by Nora Roberts4 Star TrilogyNora Roberts introduces 3 women whose lives become intertwined: Roz, the elegant 40 something Southern belle and owner of Harper House/In the Garden nursery and retail store; Stella, the 30 something mother and perfectionist Yankee is manager of In the Garden: while Hayley is the pregnant 20 something distant cousin of Roz and also works at In The Garden. The store and gardening/gardens are very prominent in the trilogy. For those who don't like gardens or gardening, you won't like all of NR's descriptions and gardening details.The Harper Bride and her story is a wonderful ghost story and her presence, the mystery of her identity, and what happened to her become paramount to the three women, especially when romance finds each woman. Roberts blends romantic suspense and a ghost story to lead the reader to last sentence in the trilogy.The Blue Dahlia focuses on Stella who loses her husband and is left to raise her young sons. She moves back to Memphis to be closer to her father and step-mother while she manages Roz's In the Garden. Stella learns she must live in Harper House with Roz and David. She worries about her sons when she hears a lullaby sung by no-one she can see, but feels the chill of the Harper Bride. She is driving crazy everyone at work, especially hunky Logan. When Stella and Logan make a connection, the Harper Bride invades her dreams. Could the Bride-always benign in the past-hurt Stella by harming her boys and Logan?The Black Rose is Roz's story, though Stella and Hayley are still living at Harper House. Stella is still lovingly General Rothchild and Hayley still amuses everyone with her charming naiveté and factoids. Roz loves being an honorary grandmother to Stella's boys and Hayley's Lily, but needs more and turns to her In the Garden business to create a new 'baby' for herself. Sexy Dr. Carnegie now can devote his time to the Harper Bride mystery and to Roz herself if she'll let him. But Bryce and the Harper Bride have other plans. Roz's reputation, business, and life are in danger. Could Blood kill blood? As Mitch Carnegie gets closer to Roz and the identity of the Harper Bride, the Bride grows more demonic and dangerous.The Red Lily finishes the Harper's Bride story using Hayley as its prominent character. The Bride finds Hayley's sympathy and flesh inviting. Harper, Roz's son, finally admits to himself and to Hayley that he too loves her since he first saw her. Hayley feels the same towards Harper, but will she risk their friendship and his life to be with him? Lily is already calling Harper, Daddy, much to the displeasure of the Bride. Harper looks so much like Reginald, and must die. Will Hayley follow her heart or will she protect Harper from the Bride? Whatever she does, Hayley knows the Bride will be out of women's lives for good.The Black Rose was the BEST in the Trilogy, while Red Lily was the weakest. In Red Lily, Hayley became a caricature of her character than in the other books. The character was crasser and less confident. In The Garden was perfect, despite major destruction in The Black Rose. Roberts tells her readers that the garden will be important in each book in her letters to the reader. Either Roberts lost her focus or was up against a hard deadline; however all in all the Trilogy is worth reading. I give 4 stars on this Trilogy.
Well - Roberts did not turn me...I still don't like Hayley. Book three of trilogies always lets me down. But, I still gave it three stars because the other characters were still interesting enough to me to keep me reading until the end even though I knew how things would work out with Haley and Harper. Red Lily should have been a final ending to what was a compelling and moving trilogy. But what the reader got instead was a very over-drawn and labored ending to a story that didn't really exist in the character of focus: Hayley. In Blue Dahlia we met the intriguing cast of characters in the series to include the infamous "Harper Bride" ghost lurking in the halls of Roz Harper's home. Black Rose showed us more of the secrets of the ghost and how the choices the women were making in their lives impacted the behavior of the ghost - particularly with regards to men. And Red Lily basically rehashed it all through Hayley - a character I could simply not care about. And to honest, I found myself struggling to understand how Stella or Roz were friends with her - and Harper, Roz's son loving her? It just didn't add up - Hayley is a snot. She originally arrived on Roz's door step alone and pregnant in book one. Because of a very distant cousin relationship, Roz Harper, the owner of Harper House takes her in. And even though she's six months along, her son Harper has eyes for Hayley. WAIT - WHAT????? That in and of itself was weird to me. Hayley's daughter Lily arrives in book two, and she latches onto Harper like he's her daddy putting Hayley in an awkward position - should she act on her feelings with Harper or snap his head off again - which is how she treats him for pretty much the entire trilogy. (Hence why I couldn't buy their romance at all). When she finally acts on her feelings and Harper is in agreement, well - that's that. Their relationship doesn't grow for the reader, and when there are moments of interaction they seem to just be mad at each other: All. The. Time. And then Hayley babbles about her feelings with Roz, while persistently reminding us that it's awkward because she's his mother. It's creepy. It's weird. And it's unrealistic - I get that this is fiction but it should somewhat mirror real life. The Harper Bride is terribly upset at Harper and Hayley's newfound love (you could see why in this case). Amelia, the ghost, starts to possess Hayley reliving her life with men as a lady of the night. And again - this is creepy. Amelia is Harper's great great grandmother (as the genealogy done by Mitch shows) and there are scenes where Amelia possesses Hayley while she's having sex with Harper - yep...incest. I don't care if she's a ghost - that line of thinking was just too much for me. The final showdown with the ghost was obvious and anticlimactic.Trilogies should be read in full and I'd normally say not to give up on them - but Nora, on this one I'd tell the reader to just skim it, because there just isn't much story here. I liked all the characters in this series, except Hayley, and she didn't merit her own novel. This won't stop me from picking up a Nora Robert's book again, but sadly this ending just didn't do it for me.
