
The Rose Hunters
historical romance
Series · contemporary romance
The In the Garden Trilogy series by Nora Roberts has 3 known books (3 published) and is best read in publication order, starting with Blue Dahlia (2004). The latest book with a fully recorded publication date is Red Lily.
Start here: Blue Dahlia (2004) — then read straight through in publication order.
The date order of published books and any announced future entries — the default way to read the series.
Blue Dahlia opens the trilogy in April 2004 at 367 pages, introducing widowed single mother Stella Rothchild and her romance with landscape architect Logan Kitridge as she begins piecing together clues about the ghostly Harper Bride.
Alternative text for cover: Cover of Blue DahliaBlack Rose followed in February 2005, the longest of the three at 412 pages, turning to Rosalind Harper's wary attraction to genealogist Mitchell Carnegie.
Alternative text for cover: Cover of Black RoseRed Lily closes the trilogy just seven months later, in August 2005, resolving the century-old mystery of the Harper Bride's identity through Hayley Phillips's romance with Roz's son Harper.
Alternative text for cover: Cover of Red LilyThe In the Garden Trilogy centers on In the Garden, a landscaping and garden-design business outside Memphis, Tennessee, run out of the historic Harper family estate — and on the ghostly "Harper Bride," a grieving spirit who has haunted the house for a century and whose identity none of the family has ever solved. Blue Dahlia opens with widowed single mother Stella Rothchild taking a job at In the Garden and falling for Logan Kitridge, the business's gruff landscape architect, while she and the Harper family start piecing together clues about the Bride's tragic past. Black Rose turns to Rosalind Harper, the business's steely, twice-widowed owner, and her wary attraction to Logan's business partner Mitchell Carnegie, a genealogist hired to finally research the Bride's history. Red Lily closes the trilogy with Hayley Phillips, Roz's pregnant, newly arrived cousin, and her romance with Roz's adult son Harper, even as the ghost's presence in the house grows more dangerous the closer the family gets to the truth.
The mystery of who the Harper Bride was in life, and why she died, runs beneath all three courtships, tying the trilogy's romance plots to a decades-old tragedy that only fully comes to light — and is finally laid to rest — in the last book.
Three: Blue Dahlia, Black Rose, and Red Lily.
Publication order: Blue Dahlia, Black Rose, Red Lily. The mystery of the ghostly Harper Bride builds across all three and resolves in the final book.
Yes. The trilogy's central mystery, the identity of the Harper Bride, is uncovered gradually across all three novels.
Stella Rothchild, Rosalind Harper, and Hayley Phillips — three women connected to the Harper family's In the Garden landscaping business, each the focus of one book.
No, it's a standalone trilogy set at the fictional Harper family estate outside Memphis, Tennessee.
Reading order last verified .