Over one hundred years ago, a young woman on the brink of insanity...or just beyond it...disappeared without a trace. Her ghost haunts the house and grounds of the Harper household and has for as long as anyone alive can remember. Most who have seen or heard her speak of the care she shows to the children of the house, singing lullabies to the young and offering a comforting presence to young mothers. But there is a darkness, too, and when lullabies become edged in madness and comfort turns to terror, a group of family and friends must ban together to find out who their ghost is, where she is, if they have any hope of surviving her wrath.Rosalind Harper is a strong, independent, mature woman. She lost a husband young, made a mistake with a second marriage, but has lived a life of class and poise, correcting mistakes and building her life from tragedy. She may be the mistress of Harper House, but her focus is her family and her business, the In the Garden nursery. Since the events of Blue Dahlia, Roz, along with friends Stella and Hayley and their respective loves and children, have had to put the search for the identity of the Harper Bride on hold. Genealogy expert Dr. Mitchell Carnagie was unavailable until a previous engagement was concluded.When Roz's path crosses Mitch's again during a wild spurt of Christmas shopping, more than talk of ghosts gets stirred up. Mitch's project is finished and he's ready to start the search for Amelia full time, and Roz realizes that the sexy doctor might just be the balm to that niggling bit of loneliness that tugs at her heart. What she doesn't realize is that her resident ghost has no love of men, and as the relationship between her and Mitch heats up, Amelia turns her viscous will into keeping them apart.Some of my favorite romance reading of all time has been various Roberts' trilogies. I love how she weaves interesting and sympathetic characters who are easy to fall for into an overall arc that spans three books, while maintaining a level of storytelling that supports each book individually. She truly is a master at that impressive feat.I'm particularly fond of lead character Roz Harper, a woman of advancing age, within spitting distance of fifty, with concerns and attentions suited to her age and her milieu. She's got an ex-husband who's a rake and a snake, and she's forced to deal with him, though it goes against her grain to do so in the manner in which it is forced. She doesn't break under pressure of ghost or male ego, and holds close to her heart those she considers friends and family. As a character, she's the epitome of grace and cool southern charm...with just enough fiery temper to keep her from being too Stepford.While I am known for having a fondness for damaged characters who rise above their personal demons to wage battle against the forces of darkness, I admit I found Roz's well-balanced, independent nature both an admirable and welcome change. She's got a steel spine with pleasant touches of softness for contrast and depth, and she approaches problems with a keen mind and determination. I couldn't help but like her. And respect her. Mitch was a charming counterpoint. A man who is aware of his demons and admits to his past mistakes as he takes responsibility for them. He's a good man, honest and hard working, with the confidence to appreciate a woman of strength without the games and machinations so often seen in younger couples.Their relationship sparks and simmers, developing slowly but sweetly along with the plot threads of the Harper Bride, who shows her nasty side in all its freaky glory more than once, and the ex-husband, who's a sleaze of the first order. There are ancillary plot threads of extended family that also add to the mix. Together, the plot develops with solid pacing and depth, each aspect complementing the other and building off each other nicely.Knowing that this was the second book in the trilogy helped assuage the impatience to get the answers to Amelia's past, and Roberts takes time to provide glimpses of her history and add some truly atmospheric creepiness to her haunting ways. As a result, Amelia is just as well rounded...if definitely unbalanced...a character as the living members of the book.My only complaint...well...not really a complaint, more as a dissatisfied observation, with this book in particular and the series as a whole is that the characters all seem a little too perfect, a little lacking in flaws and insecurities and peccadilloes. They all make noises about their hang ups - Roz's temper and stubbornness, Mitch's tendency to be messy and forgetful, etc., but in the end, they're all just a little too perfect, always doing the right thing at the right time in the right way. It's a little disconcerting. And not always the easiest thing to relate to. I think that's why, despite the fact that I liked the book quite a lot, I never actually connected to it on a personal level, and why, though I admired Roz and had quite a lot of affection for Mitch, I was never completely invested in their relationship or the continuing saga of the Harper Bride. Not enough to be rabidly enthusiastic of it, anyway.I liked it, though. Quite a bit. And anyone who enjoys romance mixed with haunted houses and a centuries-old mystery and a lot of horticulture will probably enjoy it, too. ~*~*~*~Reviewed for One Good Book Deserves Another.
The second installment of the In the Garden trilogy is easily the best of the bunch. This book picks up where “Blue Dahlia” left off, in terms of the mystery of the Harper Bride, a ghost who haunts historic Harper House near Memphis Tennessee, and the personal lives of the living characters, as well. In “Blue Dahlia,” Roz Harper, fortysomething mistress of Harper House, hired Mitch Carnegie to do some family research in order to find the identity of the Harper Bride. Mitch and Roz were attracted to one another, but didn’t get to spend much time together until Mitch came to Harper House to work full time on the Harper genealogy. It doesn’t take Mitch long to start pursuing Roz romantically, and along with that, the Harper Bride makes her displeasure with the turn of events known. Her behavior escalates from singing children to sleep to messing up Roz’s room and tearing up her clothes when she seems to be falling for Mitch. Roz has other problems, too, as her ex-husband from her brief and disastrous second marriage comes back to town and starts messing with her, as well, taking out credit cards in her name, attempting to cancel her country club membership, and other equally juvenile attempts to get under her skin. Through it all, I could find nothing but admiration for Roz’s character. She is a mature, intelligent woman with her feet firmly planted on the ground, and while things upset her, nothing really riles her. She kicks butt wherever it’s needed, both literally and figuratively, then dusts off her hands and walks away like it’s no big deal. Even when things do get to her, she prefers to be alone to deal with them. She is easily my favorite Nora Roberts heroine in a long time. Through Mitch’s research, and the things that happen to Roz as she falls in love with him, the group at Harper House learns more about the identity and circumstances of the Harper Bride, but there are still parts of the mystery yet to be solved by the book’s conclusion. Standing alone, this book would do well. As the second installment of a trilogy, it sucked me right back in, and had me hurrying to pick up the next installment to see what would happen next. Fortunately, I just happened to have Red Lily ready and waiting!
