Blue Dahlia

A good romance and beginning of the trilogy. The hero is a bit hard to fall in love with, and the beginning is terribly sad, but the story comes around. Of course, It's Nora Roberts so its well written and the characters are developing perfectly.Stella moves back to Tennessee after losing her husband. She wants to raise her two sons closer to her father. There she lands the perfect job and makes some wonderful friends. But when she moves into the Harper House, she meets the Harper Ghost.Nora giv [...]

2 ½ stars. Not enough story. Not enough plot. Characters were nice people but not compelling enough for a story.My mind kept wandering. A lot of conversation about ordinary things. Characters did not interest or intrigue me. Stella likes to organize and manage things. Logan is creative and artistic with his landscaping but appears disorganized in other things. I wasn’t drawn to the relationship. The sex scenes didn’t do anything for me.The plot surrounding the ghost was not well developed a [...]

In Nora Roberts's Blue Dahlia, she introduced to three women who came together to work in a garden nursery in rural Tennessee. First, there's Stella Rothchild, a recent young widow with two young sons have moved back to her hometown to be closer to her family. She met Roz Harper, who owned the Harper House and ran the flowery nursery. She wasn't intimated by her, since she tried to escape the ghosts of the past. As she settled down into her new life, she met expectant young mother Hayley and for [...]

Nothing really to say except that I love this series. After trying to start the inn series by Nora Roberts, I ended up seeing so many similarities to "In the Garden" that I happily DNFed the first book in the inn series and decided to re-read this one. I love gardening and the outdoors so this series was always fun to me. We have some romance and some characters that I actually enjoyed enough to revisit through three books."Blue Dahlia" is the first book in the series and follows single mother a [...]

3,5 estrellas.No puedo y nunca seré imparcial con esta autora. Nora Roberts para mí es de las mejores en el campo de la contemporánea y hay muy cosas historias que ella haya escrito y no me hayan gustado, interesado o entretenido.En esta ocasión, tenemos una historia entretenida y con un misterioso fantasma de por medio, lo que lo hace más enganchable.Con unos protagonistas totalmente opuestos, Stella y Logan han tenido escenas de todo tipo, pero sobre todo divertidas, ya que sus personalid [...]

One review said that next to the ghosty atmosphere and romance, this novel also contains lots of gardening tips. I don't really do flowers or nature. I mean, I like green. As, maybe, a wallpaper. Or pullovers when children wear them. We used to have a green bird, too. Sweet thing. Obnoxiously loud. For f-cks sake, I'm probably the only human being, next to Bree's sex-addicted boyfriend in Desperate Housewives, who killed a cactus. In cold blood. I'm a cruel, evil person and I get crazy obsessed [...]

**2.5 stars**Like the Bride Quartet, this book is more about women running a business and their friendship. Even the ghost was more important than the romance, which was lukewarm and not very exciting. I never got the impression that the hero and heroine even liked each other, so I'm not sure how they fell in love.I'm not that interested in gardens so all the talk about plants bored me to death. If I had liked the main character, maybe I could have enjoyed the book more, but Stella was a control [...]

“Dalia azul” es el primer libro de la Trilogía del Jardín. La historia me gustó (creo que es casi imposible que no me guste alguna historia de Nora Roberts), pero me faltó un poco más de romance entre los protagonistas. Entiendo que en esta primera parte la autora tenga que hacer la presentación de todos los personajes y ponernos en situación sobre el conflicto principal de la trilogía, pero me faltó emoción y esa química tan característica entre sus protagonistas.

Started off great, even made me cry after the first few chapters. Then the story moved ahead a few years and it went downhill from there. Just slow, touchy-feely fluff in a small southern town. That may appeal to many, but it became boring for me.

3’5 Estrellas, pero se queda con 4 porque el romance de los protagonistas, y sobre todo Logan, me han encantado.Con “Dalia azul” comienza la trilogía del Jardín, una serie ambientada en una gran mansión colonial en Tennessee, cuyos dueños, los descendientes de la rica familia Harper, se dedican al cultivo y venta de flores y plantas.Nuestra protagonista, Stella, es una mujer que lo tenía todo, una familia normal, con su marido y sus dos hijos pequeños. Pero la tragedia llamó a su pu [...]

I know I’ve read this series before, but it’s one of the few Nora Roberts trilogies that I don’t remember clearly. Which meant that I needed to reread them immediately!This isn’t my favorite Nora series, but it’s still fun and sweet with just enough mystery to add some flavor to the narrative. In the Garden is a nursery business set up by Rosalind Harper on her family estate, and she’s on the hunt for a manager. Stella Rothschild would give her right arm to become that manager. She a [...]

Dalia Azul… ¿Qué pensar después de leer este libro? Simplemente me encantó.Primero que nada, y admitiendo que no soy una (gran) fan de la literatura rosa, considero este libro como sumamente dulce. Si, no puedo calificarlo con otro adjetivo. De una lectura extremadamente fácil y rápida, con personajes sencillos y trama (aunque también simple) solida. Roberts no se equivocó al optar por los clásicos personajes que intentan no caer en una relación relativamente “difícil” por circu [...]

This one is a keeper. It's one of those books that I don't think I would have normally read, but I was going on a trip and needed an unabridged audio for a long trip. I am totally pleased with the end result. Blue Dahlia is a fun and invigorating read. Logan is a great hero, and Stella is a delightful thorn in his side. When Stella's husband dies in a freak accident, she is forced to take on a new type of life. She moves back to her birthplace in Tennessee and takes a job at Harper House. Her ne [...]

Nora Roberts books are a not-so-guilty pleasure of mine. Sure, she technically writes romance novels, but her books are always so well-researched you feel like you are actually learning something. Blue Dahlia is the first novel in her In the Garden series, and the gardener in me LOVES all the references she weaves into the story.::: In the Garden :::Blue Dahlia is the introduction to the story of three women who all work at a gardening store called (you guessed it) In the Garden. Roz Harper Ashb [...]

