Blue Dahlia - Nora Roberts

I'd never heard of Nora Roberts when I picked up this book a few weeks ago. I read the back and it sounded cool so I thought I would give it a go. And as it turns out, it's really really good! So good I couldn't put it down... even during my weekend away in the New Forest. The characters and the story-lines are great. The only downside is that it ended really suddenly. There I was reading away, with still about 10 pages left in the book to go, turned the page thinking that a new chapter was about to start and... nothing... just the first chapter from the next book in the series :( Bummer. It does end well, but it just takes you by surprise a bit. Roberts is so good at engaging you in the characters and the plot that you feel like you're in the story and in their lives and you don't expect it to end.

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Still, Blue Dahlia is the first in a trilogy named 'In the Garden' and from what I gather each follows the story of one of the three main women characters. Black Rose will follow Roz's story, Red Lily will follow Hayley's - with each intertwining the lives of the other two so that each story will continue. It's a good idea... and would be an even greater idea if I already had Black Rose sitting on my shelf waiting to be read, damn it, coz then I wouldn't have to wait! I suppose I am a little impatient but it's because I enjoyed it so much. I really want to know what happens to them all. Roberts is very good a leaving lots of tid-bits dangling in front of you... which I suppose is a clever idea to get you hooked and invested in the characters and buy the other books. Well, it certainly works!
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Anyway... Blue Dahlia follows the story of Stella, the other of the three women who have become friends in this trilogy. It's a good job I read this one first otherwise it would have been weird, and even more annoying, lol. It tells how the three women came to be in each others company. Stella Rothchild has the perfect life; two kids, a job she loves and a lovely husband. But when tragedy hits she moves back home to her roots in Memphis where she takes up a job as the manager of a garden centre owned by Roz Harper. Stella by nature is organised and efficient and plans everything, and so her world is thrown into disarray when she meets sexy landscape gardener Logan Kitridge who seems to be her polar opposite. He is easy-going and chilled out, takes life as it comes and hates filling in forms. But eventually the attraction grows between them and they find that although they are both very different, they are also the same and looking for the same things :) However, one person in Roz's house (where Stella and her children live) is not happy with the union: The Harper Bride, the ghost that has haunted Harper House for years. She makes her presence known as she watches over the children of the house and does what she thinks is best to protect them.
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So it's a kind of ghost story too and not just a mushy romantic novel. It is a bit lovey dovey in places with much talk about babies and relationships, but it's what you'd expect from a women's novel - lots of emotion! But it's hard to not enjoy it solely because of that as Roberts' art of storytelling and the emotion she puts in is what brings them all to life. And she does a grand job. The dialogue is easy and brilliantly funny in places... you'll find it hard not to smile as you read. The setting of the garden centre and the nature of the business of growing plants also has it's place in cleverly mirroring the lives of the characters - they all grow together, develop and go through cycles also.

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But like I say, the book does end pretty abruptly - and leaves lots of questions that need answers. Although Logan and Stella's relationship, which is the main crux of this book, is pretty much tied up okay, we still want to know the details of what happens there after - because we need to know! I'm sure the question of whether Hayley and Harper (Roz's son) get it on will be answered in Red Lily; and whether Roz's shame at having lost her pride to her second marriage will abate will come in Black Rose; and although we know who the Harper Bride is in Blue Dahlia, we don't know why she went mad, why she acted so ferociously against Stella and Logan, or how she died and came to haunt Harper House so I assume that will all be addressed in both the other books also. I am just impatient I guess... I'm so invested in these characters I'm going off to eBay to see if I can snatch a deal... :)

Haunted - James Herbert

Having never read a James Herbert before I didn't really know what to expect other than what the blurb on the author gives away at the front - Britain's No 1 writer of chiller fiction apparently. Cool. I chose it as my next read pretty much because it's a nice skinny little book of 228 pages as opposed to the mammoth 700 odd pages of my last read.

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The story follows David Ash, a 'ghost-hunter' who works for a paranormal research institute in London. He receives a letter inviting him to Edbrook House to investigate the paranormal activity being witnessed by it's residents. Ash doesn't believe in ghosts, and spends most of his time disproving their presence... something which seems to be fairly common in his line of work. Although, the reason for his non-belief lies locked in his past... And so he goes to Edbrook, with all his wizzy gadgets and ghost-disproving equipment fully convinced that he'll find the true source of reality creating the 'ghosts' within. But nothing can prepare him for the horrifying secret he will unearth within it's walls.... mwah ha ha ha!!