What do You think about Black Rose (2005)?
This is the 2nd book in the Nora Roberts "In The Garden" series....I loved the 1st book......this book was a bit slow at first and I wasn't sure I was going to enjoy it as much as the first.....but by the end I was pleased with how it turned out....Roz Harper ROCKS!!! She is one amazing strong-willed woman and it made me want to be more like her.....classy and independent and loving.....the world she has made at Harper House has made me often wish that there was such a place and that I could be part of it....nice how books can do that to you....now I'm ready for the 3rd and final installment of the series "Red Lily".....I hope it knocks my socks off!!!
—Tracy Walters
Black Rose is the second book in the "In the Garden" trilogy by Nora Roberts, The premise of the novel set is three women coming together after dealing with life's most challenging losses - loss of husbands, parents, jobs, friends - and how the rebuilding of friendship can make those tragedies of the past feel like building blocks of the future. In book one we met Stella, Roz, and Hayley (and the men in their lives) and the plot focused mostly on Stella coming home. Not just in the literal sense of moving back down south, but in the sense of finding herself again, and a man that loves her and her boys, so that she can start to really live. In the end of book one, Stella and Logan find themselves happily married and I was happy for her; as was Roz the woman running most of the show. Black Rose shifts its focus to Roz, but keeps Stella as part of the story. Roz is a strong willed and feisty woman that has lost two husbands: one to death and this was the love of her life and father of her children, and one she tossed out on his sorry ass for being a no good dirty lying cheating son-of-a-bitch. Roz is still missing her first husband, and ashamed of her second. The loneliness she felt allowed her to be pulled into a truly terrible relationship with a charismatic con-artist. Of course, her guard is now up. She had no intentions of being pulled into another romance as her life is full of her business, her children, her now surrogate grandchildren in Stella's boys, and Hayley's new baby, too. But suddenly, the Harper Bride ghost from book one is starting to cause harm to those she loves and this is new - in the past she was a docile ghost. Roz decides it's time to get some answers about who she is and where she came from. Enter Mitchell Carnegie, a renowned genealogist that studies families' histories and then writes about them for a living. Roz hires him to do a full study of the Harper history and as he spends more time at Harper House, Mitchell finds himself drawn to Roz. He finds her passion, beauty, and sensitivity to be a triple threat hard to ignore. When Mitch and Roz decide to explore their special connection, again the ghost adamantly protests.The Harper Bride does tell them her name in this book - Amelia - and Mitch immerses himself in learning more about her through old books and photographs. The more they all learn, the more disturbing the story becomes. The Harper Bride is not going away - that is made certain. And she's angry.Now onto Red Lily , which I assume will be about Hayley - she is my least favorite character, but maybe Roberts can turn my opinion.
—Cresta
Book two of the In the Garden trilogy. In this story we meet Roz & Mitch who fall in love while working over a genealogical project. They're in search of the Harper Bride Ghost who has been haunting Roz's family home for generations.I was slightly surprised to see Roz take the lead heroine for book two. With Nora's trilogies you get a certain formula to them. The first heroine (in this trilogy Stella) goes through some sort of transformation and finds herself. The second heroine holds a tough as nails beauty who doesn't quite fit in with her gender. She's beautiful and smart, hard and hurt, but she comes through to find love in the end. And the last heroine is usually the rock. The one who has to go through harder lessons than the other two but she comes out strong. When I first started Blue Dahlia I had pegged Roz as the third heroine. Though now that I've finished Black Rose I can see how Roz fits into the second heroines mold. She comes across as hard and hurt, beautiful and smart, and above all a blunt woman. Heroine number two is nearly always blunt. And naturally Haley would have to be heroine number three. She did move across the deep south, pregnant, and take a chance at a new life. She'll be a brilliant third heroine. Oh! Besides that, she has the baby. As Amelia (the ghost) is obsessed with children, this fits.Years ago I read this one only halfway through (whenever it first came out). I was going through a genre crisis at the time and didn't much feel the need to read romance novels. Time never fails, and given enough of it, Nora always manages to suck me back in for a romantic spell. Apparently 2012 is one of those spells as I've read more books by her this year than any of the other authors I've been pursuing. Read: 1.5 times. (Next time around I'll just round the .5 off and be at a third I suppose. Or maybe just a second. Really it doesn't matter. Case in point, there will be a next time).
—Krissy