Stella Rothchild's life comes crashing down on her when her husband Kevin dies in a plane crash. Willing for a fresh start, she uproots her boys and takes them back to her home place of Memphis, Tennessee to be closer to her father and Stepmother. Stella goes to Harper house where she is hired on by lady of the house Rosalind Harper to work in her nursery In the Garden as a manager. Her only condition is that Stella and her children must live in Harper House for the first months of her employmen [...]

A very typical Nora Roberts, with a good friendship story, a new romance, a birth and a ghost. Stella is a newly widowed, mother of two boys who moves back to her hometown in Tennessee, looking for a fresh start and a safe new place for them to settle. She ends up at a garden nursery owned by Roz, a strong older woman who provides her with a satisfying job and a safe roof over their heads at Harper House. It is well known that a harmless, female ghost who is very protective of children inhabits [...]

I liked the author's other series about an Inn, 3 brothers, a bookstore, etc. And now found a new favorite. This was a pretty good start. And liked that the ghost character was introduced from the beginning and is mentioned again as the story gets going.The characters you like and get a hint as to what their story will be in the next book. Plus Logan I think is one of my favorites. While he and Stella bicker and try to get along, he's at least honest but at the same time unsure of some things. A [...]

Stella Rothchild's world comes apart the night her husband dies in a plane crash, leaving her to raise their two boys alone. When Stella makes a fresh start a couple years later, she moves to the city of her birth, Memphis, Tennessee, to be closer to her father and stepmother. She takes a job at In the Garden, a garden center run by Roz Harper, an admirable woman 10 years older than Stella. Roz stipulates that Stella and her children must live in Harper House, her ancestral home, for the first f [...]

3,5. Hacía tiempo que una novela no me enganchaba para leerla sin parones largos y ésta sí me ha enganchado. Por eso recurro a Nora Roberts cuando me estanco en las lecturas. La relación de Stella y Logan es muy divertida, pasan del odio al amor con ayuda de los pequeños Gavin y Luke, que son adorables. El fantasma me intriga, y Mitch también. Buen inicio de serie, no sé por qué no la había leído todavía.

Stella Rothschild's husband suddenly dies and she is left alone with two young sons. Devastated and afraid, Sarah grieves but eventually turns her attention toward the future. She moves from Michigan to start all over again in Memphis, the place where she was born and her father now lives. There she gets a job as a manager of a nursery/garden shop. She quickly becomes friends with Roz, the enigmatic owner of the shop, her new boss and owner of Harper house where Stella lives as a condition of he [...]

The story was okay and kept my interest but the characters, especially Stella, I just found annoying. She was just too tightly wound for me. The ending is what really disappointed me. Listening to it in the car, even my son said, "that's it? Is there a sequel? There are way to many loose ends here and I haven't even listened to the whole book!" That about sums it up!!

I'd forgotten how much I loved Logan.

3.5 or 4 stars. Enjoyed the story and the characters, although I can't quite see how the two main characters, so totally opposite in terms of organization and spontaneity, will manage to get along in a marriage. The overall ghost-story arc plays out through the entire trilogy, and it's interesting without being too creepy. Full review to come.

No está mal, pero adolece de lo que la mayoría de los primeros libros de las trilogías de la Roberts: el afán de presentarnos a los 6 protagonistas y, en este caso, le restan voz a los verdaderos protagonistas.

A quick run down on what I liked and didn't liked:What I Liked1. The ghost story aspect. Although it is not resolved until the third book, it was the most interesting part of the book.2. Nora Roberts knows how to write competency porn. The business side of gardening and the hobby/private gardens were described perfectly.3. The characters of David, Roz, Harper, and Hayley. Side characters were way more interesting than the main couple. For being plot moppets, the kids were alright.4. Chapter 1. H [...]

I was surprised by how much I liked this one as there were some rough spots. I really liked the women's friendships. I liked the 3 decades that they spanned, each at a different spot in their lives, yet they could relate to the other and give support where needed. By the end I loved the little family that was built.I loved all the action around the garden center. It really made me itch to get outside. However in my part of the world right now, Mother Nature is being cruel and sending inches up o [...]

Another win for Nora Roberts. I loved this story. Stella is a strong single mother looking to get control of her life with her boys after the death of her husband and happen to find a great place to work. Three women become close and find a beautiful friendship but Stella also found herself falling for a handsome man that she thought was going to drive her crazy. He does in a good way and he is so good with the boys too. That's just the beginning and I can't wait to see how the story will contin [...]

I don't actually like romances very much but Nora Roberts has a talent for adding the supernatural into hers which make them great reading for me! This one was actually sufficiently spooky that I did not like to read it in bed at night. So having just finished it in the cold hard light of day I can say that I enjoyed the story, the characters, the haunting and even the romance. The sex scenes reminded me of Eve and Roarke but I guess that is not surprising. Another good book from an amazingly pr [...]

I liked it.up until about the last 10 pages.en it seemed to go at warp speed and almost fall flat. It felt like Roberts forgot she had a deadline and the jammed everything in and then abruptly ended the story. Could be it was supposed to lead into the next book of the trilogy but it felt too choppy to me. Of course I'll read the next part - maybe it will smooth things out? Aside from that I did like the character development and loved the setting easy and quick read so it fit the bill!

Sometimes I like lite reading and my sister in law recommended Nora Roberts. I don't normally like her, but found her delightful in this trilogy. Yes, I hide my lite reading until I'm ready to post my thoughts, lol I really liked the story. Review of this and the whole In the Garden trilogy to come. I combined the 3 book reviews for posting on Red Lily.