Review: Blue dahlia by Nora Roberts

Plot: 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... (Summary from goodreads.com)

My opinion: Sometimes I just need a break from all YA and love triangles and with Nora Roberts you always know what you will get - and from time to time that's exactly what I need. Although as predictable as ever, three strong and beautiful women befriending each other and finding themselves having to cooperate to finish as task, Nora Roberts still manage to keep my interest up during the course of the novel. I always like the supernatural elements of Roberts' novels and this is no exception. I am really curious to see who the Harper Bride is and what she wants. Being a history buff I can also appreciate that the answer most probably is to find in history.

Nora Roberts trilogies really are guilty pleasure of mine and I'll keep reading them when I need a break from the YA stuff. Not only does this novel contain great gardening tips (at least if you live in the American South and don't have as cold as climate as we do here) but also a ghost story and a steaming romance. After having read almost merely YA for a while now, I had forgotten how graphic the act of making love is depicted in books written for adults. I bet I was blushing while reading parts of the book. That won't stop me from devouring the other two books in the trilogy though, I'm sure.