Title: Blue Dahlia
Series: In the Garden Trilogy
Author: Nora Roberts
Read copy: eBook (Kindle)
Published: October 26, 2004
Publisher: Berkley
ASIN: B004IYJEJM
A Harper has always lived at Harper House, the centuries-old mansion just outside of Memphis. And for as long as anyone alive remembers, the ghostly Harper Bride has walked the halls, singing lullabies at night...
Trying to escape the ghosts of the past, young widow Stella Rothchild, along with her two energetic little boys, has moved back to her roots in southern Tennessee. She isn’t intimidated by Harper House—nor by its mistress. Despite a reputation for being difficult, Roz Harper has been nothing but kind to Stella, offering her a comfortable place to live and a challenging new job as manager of the flourishing In the Garden nursery.
As Stella settles comfortably into her new life, she finds a nurturing friendship with Roz and expectant mother Hayley and a fierce attraction to ruggedly handsome landscaper Logan Kitridge. He’s difficult but honest, brash but considerate—and undeniably sexy. And for a sensible woman like Stella, he may be just what she needs...
My rating:
Young, widowed Stella Rothchild moves back to her home state with her two children to be close to her father...and to change her life after her husband's death. She's a little OCD, so her managerial skills impress Roz Harper, owner of the In the Garden nursery, but she quickly clashes with Roz's landscape designer, laid-back, grumpy, downright rude, Logan Kitridge.
Living on the premises of the nursery, Stella and her two boys find themselves quickly at home, forging strong bonds with Roz, Roz's older son, Harper, their housekeeper, David, and Roz's distant cousin, heavily pregnant Hayley. Things even start warming up between Stella and Logan.
But there is also an otherworldly presence in the Harper House. Known only as the Harper Bride, the ghost of the sad, lullaby-singing young woman loves Stella's children...She's not so keen on Stella having "womanly" feelings toward Logan, though.
A wonderful first installment of the trilogy introduces us to the ghostly presence in the Harper House and the main characters of all three books, slowly bringing them together in their quest of finding out who the ghost is and just why she might be acting different toward Stella than she had in the past.
I loved Roz, the matriarch and the glue holding all the characters together, I loved her slightly distracted plant-genius of a son and his adorable crush on the spunky, outspoken knowledge-sponge that was Hayley, the comedy relief in the form of David, Roz's live-in housekeeper, Stella's two little rascals and their dog, the grumpy, rude, brutally honest Mr Hunky, Logan...I even liked Stella in all her OCD, anal glory. Sometimes.
It worked in the beginning, because it got the bickering started with Logan and got him to look at her more than once. I started to see all her organized planning and inability to deviate toward anything remotely spontaneous a rather annoying trait toward the end, though. It ruined the romance for me a little. I'm all for the man going that extra mile, giving a few pushes when they're needed, but this time she was the one doing the pushing the wrong direction. Thankfully, she saw the error of her ways just in time, and I know the whole conflict was written that way to give an added layer to the overall "ghostly" arc of the story.
Which was my favorite aspect of the story (beside the nursery and plant business). I'm as curious as to who the ghost is, though having read the prologue, that was rather obvious, but I want to know just what happened to the woman to turn her into a ghost and what really happened to her child.
I guess here's where the genealogist comes in and I must say I'm looking forward to Mitch tangling with Roz. That should be fun.
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