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..
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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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.
.
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... :)
