Friday, February 29, 2008

Black Rose by Nora Roberts

4 STARS

In the Garden Trilogy - Book 2

I want my own Mitch Carnegie.

That being said, you can guess that I loved this second book in the In The Garden trilogy. Roz, the indomitable Rosalind, the 47-year old heroine (Yes, 47 years old, my friends.) totally engaged me. A case could be made that it's because she's very close to my own age of 51 and I would have to admit to it being a very good case. It was totally refreshing to see a woman with grown children portrayed as a vibrant, sensual being with a wonderfully dry sense of humour.

And then there's Mitch. The sexily studious professor/writer and genealogist. He's so wonderfully calm and low-key - until stirred up by the wonderful Roz, of course! And, God love him, he wears sexy glasses! And he's a recovering alcoholic (12 years sober). Now that's something you don't see in a romance every day.

It was wonderful to watch Roz blossom (it's a flower trilogy, okay!) as she allows herself to follow through on her feelings for Mitch. Take time for herself, now that her boys are grown and her business is rolling along swimmingly well. She's one cool lady, in my opinion.

The ghost of the trilogy, the Harper Bride, makes her obligatory shit-disturbing appearances and we get closer to finding out exactly what she wants. But really, that's secondary to the love story between Roz and Mitch.

As usual, Nora Roberts' male characters are funny, sexy, flawed and wonderful and totally elevate her stories above the norm for romantic fiction. Yep, I really, REALLY loved this book. It was a sexy, fun read and I feel pretty safe in saying I'll be reading it again in the future.

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