In a remote province of southern France a young woman, Sophie Saint-Pierre, nurtures an ambition to create a repeat flowering crimson rose, the like of which has never been seen in Europe. Then an American balloonist falls out of the sky and into her life; and the local doctor, who dreams of improving the world is also drawn into her orbit. But the year is 1789 and public events in Paris are closing in on the private world of the Saint-Pierre family.
Believing they have found their dream home in a beautiful English garden house, Alex and Kate Sheppard make a science-defying discovery in their garden and find their world unraveling in the wake of genetic experiments, coded journals, and murder.
When a human skeleton is unearthed during the restoration of Wickersham Priory's magnificent gardens, eccentric former professor of botany and amateur sleuth Lawrence Kingston launches his own investigation into the crime.
After a battle between two members of an heirloom rose society which results in a fiery accident that disfigures one of the combatants, Regan Culver tries to intervene but must first discover the truth about another similar incident twenty-five years in the past.
Tori Miracle travels to the small Amish town in Pennsylvania where her best friend's obnoxious husband is due to lead the town's annual festival begun by his ancestor, until he turns up dead, adorned by a single red rose.
Once Upon a Rose (Oct 2001) Nora Roberts ... [et al.]
Roses link four novellas by four romance writers. The best is Roberts' powerful fairy tale of a kingdom imprisoned in ice and snow that features a wounded hero from another land who appreciates all that the young hardworking queen does for her people, even risking her own life to magically heal those who need it. (Booklist review taken from Amazon.com).
