Abandoned by Booklikes

I have no plans to read book #3 since I am sure it will just irk the living daylights out of me again. Book #2 was so good and I still have the same feeling I did back when I read this the first time, I didn't want it to end. When Roberts is good, she's really good. I just enjoyed the heck out of these books and was so satisfied by the ending.

In book #2, "Black Rose" we follow Rosalind Harper (Roz) as she does what she can to find out more about the Harper Bride (a ghost living in her family home for hundreds of years at this point). Taking place in Memphis Tennessee (not a typical romance location) we follow Roz as she she works with Dr. Mitchell Carnegie to try to find out the mystery behind the Harper Bridge. Roz is also still running her In the Garden business and doing what she can to be rid of the memories of her second husband who was a piece of dirt. 

What I really loved about this book is that you see a flawed but strong woman in Roz. She feels so much more human to me than Hayley (Red Lily, Book #3) or Stella (Blue Dahlia, Book #1) ever did. Roz is 47 years old and she's raised three sons by herself. She still throughout this book mourns her first husband John. And she regrets letting loneliness sneak in and get to her which caused her to marry her second husband. 

This was a slow burn romance novel and honestly I would say the romance wasn't even secondary this time. It was maybe third on the list. Most of this book really is about Roz, her sons, and her not letting her ex husband get to her when he comes back to town and does what he can to ruin her reputation. I loved seeing her friends and family rally around her. And I loved that Roz decided what she wanted when things turned to the romantic with Mitch. I wasn't really feeling Mitch even though I loved this book. Probably because most of this book was unraveling the mystery of the Bride who appears and gets really confrontational with Roz.