so abruptly sent in another direction that I believe that NR's sympathies are with her and her boys and that she is thus approaching this on a softer and quieter level that may be somewhat boring for some readers. I am a mom of 6 and loved this new side of Nora. I enjoyed the interaction of the three women, Roz, Stella and Hayley, the gruff by warm-hearted characterization of Logan and the start of the characterizations of Roz's oldest son, Harper, and the college professor, Mitch. The ghost and the accompanying mystery to the characters (but not to the readers so much) is sure to be a continual denouement that I look forward to reading. If you enjoy and gentle story, I recommend this!

In Southfield, Michigan Stella Rothchild is making dinner when strangers arrived to tell her that her beloved husband Kevin died in a freak accident. Stunned, not long afterward, she leaves Michigan with her two young children for Memphis to get away from the memories. Two and a half years later in Memphis, Stella has become manager of a nursery on the grounds of the Harper Mansion. Owner Rosalind Harper persuades Stella to move into the large house with her two boys. The work is fine and Stella enjoys her spirited battles with landscaper Logan Kitridge, which slowly brings her back to life. As they begin to fall in love, the angry lunatic ghost The Harper Bride haunts the mansion as she has for over a century seeking children especially infants. Stella wants to know why in order to protect her offspring, but the truth goes back to 1892 to one of Roz's ancestors and his mistress. BLUE DAHLIA, the opening of Nora Roberts' paranormal trilogy is an exhilarating ghost story that grips the audience throughout the tale. Though Ms. Roberts writes more novels than rabbits breed, somehow she always makes her cast seem genuine regardless of the milieu she places them in. This tale is no different as the audience will appreciate the powerful secondary cast that for the most part reside at the Mansion; accept the realistic changes in Stella that keep the tale focused, and enable the audience to believe in ghosts. Harriet Klausner