Rowena’s review of Blue Dahlia (The Garden Trilogy, Book 1) by Nora Roberts.
Hero: Logan Kitridge
Heroine: Stella Rothchild
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 – 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…
Man but it took me a long time to read this book.
I liked the book but for some reason it was a trial to get through. I think it had more to do with my slump that I seem to be in. I just can’t concentrate for very long on any book. But anyway back the review.
So we’ve got Stella Rothchild who moves her family to Tennessee to be closer to her father and step mother. She lands a great job at the In The Garden where her new boss, Roz Harper offers her and her boys rooms in her ginormous house so that she could keep her close since the job she was being hired for had crazy hours. When Stella saw the gardens she would be working in, she would have agreed to anything, so she accepted Roz’s hospitality and the job and her new journey began.
Enter Logan Kitridge.
Logan Kitridge is the landscaping manager guy who also works for Roz. He’s in charge of all of the landscaping and he’s tough as nails, irritable but oh so sexy. I heart Logan, seriously. He’s got this messiness about him that I absolutely love and well, he’s the hero so of course I hella loved him, it’s what I do. He is smitten with the uptight smart ass manager who won’t get off his ass about some damn invoices and inventory. They get closer and closer and soon he’s imagining his quiet house, filled with noise made by two young boys.
Stella’s boys.
I thought it was cute to read about Stella and Logan falling for each other. Stella got on my nerves throughout some of the book but by the end I wasn’t mad at her, she was just looking out for herself and her boys and I actually admired her for that. She put her boys first and that was cool.
What I really liked about this book was the friendship that blossomed between the three women in the book. I can’t wait to read the other books to read more about their friendship, more about the ghost in the house and I’m itching to read Harper’s book…man but he’s a dorky loveable character. I was intrigued.
The ghost part of the book was a whoa dang. Home girl has got some issues that’s for sure but still, this was an enjoyable read.
Grade: 3 out of 5
This book is available from Jove. You can buy it here or here in e-format.
I read this quite some time ago, and enjoyed it quite a bit. All of the characters were great and the ghost bit was interesting. couldn’t finish the trilogy though….it lost it’s magic for me.
Aww, that sucks. I enjoyed this book but not as much as I thought I would. It was too easy for me to put this down and read something else.