19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Black Rose, February 16, 2008
This review is from: Black Rose: In the Garden Trilogy (Mass Market Paperback)
Roz Harper is a loving and kind, but fiercely protective of those she loves. When the Harper House resident ghost known as the Harper Bride starts terrorizing those she loves, Roz decides it is time for some answers. The Harper Bride who has never brought harm to anyone in the house before is now pulling all the stops out.
Dr Mitchell Carnagie is hired to delve into history to discover what happened in the past. When he sees first hand the terror at the house, he decides immediately to learn more. As he spends more time at Harper House, Mitchell finds himself drawn to Roz. He finds her strength, beauty, and vulnerability to be a potent combination he can't resist. When Mitch and Roz decide to explore their special connection, again the ghost vehemently protests.
As more is revealed about the Harper Bride, it is disclosed her name is Amelia. Mitch learns more about Amelia through old books and photographs. The more they all learn, the more disturbing the story becomes.
Great second book of the series. I didn't think it was possible, but this book surpassed the first.
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16 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Great Read!, June 25, 2005
This review is from: Black Rose: In the Garden Trilogy (Mass Market Paperback)
Do you think it's true that every house has a secret? If the walls could talk would you want to hear what they had to say? The Harper House in this story could certainly tell you a few things.
We meet Roz, descendent of the owners of the Harper House, where she now resides. Recently divorced, she is a likable perky, wealthy woman in mid-life, searching to find answers to some hidden happenings in her home. It seems Harper House has had a ghostly residence for years; a young woman who sings to the newborn and has stayed in the shadows until recently. Her gentle presence, which was tolerated through the years, is now turning into rage and violence; nearly taking the life of Roz and endangering her entire household. Who is this woman and why will she not leave the house? Why has she turned from gentle to savage and how is she connected to the family? Chilling questions for sure; and you will devour the book to find out the answers.
The author does a wonderful job in story and character development in this novel. She allows you to know the main players, draws you into their personal lives and emotions
and uses this as building blocks to the danger and mystery that surrounds them.
Ms. Roberts adds some romance and humor which makes the work a comfortable read without losing it's mysterious element. I found this book to be outstanding. a real page turner and one that I can highly recommend
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9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Few Thorns, June 6, 2005
This review is from: Black Rose: In the Garden Trilogy (Mass Market Paperback)
BLACK ROSE, the second installment in the GARDEN trilogy, is a big improvement over the premier of the series (BLUE DAHLIA), includes snappy dialogue, interesting characters, a satisfying romance and very few thorns to mar the reading experience. While I recommend the book, particularly to those who were disappointed in BLUE DAHLIA, at times there seemed to be too many characters cluttering up each scene, scenes including the main couple were not as plentiful as hoped, and the hero's unrealized desire to rescue the heroine was a little disappointing.
BLACK ROSE continues the story of three women drawn to Rosalind Harper's historic southern home to run a nursery/landscaping business and solve a ghost story. ROSE is Roz's story, and follows the forty-something owner while she struggles to build her business, overcome a bitter second marriage to a philandering con man, and track down the truth about the resident ghost with the help of visiting genealogist, Mitchell Carnegie.
The most appealing feature of this book was Roz's character. All too often it seems that authors leave romance to the twenty and thirty-somethings, and when they do try to write more mature heroines, they often read like a twenty-two year old with too much mileage and not enough wisdom. In ROSE, it was clear from the beginning that Roz was strong, independent and, despite the blow to her self respect dealt by her last husband, had the confidence to claw her own way out of her problems. Love-interest Mitchell was not as clearly drawn, but was appealing both because of his willingness to take responsibility for mistakes in his first marriage, and in the way he obviously respected as well as loved Roz.
Unfortunately, Mitch's protective instincts found very little outlet in this book, despite the plethora of opportunities presented by the return of Roz's ex-husband and a ghost with increasingly physical ways of expressing her displeasure. Roz's grown son, Harper, was too eager to intervene when danger or insult threatened, and Roz did her fair share of rescuing herself in most cases. While I always find it appealing when heroines work their own way out of trouble-especially considering the number of helpless-damsel characters in romance-it can be overdone and probably was just a bit in this book. I would have been a little more impressed with Mitch if he had managed a heroic intervention or two.
My only other criticism is that Roberts tried to include too many people in this book: Stella and Logan, their children, Roz and Mitch, Roz's four kids (including Harper), Mitch's son, Hayley, Hayley's daughter, Roz's ex, Roz's ex's new girlfriend, and a number of Roz's acquaintances in the Ladies-Who-Lunch set, among others. The net result was that there were actually very few scenes where Roz and Mitch had an opportunity to interact, and keeping track of the trials and tribulations of all the different characters was distracting and took some of the edge off both the suspense and the romance.
ROSE was a good read overall, and I look forward to the last installment in the trilogy.
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