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Blue Dahlia (In the Garden, Book 1) by Nora Roberts
Book Summary InformationAuthor: Nora Roberts Edition: Mass Market Paperback Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published) Published: 2004-10 ISBN: 051513855X Number of pages: 384 Publisher: Jove
Book Reviews of Blue Dahlia (In the Garden, Book 1)Book Review: Not the Best of Its Trilogy, But Enjoyable Nevertheless Summary: 4 Stars
I've read three Nora Roberts trilogies now and In the Garden is beyond question my favorite. The foundation is formulaic (if you're familiar with Roberts you can guess how she sets the pairings up, for example), but the individual characters aren't carbon copies, or cardboard, or thin stereotypes. The ghost story that brings everyone together is interesting, written with some subtlety--and maybe most importantly, I could guess where everyone would end up in the end but I still wanted to see how they'd get there. _Blue Dahlia_ is my least favorite of the three books, but it sets up our leading pairs and the paranormal arc that connects them in a way that led me eagerly into the next story.
Stella Rothchild, the heroine, is a young woman seeking to make a new life for herself and her family in Memphis, Tennessee. I didn't always care for her. At times she came across as controlling and smug, and oh, I did want to see one of her schemes for improving the nursery fail. Just one! Just to show she was fallible and human rather than the Perfect Manager. This doesn't happen, alas. However, there's a lot I liked *about* Stella even when I wanted to throw a clipboard at the woman herself. Widowed just two years before the main story starts, her priority in life isn't to find herself a new man. She stumbles into romance with Logan Kittredge more or less by chance and her first husband isn't conveniently and immediately forgotten. Nora Roberts doesn't go the cheap route of devaluing that marriage; Logan and Stella love each other, but Stella loved Kevin at least as much, and if he hadn't died Stella would still be with him and be very happy. Stella never seems to doubt that, and I liked her better for it.
Also a treat are Roz Harper, Stella's boss, and Harper Ashby, Roz's son. These two remained favorites of mine throughout the trilogy. Roz's housekeeper David is a fun character too, a homosexual man who doesn't fall into the trap of being the stereotypical 'heroine's bestest gay friend.' David doesn't spend all his pages swishing around advising Stella on what shoes to wear, thank God. He's a real part of the family the various protagonists eventually find in each other. The ghost element stays mostly in the background for _Blue Dahlia_, playing second fiddle to Stella's personal story of establishing herself in Memphis and finding new love. Nonetheless, it's important, only to become moreso later--good news if you like paranormal plots, bad news if such things aren't to your taste.
Oddly enough, if the book falters on any point it's in the romance. Everything I said before is true and good, that Stella's relationship with Logan doesn't erase what she had with Kevin et al; the problem is... why are Stella and Logan together at all? Their personalities seem incompatible at the core. She's controlling, dictatorial, very much a manager, and he's laid-back, disorganized, and artistic. Rather than growing to appreciate one another, it's more like they were suddenly in love, wham, like that, when I was still trying to figure out why Stella stopped annoying the crap out of Logan despite not changing her behavior. Does 'we both like her kids' and 'yay hot sex' a true love make? Of the three books this one is definitely the weakest in this regard.
But it would be hard to follow the rest of the trilogy without reading _Blue Dahlia_ first, and since they're too fun to miss I can hardly keep from recommending this! I enjoyed the story enough on its own merits to recommend it anyway. All the side characters make up somewhat for the clashing leads; I didn't buy into Stella and Logan's love, but it's not one of those cases where that spoiled the book for me. For quick, pleasant romance reading, _Blue Dahlia_ is a fine choice.
Summary of Blue Dahlia (In the Garden, Book 1)Read the excerpt now! Against the backdrop of a house steeped in history and a thriving new gardening business, three women unearth the memories of the past and uncover a dangerous secret—finding in each other the courage to take chances and embrace the future. Stella has a passion for planning that keeps her from taking too many risks. But when she opens her heart to a new love, she discovers that she will fight to the death to protect what?s hers. 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—and into her new life at Harper House and In the Garden nursery. She isn?t intimidated by the house—nor its mistress, local legend Roz Harper. Despite a reputation for being difficult, Roz has been nothing but kind to Stella, offering her a comfortable new place to live and a challenging new job as manager of the flourishing nursery. As Stella settles comfortably into her new life, she finds a nurturing friendship with Roz and with expectant mother Hayley. And she discovers a fierce attraction with ruggedly handsome landscaper Logan Kitridge But someone isn?t happy about the budding romance?the Harper Bride. As the women dig into the history of Harper House, they discover that grief and rage have kept the Bride?s spirit alive long past her death. And now, she will do anything to destroy the passion that Logan and Stella share...
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