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 Against the backdrop of a house steeped in history and a thriving new gardening business, three women unearth the memories of the past and uncover a dangerous secret-finding in each other the courage to take chances and embrace the future.

Trying to escape the ghosts of the past, young widow Stella Rothchild, along with her two energetic little boys, has moved back to her roots in southern Tennessee-and into her new life at Harper House and In the Garden nursery. She isn’t intimidated by the house-nor its mistress, local legend Roz Harper. Despite a reputation for being difficult, Roz has been nothing but kind to Stella, offering her a comfortable new place to live and a challenging new job as manager of the flourishing nursery. As Stella settles comfortably into her new life, she finds a nurturing friendship with Roz and with expectant mother Hayley. And she discovers a fierce attraction with ruggedly handsome landscaper Logan Kitridge

But someone isn’t happy about the budding romance…the Harper Bride. As the women dig into the history of Harper House, they discover that grief and rage have kept the Bride’s spirit alive long past her death. And now, she will do anything to destroy the passion that Logan and Stella share.

I found Blue Dahlia and two other books in its trilogy in my shared laundry room a few weeks back, someone was wishing them a new home and I thought ‘why not’. So I scooped all three up and decided to try out a new author.

Blue Dahlia is the first book in the  In the Garden Trilogy. I have to say that I like the mystery and ghost part of the book as well as the relationships that the characters develop but I am not too big on the large part of romance that takes place.  That said, I did enjoy the books. They were a very easy, quick, enjoyable read that satisfied my reading need.

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I enjoyed the strong women characters, they have families, business knowledge and don’t need a man to complete them but it doesn’t hurt to have them around. I did get a little tired of the bickering between Stella and Logan, the featured lovebirds. They are both strong-willed, stubborn and both butt heads more times than I can remember.

In the end it is a nice story of strangers coming together. They overcome personal tragedy and try to solve the mystery of the Haper Bride that haunts the mansion.

Find more books by Nora Roberts at http://www.noraroberts.com/

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