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And so it was a nice little weekend read... like a weekend break away in the country where you can just chill out (no pun intended!) rather than a full blown two week jaunt to some far off destination to see all the sights. That's all this book is really... just a nice easy read... no meaningful subtext, no hidden messages... no major character assassinations. It's good. Not all books need to have deep and meaningful metaphors hidden within or leave you with a sense of awe. But that's not to say it doesn't have substance - it does for sure, and I can see why Herbert's books are so popular. However, since the book was written in the 80's you have to make allowances for the passing of time and some parts of the book couldn't help but raise an unintentional smile from me. Such as the part when Ash orders a pint of bitter and a shot of vodka from the country bar, hands over two pound coins and receives change; and the way he only needs a single 10p piece (you remember the old skool ones?) to make a non-local call back to London. Ah, those were the days.... lol. But it's worth a read for sure if you've a weekend free. I wouldn't say it chills you to the core with it's spookiness though so no need to be scared :)

Labyrinth - Kate Mosse

I really enjoyed this book. Kate Mosse (with an E, not the cocaine snorting supermodel...) is a fantastic writer. It's fast paced, sympathetic to it's subject and really engaging to read. I'd describe the story as a cross between Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code and Mitch Albolm's The Five People You Meet In Heaven. Labyrinth a really really good book but unlike The Da Vinci Code, it's not as in your face with all that irrelevant descriptive rebellious twaddle that got a bit irritating by the end of Brown's story (as much as I enjoyed the plot). I'm probably not going to even begin doing it justice in the review I write here.

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The story of Labyrinth flits between two main characters; Alice Tanner in the 21st century, and Alais Du Mas in the 13th century. Whilst on an archaeological dig in the Sabarthes Mountains, Alice discovers a hidden chamber with a strange labyrinth symbol carved into the wall with two skeleton remains in a shallow grave. And so begins the puzzle unraveling in the 21st century side of the story... murder, deception, cult rituals, kidnappings and discovering the truth of the past.

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Meanwhile in the 13th Century... 17 year old Alais resides in the Cite of Carcassona with her husband Guilhem, her sister Oriane and her father Bertrand Pelletier, Intendent to Viscount Trencaval. This part of the story is set just before the crusade war as the North invade the South in an attempt to eradicate all heretics as instructed by the catholic church. Once evening Alais' father reveals to her that he is one of three guardians chosen to protect the Holy Grail and due to the imminent war on their land he needs her help to keep the secret safe and so begins Alais's story to achieve this.

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When I started to read Labyrinth the first thing I did was read the Authors note at the beginning which had the effect of making me think "oh god, it's going to be a history novel whereby you have to be dedicated historian to understand what on earth's going on". Not the case at all. All you need to know is that the people of the South were pretty much free to follow whatever religion they wanted. But the Catholic church wasn't happy about this and instructed a Crusade to invade and wipe out anyone who denounced God, known as heretics. The North helped the Crusade under cover of wanting the same thing, but really they only wanted the lands of the South for themselves. But all this is pretty easy to follow in the story... it's not like you have to have a PHD in French history to understand the significance of events.

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I won't reveal too much else about the actual storyline as I won't be able to do it the justice it richly deserves. All you need to know is that Mosse's writing is excellent. The way she dovetails the two stories together is expertly done and she has this knack of being able to pick out exactly the right word needed for her descriptions so that you totally understand where she's coming from and what the characters are thinking at feeling.

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But I think it's her interpretation of what the Holy Grail is that makes the story for me. It's such a clever idea and although I'm not religious at all, it's definitely a theory I could believe if I was that way inclined. One of the key concepts she reveals in the book is what better way to keep a secret than to have it concealed beneath another secret... a cunning idea for sure. The idea she portrays the Grail as being is very interesting in the fact that it can apply to all religions... it's not tied to one thing... which makes more sense to me that other Grail offerings.

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I shall leave you with the extract of a poem Alais quotes within the book in the language of the Midi. It doesn't sum up the whole idea of the book and the story it's trying to tell. I just liked it :)

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"Res contr' Amor non es guirens, lai on sos poders s'atura"

There is no protection against love, once it chooses to exert its power