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Blossoms
LOVE IN BLOOM — Celebrate the arrival of spring with a bouquet of exquisite stories by five acclaimed authors of romantic fiction. Brimming with the richness and delicate beauty of the season's first flower, this wondrous collection reveals blossoming love in all its myriad colors and forms. Full of passion and promise, scandal and heartache, and rekindled desire, these heartfelt tales prove that spring is a time for new beginnings as well as second chances... and that flowers are the perfect symbol for budding romance.
HYACINTHS FOR VICTORIA by Patricia Oliver
A GOLDEN CROCUS by Patricia Rice
THE FORBIDDEN DAFFODILS by Mary Balogh
VIOLETS ARE BLUE by Karen Harper
THE APPLE BLOSSOM BLOWER by Margaret Evans Porter
HYACINTHS FOR VICTORIA by Patricia Oliver
A GOLDEN CROCUS by Patricia Rice
THE FORBIDDEN DAFFODILS by Mary Balogh
VIOLETS ARE BLUE by Karen Harper
THE APPLE BLOSSOM BLOWER by Margaret Evans Porter
352 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published April 1, 1995
1 person is currently reading
224 people want to read
About the author
Mary Balogh
193 books6,401 followersMary Jenkins was born in 1944 in Swansea, Wales, UK. After graduating from university, moved to Saskatchewan, Canada, to teach high school English, on a two-year teaching contract in 1967. She married her Canadian husband, Robert Balogh, and had three children, Jacqueline, Christopher and Sian. When she's not writing, she enjoys reading, music and knitting. She also enjoys watching tennis and curling.
Mary Balogh started writing in the evenings as a hobby. Her first book, a Regency love story, was published in 1985 as A Masked Deception under her married name. In 1988, she retired from teaching after 20 years to pursue her dream to write full-time. She has written more than seventy novels and almost thirty novellas since then, including the New York Times bestselling 'Slightly' sextet and 'Simply' quartet. She has won numerous awards, including Bestselling Historical of the Year from the Borders Group, and her novel Simply Magic was a finalist in the Quill Awards. She has won seven Waldenbooks Awards and two B. Dalton Awards for her bestselling novels, as well as a Romantic Times Lifetime Achievement Award.
Mary Balogh started writing in the evenings as a hobby. Her first book, a Regency love story, was published in 1985 as A Masked Deception under her married name. In 1988, she retired from teaching after 20 years to pursue her dream to write full-time. She has written more than seventy novels and almost thirty novellas since then, including the New York Times bestselling 'Slightly' sextet and 'Simply' quartet. She has won numerous awards, including Bestselling Historical of the Year from the Borders Group, and her novel Simply Magic was a finalist in the Quill Awards. She has won seven Waldenbooks Awards and two B. Dalton Awards for her bestselling novels, as well as a Romantic Times Lifetime Achievement Award.
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
February 12, 2017
Spring is in the air and Mary Balogh starts off this anthology with The Forbidden Daffodils. What can I tell you? It was a heart wrenching twist because of a lack of communication. It began and ended with daffodils. It is the only romance in this anthology that I can recommend. This story is for fans of her earlier Signet Regencies. *5 stars*
Patricia Rice's A Golden Crocus followed using an opposites-attract trope. A gentleman wrote a letter to a woman he thought he loved and began it with, "Dear Sister". *2 Stars*
Patricia Oliver's Hyacinths For Victoria, Margaret Evans Porter's The Apple Blossom Bower and Laura Harper's Violets Are Blue rounded out this selection of short works that used similar plot devices. *2 1/2 stars* a piece.
Patricia Rice's A Golden Crocus followed using an opposites-attract trope. A gentleman wrote a letter to a woman he thought he loved and began it with, "Dear Sister". *2 Stars*
Patricia Oliver's Hyacinths For Victoria, Margaret Evans Porter's The Apple Blossom Bower and Laura Harper's Violets Are Blue rounded out this selection of short works that used similar plot devices. *2 1/2 stars* a piece.
November 5, 2011
Gave it 5 stars based solely on the Mary Balogh story, which is the only one I read. She is truly the master of the slow reveal. She doles out the backstory in little dollops at just the right pace. This was really a beautifully done short story. The Welsh setting and local color (who knew that the daffodil was a national symbol or that carving a spoon was a declaration of love?) made it even richer. The characters showed believable growth and really seemed like they deserved their HEA. And all of this in 70 pages!
February 12, 2013
I only read Mary Balogh's story initially, over a year ago, and it was quite lovely. Read Patricia Oliver's story today and it is delightful - also 4 stars.
