Red Lily - Nora Roberts

Wow... the saga of Harper House finally ends! And it was worth every moment I reckon. The last book in the trilogy certainly doesn't disappoint and also manages to tie up all the loose ends surrounding the Harper Bride.
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Let me first say that this might be a quick entry as I don't have much time... sorry :)
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Red Lily focuses on the character of Hayley. As with the previous two books and the other two characters (Stella and Roz) she finds herself the object of the Harper Brides displeasure - especially as Hayley realises that she is in love with Harper (Roz's son) and the two begin their relationship. The intensity with which the Harper Bride invades Hayley's consciousness is more that we witnessed in the other books and Roberts has done a good job of graduating the process between the women, from Stella's initial dreams to the complete possession of Hayley. The book is so good I don't want to provide any spoilers on the off chance that someone stumbles across this but needless to say Harper and Hayley fall head over heels with each other... with circumstances nudging them a little quicker to the what we all know was an inevitable ending ;)
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Roberts does a good job with Hayley's character. She is bubbly and scatty and full of beans and knowledge, which shows off her true personality - which contrasts a great deal to when the bride takes her over. Her relationship with Harper is the stuff of Hollywood movies... but no less cute and very appropriate. Roberts manages to mix traditional values (getting married, loyalty, respect, protection of the ones you love etc) with a contemporary edge, shown in the way Harper proposes to Hayley. So sweet! You'll love this third book... it's the perfect ending to a perfect trilogy :)

Black Rose - Nora Roberts

This is the second of Roberts' 'In the Garden' trilogy which follows on from Blue Dahlia I read last month. I lent it to a friend who loved it so much (and who is far more impatient than me!) that she went on Amazon that very day and bought the remaining two books in the series so she could follow on the story asap - and which now means I can follow it on too!

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After finishing Blue Dahlia I wanted to read Black Rose as soon as possible coz I wanted to see how Stella and Logan's relationship continued and also find out more about the Harper Bride. Black Rose however, focuses predominantly on Roz's character and how the Harper Bride affects her. Stella and Logan's relationship hardly gets a mention throughout this book and I thought I would be really disappointed at that, but to be honest Roberts does such a great job of bringing Roz's character to life that you pretty much forget how involved you were in Stella because you get so invested in Roz. Oh how fickle us readers are! We do get to hear about Stella and Logan's wedding but even this is brief as during that part of the story something a whole lot more interesting happens to Roz... (you'll need one of those giant foam rubber fingers they have at sports events for this part I guarantee you!)

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So, to the story. It opens in the same way as the previous book with a chapter relaying part of the Harper bride's life and how ill-treated she was and thus you begin to get a bit more of an idea as to why she acts the way she does around the characters, before moving to the present and beginning Roz's story. Roz has realised now that she loves having her house full again (what with Hayley and Stella et al moving in during the last book) but with Stella's impending wedding the numbers will begin to diminish. Fortunately she has met Dr Mitch Carnegie, the genealogist she has hired to research the family tree and, fingers crossed, identify the Harper Bride in the process, who she begins to develop a relationship with. There are times when Roz questions whether she should be embarking on this relationship, especially when it moves to more serious ground, but Roberts is an expert at not making this self-doubt an irritating, annoying girly interlude in Roz's character. As with everything, she has her reasons, but she's not silly about them. As Roz and Mitch get closer the Harper Bride makes her disapproval known. But Roz being Roz is sure as Hell not going to let a ghost run her life or influence her decisions, no sir!

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I love Roz's character in this book. We got a hint of it in Blue Dahlia, but it's in this story that we really begin to get underneath her skin. She is one of the gutsiest and independent characters I've ever some across and she just kicks ass - but in a glamorous and sophisticated way! There are some awesome scenes in this book where she gets one up on those who deserve it - whilst always maintaining her poise and elegance since she hates public scenes. You'll be sitting there shouting in your head "C'mon Roz - kick their butts, kick it with style" - and boy, does she deliver! And at the end of the book you'll be really chuffed for her. I didn't find this one ended as abruptly as the other either. I'm not sure whether that was because I was more prepared for it - or because I had the third book on standby and therefore as soon as I finished Black Rose I picked up Red Lily and followed the story straight on, lol. I advise everyone to do that by the way... make sure you have the next installment ready to pick up! We also get to see a bit more of David's character too since he and Roz are close, and he just comes out with some of the greatest lines. And there is also the character of cousin 'Rissy' who can best be described as a shrivelled-up, cantankerous, evil-minded old witch (being polite) from whom Roz has to recover her ancestors journals in order to help piece together the Bride's identity. Its is safe to say that Black Rose definitely keeps you entertained the whole way through.

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... :)