What do You think about Red Lily (2005)?
A very satisfying end to the In the Garden trilogy. Again, as with many of Nora's books, it was Harper, the male lead who I found to be the most interesting character. I liked his quiet, introspective ways, as well as his lean, hot sexiness, of course. And I liked him and Hayley together as a couple. They worked for me. My one regret about this trilogy is that we didn't get a romance for David, Harper's best friend, Roz's right hand man and housekeeper and the best cook and babysitter alive. *grin* Yeah, I'd like Nora to be writing a little bit of gay romance. I'd be totally down with that. So, looking for a fun and sexy romantic trilogy with fun heroines and sexy heroes and lots of terrific dialogue and hot sex scenes? Give the In the Garden trilogy a try. I don't think you'll regret it.
—Evaine
My least favorite of the trilogy, but it's not a bad book, I don't think. Since Hayley has been my favorite of the three women of In the Garden, I'm sad I didn't like her book better. There's a lot to like with a perky, optimistic girl facing difficulty with a smile and willingness to dig into the hard work to get where she wants to be.Unfortunately, there were two large facets of the novel that really grated on me. First, and unsurprising if you've read my reviews of the other two, is Amelia Connor. The ghost hunt takes center stage for much of this novel as the group homes in on who she was and why she might be sticking around beyond death. How anybody can maintain any degree of sympathy for Amelia after learning the details of her life and death is beyond me. Selfish people harming innocent others don't get to play on my sympathy, I'm sorry, they just don't.Second, while Harper is an enigma through most of the first two novels, he didn't improve any on further acquaintance. Yeah, he's great with Lily and has a sincere attachment, even love, for her and Hayley and that's all good. But he is also one of those guys who thinks autocratic declarations and unilateral action are not just manly but good and even right. I'm sorry, but I just do not find those traits attractive in a man and that put a lot of distance between me and his relationship with Hayley. Yes, she's the perfect partner for him because a) she doesn't give in to those episodes and let him have his way and b) she doesn't hold them against him, either. And yes, he provides Hayley with love and unconditional support (when he isn't all autocratically unilateral and stuff). Still, his fits of macho were off-putting and uncomfortable to me.Still and all, Roberts excels at showing the good in her characters, as well as their flaws, and the story was entertaining enough to grab and hold my attention despite those things I didn't like. And in the end, that's all I really ask for.A note about Steamy: Again, the steam was pretty light in this novel. I wonder if this series was deliberately lighter steam than normal for some reason—an experiment for Roberts, maybe? It seems striking that all three would have fewer and shorter explicit scenes than I find “normal” for Nora Roberts.
—Jacob Proffitt
Hayley Phillips had no place to go to safely raise her newborn Lily, so she came to Memphis' legendary Harper House hoping to obtain work from her distant relative forty-something Roz Harper at the attached In the Garden nursery (see BLUE DAHLIA). She has found much more as she becomes friends with her curmudgeon host, Stella and others who shower her and Lily with love. However over time, Hayley realizes she also loves Roz's son Harper, but fears revealing her deep feelings because she worries how Roz and their friends would react; not even love is worth the cost of that friendship. Besides she has doubts that the deep regard is truly hers as she thinks the Harper Bride has somehow entered her mind. Harper shares her feelings including not wanting to hurt their friendship that means so much to him.Hayley believes the Harper Bride, a ghost singing lullabies in the mansion, has chosen her as the one to help the spirit leave this plane. Accompanied by Harper, Roz and her beloved Mitchell (see BLACK ROSE), and Stella and her cherished Logan they begin a quest to learn what happened in 1893 to keep this spector haunting the mansion.RED LILY is a terrific ending to the delightful In the Garden trilogy. Haley fantasizes about Harper and dreams of things that happened to the Harper Bride not her. This makes her wonder if the Bride or she loves Harper. The ensemble cast returns from the previous novels, but remains consistent to their distinctive personalities. The mystery of the ghost and the potential romance make for a fine finale as the audience will wonder whether the Bride, Haley, or both loves Harper. Nora Roberts proves once again she is one of the best writers in the romance world.
—Amylou1977