I'll have to get hold of more of Patricia Oliver's books - I know that several Regency romance lovers think very highly of the ones she wrote between 1992 and 2000 (also under the pseudonym Olivia Fontayne).
I'll have to get hold of more of Patricia Oliver's books - I know that several Regency romance lovers think very highly of the ones she wrote between 1992 and 2000 (also under the pseudonym Olivia Fontayne).
July 26, 2014
Although anthologies tend to be uneven due to the shorter length and various authors, some good and some not so, this anthology is better than average.
The Forbidden Daffodils - Balogh - starts the book off with a tale of a young woman who ran away Greta Green with a fortune-hunter and was caught and returned to her family by a suitor; not her father, nor her two brothers. This ruins her an unequivocally as running away with the first man had ruined her. She refused to marry the man - a suitor she liked very much - and is sent to live with her aunts in the backend of nowhere (which is to say, Wales). After five years, the man who brought her back and proposed marriage has rented the big house and wants to understand why he was rejected. At least, that's what he tells himself. An excellent story; I would say typical Mary Balogh except there are stories of hers I detest. Five stars.
A Golden Crocus - Rice - confused me at first because I thought this a regency anthology. A Golden Crocus takes place in 1885 in Illinois. I wasn't immediately captured by the characters and tended to skim. Two cousins are discussing the letter one of them receives from her presumed suitor. She is a meek and mild maid, looking forward to nothing more than a house and husband with her letter-writing suitor. The other cousin is a lecturer for female rights This is a suitor-switching tale and, while I wasn't heavily invested, the characters were balanced and evenly handled. Three and a half stars, rounding up.
Hyacinths for Victoria - Oliver - Not my favorite story. After 7 years the heroine will attend a family gathering because she knows the once-hero will not be there. Fate decrees otherwise (otherwise, there wouldn't be a tale to tell) and she is faced with the man she jilted on the wedding day seven years ago. The question of why she jilted him is slow in coming - the eventual answer is that he was inept in love-making or maybe a little too eager. I didn't particularly like the heroine; a little too wimpy and dwelling in the past for my taste, and the hero was merely all right. An even three stars because I didn't skip the story although it read quickly because I'd start skimming anytime she started remember seven years back..
The Apple Blossom Bower - Porter - The squire's step-daughter is the daughter of the villainous smuggler and has a chip on her shoulder because of the many people's assumptions that since he was a smuggler then she and the rest of his family is as well. She has an eye for Sir Edwin Page who kissed her at the harvest fair but her mother warns her not to expect anything from him; that he will bed her then leave her. Sir Edwin would like to marry the squire's step-daughter. A friend of his comes to pay a visit and attempts to squash this budding romance for reasons of his own. A wonderful little story of how people surprise us by their actions. Easily four stars.
Violets are Blue - Harper - is another story taking place in the USA although in Baltimore in 1835. Violet's mother has recently died and someone is putting flowers on her grave. A confrontation with the perpetrator brings out an unknown part of her mother's life, of an early and eternal love with a sea captain as well as a suitor for Violet. I loved this story (although one of the secondary characters was a bit flat around the edges - like cardboard) and I love Violet's strength of character when she will not marry or betroth herself to Nathan according to his demands. Four and a half stars, round up.
The Forbidden Daffodils - Balogh - starts the book off with a tale of a young woman who ran away Greta Green with a fortune-hunter and was caught and returned to her family by a suitor; not her father, nor her two brothers. This ruins her an unequivocally as running away with the first man had ruined her. She refused to marry the man - a suitor she liked very much - and is sent to live with her aunts in the backend of nowhere (which is to say, Wales). After five years, the man who brought her back and proposed marriage has rented the big house and wants to understand why he was rejected. At least, that's what he tells himself. An excellent story; I would say typical Mary Balogh except there are stories of hers I detest. Five stars.
A Golden Crocus - Rice - confused me at first because I thought this a regency anthology. A Golden Crocus takes place in 1885 in Illinois. I wasn't immediately captured by the characters and tended to skim. Two cousins are discussing the letter one of them receives from her presumed suitor. She is a meek and mild maid, looking forward to nothing more than a house and husband with her letter-writing suitor. The other cousin is a lecturer for female rights This is a suitor-switching tale and, while I wasn't heavily invested, the characters were balanced and evenly handled. Three and a half stars, rounding up.
Hyacinths for Victoria - Oliver - Not my favorite story. After 7 years the heroine will attend a family gathering because she knows the once-hero will not be there. Fate decrees otherwise (otherwise, there wouldn't be a tale to tell) and she is faced with the man she jilted on the wedding day seven years ago. The question of why she jilted him is slow in coming - the eventual answer is that he was inept in love-making or maybe a little too eager. I didn't particularly like the heroine; a little too wimpy and dwelling in the past for my taste, and the hero was merely all right. An even three stars because I didn't skip the story although it read quickly because I'd start skimming anytime she started remember seven years back..
The Apple Blossom Bower - Porter - The squire's step-daughter is the daughter of the villainous smuggler and has a chip on her shoulder because of the many people's assumptions that since he was a smuggler then she and the rest of his family is as well. She has an eye for Sir Edwin Page who kissed her at the harvest fair but her mother warns her not to expect anything from him; that he will bed her then leave her. Sir Edwin would like to marry the squire's step-daughter. A friend of his comes to pay a visit and attempts to squash this budding romance for reasons of his own. A wonderful little story of how people surprise us by their actions. Easily four stars.
Violets are Blue - Harper - is another story taking place in the USA although in Baltimore in 1835. Violet's mother has recently died and someone is putting flowers on her grave. A confrontation with the perpetrator brings out an unknown part of her mother's life, of an early and eternal love with a sea captain as well as a suitor for Violet. I loved this story (although one of the secondary characters was a bit flat around the edges - like cardboard) and I love Violet's strength of character when she will not marry or betroth herself to Nathan according to his demands. Four and a half stars, round up.
December 19, 2010
Only read the Balogh - but it was really well done. Interesting conflict, out of the way setting, down-to-Earth characters - well, as down-to-Earth as genre romance gets, anyway.
March 26, 2018
I’ve only read Mary Balogh’s The Forbidden Daffodils and i really loved it. It's a big misunderstanding story, but it works just fine because it was a perfectly believable one.
September 27, 2018
Rating only for Mary Balogh.
August 17, 2021
The good news is that each of these stories is new to this publication. I'm more familiar with Balogh and Rice; I've only read one short story by each - Oliver and Porter. Please note that all of these are not British Regencies. The second and fifth stories are located in the US.
THE FORBIDDEN DAFFODILS (Mary Balogh) -- 4.5 stars
This well-written story of second chances is about Lady Katherine who has lived 5 years in the back of nowhere (the coast of Wales) in penance for her error at 18-years-of-age. At that time, she ran away with a fortune hunter to spite her father, brothers, and suitor, the Marquess of Ashendon. The Marquess brought Katherine back (not her father or brothers). She was punished for running away and not marrying the Marquess -- by sending her to live out her days in Wales. Now, five years later, he is here again to ask for Katherine's hand.
A GOLDEN CROCUS (Patricia Rice) -- 2 stars
This story takes place in Illinois in 1885 during the throes of the suffragette movement. Frankly, I was bored to tears. There are two cousins, one a firebrand for women's rights and the other is a mild woman seeking a home and hearth. Richard has come to claim the tame domestic woman but is charmed by the firebrand. Terrence wants to marry the firebrand but sees the value of the domestic motherly type. A yawn. I'm stunned; Patricia Rice writes wonderful books.
HYACINTHS FOR VICTORIA (Patricia Oliver) -- 3 stars
After 7 years of absence, Victoria has returned to the arms of her family for her godmother's birthday. She was destined to marry seven years ago but jilted her intended the morning of the wedding. Now they meet again at the birthday party. Stories that spend too much time in the past are automatically weak stories. The only author I thought did such a long past story well was Jane Austen.
THE APPLE BLOSSOM BOWER (Margaret Evans Porter) -- 4 stars
Annis Kelland is the daughter of a notorious smuggler and the stepdaughter of the local squire. She is interested in Sir Edwin Page (and vice versa) but her mother warns Annis that earls generally didn't marry country girls. Page's long-time friend comes to visit and he tries to put a halt between the couple by telling Annis that Edwin is planning to marry his sister. This is a pleasant way to while away time.
VIOLETS ARE BLUE (Karen Harper) -- 3 stars
The scene is Baltimore in 1835. The story is engaging until the end. Violet and Nathan Stone are empathetic characters that the reader will like. Let me cut to the chase; the ending is stupid. Having personally lived in a hostile, foreign country, there is NO WAY this was the right choice -- and certainly not in 1835. If Nathan wasn't willing to give up his position in China, Violet should have let him go. Living in a hostile country alone, as Violet would be, is beyond stupid. I lived in a foreign, hostile country and you need the family to be able to survive. Nathan was right, the country was not a safe place for Caucasians at that time -- for either of them. The story was unique and great until the closing pages.
THE FORBIDDEN DAFFODILS (Mary Balogh) -- 4.5 stars
This well-written story of second chances is about Lady Katherine who has lived 5 years in the back of nowhere (the coast of Wales) in penance for her error at 18-years-of-age. At that time, she ran away with a fortune hunter to spite her father, brothers, and suitor, the Marquess of Ashendon. The Marquess brought Katherine back (not her father or brothers). She was punished for running away and not marrying the Marquess -- by sending her to live out her days in Wales. Now, five years later, he is here again to ask for Katherine's hand.
A GOLDEN CROCUS (Patricia Rice) -- 2 stars
This story takes place in Illinois in 1885 during the throes of the suffragette movement. Frankly, I was bored to tears. There are two cousins, one a firebrand for women's rights and the other is a mild woman seeking a home and hearth. Richard has come to claim the tame domestic woman but is charmed by the firebrand. Terrence wants to marry the firebrand but sees the value of the domestic motherly type. A yawn. I'm stunned; Patricia Rice writes wonderful books.
HYACINTHS FOR VICTORIA (Patricia Oliver) -- 3 stars
After 7 years of absence, Victoria has returned to the arms of her family for her godmother's birthday. She was destined to marry seven years ago but jilted her intended the morning of the wedding. Now they meet again at the birthday party. Stories that spend too much time in the past are automatically weak stories. The only author I thought did such a long past story well was Jane Austen.
THE APPLE BLOSSOM BOWER (Margaret Evans Porter) -- 4 stars
Annis Kelland is the daughter of a notorious smuggler and the stepdaughter of the local squire. She is interested in Sir Edwin Page (and vice versa) but her mother warns Annis that earls generally didn't marry country girls. Page's long-time friend comes to visit and he tries to put a halt between the couple by telling Annis that Edwin is planning to marry his sister. This is a pleasant way to while away time.
VIOLETS ARE BLUE (Karen Harper) -- 3 stars
The scene is Baltimore in 1835. The story is engaging until the end. Violet and Nathan Stone are empathetic characters that the reader will like. Let me cut to the chase; the ending is stupid. Having personally lived in a hostile, foreign country, there is NO WAY this was the right choice -- and certainly not in 1835. If Nathan wasn't willing to give up his position in China, Violet should have let him go. Living in a hostile country alone, as Violet would be, is beyond stupid. I lived in a foreign, hostile country and you need the family to be able to survive. Nathan was right, the country was not a safe place for Caucasians at that time -- for either of them. The story was unique and great until the closing pages.
reprint
April 12, 2020Balogh The Forbidden Daffodils rereleased in ebook Second Chances
HYACINTHS FOR VICTORIA by Patricia Oliver
A GOLDEN CROCUS by Patricia Rice
THE FORBIDDEN DAFFODILS by Mary Balogh
VIOLETS ARE BLUE by Karen Harper
THE APPLE BLOSSOM BLOWER by Margaret Evans Porter
HYACINTHS FOR VICTORIA by Patricia Oliver
A GOLDEN CROCUS by Patricia Rice
THE FORBIDDEN DAFFODILS by Mary Balogh
VIOLETS ARE BLUE by Karen Harper
THE APPLE BLOSSOM BLOWER by Margaret Evans Porter
June 2, 2023
Once again Balogh’s is the best of the bunch (4 ⭐️). Didn’t read the ones set in the US. Really disliked Hyacinths for Victoria (2 ⭐️) and liked The Apple Blossom Bower (3.5 ⭐️) though its ending felt a little abrupt.
January 15, 2018
Really Liked Mary Balogh's story...which I'd rate a 4.5
March 1, 2018
Read Mary balogh‘ Story only. Ok read.
February 26, 2021
Seldom does an anthology not contain one story worth buying the book for. Balogh and Harper got a 2.5 each. The rest 0.
Read
January 29, 2016I cannot recommend this book. I forced myself through three of the five stories and stopped partway through the fourth, so maybe the fifth was good - but I just didn't care for the rest. The characters were uniform in their stupidity and stubbornness.
March 24, 2015
For aMary Balogh story: Near perfect hero for me. I love constancy in my heroes. And I like the all the effort but not so good results in terms of love gifts. I also liked that the heroine is not as shallow as I initially believed her to be. And I love the spinster aunts!
July 15, 2013
Rating for: The Forbidden Daffodils by Mary Balogh.
April 3, 2020
Balogh - "The Forbidden Daffodils"
B+
I enjoyed my second reading just a much as the 1st reading.
B+
I enjoyed my second reading just a much as the 1st reading.
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews