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Butterfly Trilogy #3
Wilder Oleander
Es ist das exklusivste Resort in Kalifornien – und Abby Tyler ist seine Schöpferin. Aber ihr Leben überschattet ein Geheimnis, das sie unbedingt lösen muss. Sie hat drei junge Frauen auf „The Grove“ eingeladen. Was nur Abby weiß: Eine davon könnte die Tochter sein, die ihr als Teenager geraubt wurde. Was Abby nicht ahnt: sie selbst schwebt in Gefahr...
464 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2005
34 people are currently reading
784 people want to read
About the author
Kathryn Harvey
28 books114 followersBarbara Wood was born on 30 January 1947 in Warrington, Lancashire, England, UK. Together with her parents and older brother, she immigrated to the United States. She grew up in Southern California and attended Los Angeles Schools. After High School, Barbara attended the University of California at Santa Barbara but left to train as a surgical technician. During this time, Barbara held numerous jobs, before she sold her first novel in 1976. A few years prior, Barbara met her husband George. To date, Barbara has written 22 books, including two under the pen name Kathryn Harvey, these books are quite different from the Barbara Wood's novels and she, her agent and editor agreed that a pen name would serve to indicate the difference. She is an international best selling author with books translated into over 30 languages. The reader is transported to exotic countries that Barbara has meticulously researched to provide her fans with a true sense of the culture and history relevant to each story. At the heart of every book, is a strong, independent woman. Currently, Barbara is busy working on her next story that will, no doubt, showcase an extraordinary heroine in an exciting and intriguing adventure.
When not writing, Barbara often takes time to enjoy the work of other authors, and that of a certain well-known martial artist, whose name is listed among the "Ten things you might not know about Barbara."
When not writing, Barbara often takes time to enjoy the work of other authors, and that of a certain well-known martial artist, whose name is listed among the "Ten things you might not know about Barbara."
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Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews
October 12, 2021
Una maravilla que te transporta a todas las cosas que pueden pasar en un pequeño oasis en medio del desierto. Lo recomiendo totalmente.
August 22, 2012
I was NOT AT ALL IMPRESSED by the third and final book in the Harvey "Butterfly" series. The steamy scenes could have been written by my nine year old using a Mad Lib book and the plot didn't fare much better in the polish department. I was also disappointed that the third book didn't tie itself to the first two books in any way. The entire time I was reading this book, I felt disconnected to the main characters and disappointed for having wasted my time and money on such a letdown.
November 21, 2024
O terceiro livro da série, infelizmente, empalidece comparado aos ótimos 'Butterfly" e "Stars". Por mais que VIP tente reaproveitar algumas ideias dos primeiros livros da série, falta nesse livro um pouco mais de identidade própria, algo que o ligue a uma época, como os outros dois, ou um personagem marcante.
Por mais que eu tenha apreciado Abby e suas 'supostas filhas', não me liguei tanto a nenhuma delas depois de um certo tempo, e os capítulos repletos de fantasias sexuais sendo narradas por vários parágrafos também acabaram ficando cansativos.
Eu sinto nesse livro que Kathryn Harvey tentou usar a sua própria fórmula e errou, se um dia for revelado que ele foi escrito por um outro escritor eu vou acreditar, pois a história é uma versão bem mais diluída do que Harvey tem a capacidade de escrever. O livro não é de todo ruim e consegue distrair, só não é um título que deveria ter sido adicionado ao duo Butterfly-Stars.
Por mais que eu tenha apreciado Abby e suas 'supostas filhas', não me liguei tanto a nenhuma delas depois de um certo tempo, e os capítulos repletos de fantasias sexuais sendo narradas por vários parágrafos também acabaram ficando cansativos.
Eu sinto nesse livro que Kathryn Harvey tentou usar a sua própria fórmula e errou, se um dia for revelado que ele foi escrito por um outro escritor eu vou acreditar, pois a história é uma versão bem mais diluída do que Harvey tem a capacidade de escrever. O livro não é de todo ruim e consegue distrair, só não é um título que deveria ter sido adicionado ao duo Butterfly-Stars.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 27, 2018
I'm not sure how this was part of a trilogy, it had nothing at all to do with the first two in the series. It was a good story regardless.
September 26, 2022
El libro que menos me ha gustado de la serie
August 9, 2011
Emmy Lou Pagan is on the lam. When she was 16, she was convicted of a murder she didn’t commit and sentenced to life in prison. She had been pregnant at the time, and the prison matrons stole her baby and sold it on the black market, telling her it had died. When she finds out the truth, she escapes prison and devotes her life to finding her child. She changes her name to Abby Tyler, and over the years, becomes a successful resort owner. Her resort is The Grove, located in the desert not far from Palm Springs, so remote that guests come and go by airplane rather than car. The Grove is a discreet, anything goes type of place frequented by celebrities and anyone else with the cash to live out a few of their fantasies.
Ophelia, Coco, and Sissy are three very different women who all receive notice that they won a contest entitling them to a week’s stay at the Grove. Coco, a police psychic, goes to the resort in search of her soul mate, eagerly hooking up with any man who seems like he might fit the bill, yet finding herself attracted to a man named Kenny who does a memory act at the resort. Kenny doesn’t seem to fit any of the criteria Coco’s crystal had promised her soul mate would have, but she can’t seem to stop thinking about him. Sissy receives a nasty surprise when she gets to the resort, causing her to examine her entire life and marriage. Ophelia comes to do some thinking. She’s got an intense personal dilemma on her hands, and hopes to be able to work it out at the resort. None of the women can remember entering a contest, but they all come to the resort for their own reasons. Abby Tyler has one reason for having invited the three women: one of them is her long-lost daughter.
While the guests at the resort live out their fantasies and work out their personal issues, a dark force is at work in Las Vegas. Mike Fallon is now an important businessman, but he’s had to silence a few people who know about his sordid past along the way. Now, Abby Tyler is looking into his baby smuggling activities, and he needs to silence her before his precious daughter’s wedding to a socially prominent man. While Abby Tyler and her guests go about their business, Fallon concocts a plan that could destroy everything.
Kathryn Harvey seems to have the formula down for a good thriller starring a woman with a past. Her two previous novels, Butterfly and Stars, did it a little better than this one, but this is still a good book on its own merits. Whereas Harvey’s earlier efforts delved deeply into the heroine’s back story, following her from her humble beginnings to the successful woman she becomes, this book merely made a few references to the past and dealt mostly with the present, concentrating more on sex and fantasies than the actual story. That’s great news for readers who go for that kind of thing, but it’s a bit disappointing for someone who loved the depth in Harvey’s earlier books. This is definitely an erotic thriller, but at least it refrains from using crude terms or being outright unrealistic in its descriptions. While her earlier work was better, Kathryn Harvey can still pen a gripping book.
Ophelia, Coco, and Sissy are three very different women who all receive notice that they won a contest entitling them to a week’s stay at the Grove. Coco, a police psychic, goes to the resort in search of her soul mate, eagerly hooking up with any man who seems like he might fit the bill, yet finding herself attracted to a man named Kenny who does a memory act at the resort. Kenny doesn’t seem to fit any of the criteria Coco’s crystal had promised her soul mate would have, but she can’t seem to stop thinking about him. Sissy receives a nasty surprise when she gets to the resort, causing her to examine her entire life and marriage. Ophelia comes to do some thinking. She’s got an intense personal dilemma on her hands, and hopes to be able to work it out at the resort. None of the women can remember entering a contest, but they all come to the resort for their own reasons. Abby Tyler has one reason for having invited the three women: one of them is her long-lost daughter.
While the guests at the resort live out their fantasies and work out their personal issues, a dark force is at work in Las Vegas. Mike Fallon is now an important businessman, but he’s had to silence a few people who know about his sordid past along the way. Now, Abby Tyler is looking into his baby smuggling activities, and he needs to silence her before his precious daughter’s wedding to a socially prominent man. While Abby Tyler and her guests go about their business, Fallon concocts a plan that could destroy everything.
Kathryn Harvey seems to have the formula down for a good thriller starring a woman with a past. Her two previous novels, Butterfly and Stars, did it a little better than this one, but this is still a good book on its own merits. Whereas Harvey’s earlier efforts delved deeply into the heroine’s back story, following her from her humble beginnings to the successful woman she becomes, this book merely made a few references to the past and dealt mostly with the present, concentrating more on sex and fantasies than the actual story. That’s great news for readers who go for that kind of thing, but it’s a bit disappointing for someone who loved the depth in Harvey’s earlier books. This is definitely an erotic thriller, but at least it refrains from using crude terms or being outright unrealistic in its descriptions. While her earlier work was better, Kathryn Harvey can still pen a gripping book.
June 19, 2020
Hinter vorgehaltener Hand tuschelt man über das exklusive Resort „The Grove“. Da wo heimliche Wünsche in Erfüllung gehen und nur die Creme de la Creme der Gesellschaft Zugang hat. Doch anstatt sich in ihrem Erfolg zu sonnen, wird das Leben der Besitzerin Abby Tyler, von einem Geheimnis überschattet. Als junges Mädchen brach sie aus dem Gefängnis aus und ist nun seit über 30 Jahren auf der Suche nach ihrer Tochter, die ihr bei der Geburt weggenommen wurde. Ein Privatdetektiv konnte es auf drei Mögliche junge Frauen eingrenzen. Diese lädt sie zu sich ein, unter dem Vorwand sie hätten ein Preisausschreiben gewonnen. Was sie aber nicht weiß, dass sie sich mit ihrer Suche einen mächtigen Feind gemacht hat. Den Boss des illegalen Adoptionsringes, der seinen Ruf nach 30 Jahren durch Abbys Suche gefährdet sieht, und damit auch die lukrative Heirat seiner Tochter in die Kreise der oberen Zehntausend.
Dies ist der dritte Teil der „Butterfly“-Serie, hat aber bis auf einen kurzen Hinweis auf die ersten beiden Teile nichts damit zu tun. Außer das die Grundzüge des Plots sich ähneln. Ansonsten kann man „wilder Oleander“ ruhig losgelöst von den beiden anderen lesen. Ich war schwer begeistert vom ersten Teil, den Zweiten hätte es nicht gebraucht, aber der Vollständigkeit halber war er jetzt auch nicht schlecht. Der dritte ist nettgemeinte Chick-lit. Nichts Ernsthaftes und nichts wirklich Neues. Einfach ein Aufgreifen des Grundthemas der ersten beiden Bücher nur mit wechselnden Protagonisten. Mal wieder über erfolgreiche Frauen, die sich emanzipieren, sowohl in beruflicher als auch in sexueller Hinsicht. Der Plot ist ein bisschen kitschig und zum Ende hin ein wenig unrealistisch, aber der gewohnt leicht Schreibstil von Barbara Wood alias Kathryn Harvey macht es doch zu einem kurzweiligen Lesevergnügen. Natürlich wendet sich alles zum Guten und jeder bekommt das oder denjenigen den er oder sie verdient. Nett zu lesen, aber kein Must in der Reihe und man kann auch gut weiterleben wenn man die Geschichte jetzt nicht gelesen hat.
Dies ist der dritte Teil der „Butterfly“-Serie, hat aber bis auf einen kurzen Hinweis auf die ersten beiden Teile nichts damit zu tun. Außer das die Grundzüge des Plots sich ähneln. Ansonsten kann man „wilder Oleander“ ruhig losgelöst von den beiden anderen lesen. Ich war schwer begeistert vom ersten Teil, den Zweiten hätte es nicht gebraucht, aber der Vollständigkeit halber war er jetzt auch nicht schlecht. Der dritte ist nettgemeinte Chick-lit. Nichts Ernsthaftes und nichts wirklich Neues. Einfach ein Aufgreifen des Grundthemas der ersten beiden Bücher nur mit wechselnden Protagonisten. Mal wieder über erfolgreiche Frauen, die sich emanzipieren, sowohl in beruflicher als auch in sexueller Hinsicht. Der Plot ist ein bisschen kitschig und zum Ende hin ein wenig unrealistisch, aber der gewohnt leicht Schreibstil von Barbara Wood alias Kathryn Harvey macht es doch zu einem kurzweiligen Lesevergnügen. Natürlich wendet sich alles zum Guten und jeder bekommt das oder denjenigen den er oder sie verdient. Nett zu lesen, aber kein Must in der Reihe und man kann auch gut weiterleben wenn man die Geschichte jetzt nicht gelesen hat.
October 30, 2017
Ich habe diese Reihe von Kathryn Harvey wirklich geliebt. Sie mir auf sage und schreibe 3 Jahre verteilt, damit sie nicht so schnell weggelesen sind. Und dann mündet das Ganze in einer derartigen Katastrophe 🆘🆘. Zum einen kam kein einziger meiner geliebten Charaktere aus den ersten beiden Bänden vor 😢😭. Dann fand ich die story an sich wahnsinnig dem ersten Teil abgekupfert 🖓😪. Also da frage ich mich manchmal wirklich, ob Autoren ihren Lesern gegenüber kein Schamempfinden haben oder einfach denken es merkt schon keiner ?!? Die "erotischen Szenen", die ja zu der Buchreihe gehören, waren meiner Meinung nach einfach unnötig und unästhetisch ohne Ende. Das Buch hat sich somit genau als das entpuppt, worauf der Titel schliessen lässt: ein Hausfrauenroman für gelangweilte Damen, die ein paar warmen Gedanken nachhängen wollen. Wer starke Frauen und eine aufregende Story sucht ist hier leider fehl am Platz 🤕😲😡 .
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April 29, 2013
When I saw that this book was billed as part of a trilogy with Butterfly and Stars, I was thrilled. Those books - delicious and fun fiction - made me want to devour this one. Even as I did, I wondered what was left to fill in after Stars? Well, after reading it, I think the answer was a whole two lines - a couple of offhand references to Butterfly early in the book. The general world was the same, that was it. I gave it two stars because if it hadn't been billed as part of a trilogy, I wouldn't have picked it up. If, for some reason I had, it may have rated three starts. I don't know. This is one of those times where a book suffers by comparison to an author's previous work.
January 2, 2015
Another decent read by Kathryn Harvey although I didn't like it as much as Stars or Butterfly. This one took me longer to read... Or maybe I was just sick of the Harvey formula. Woman goes into hiding. Woman opens up a highly successful business. Woman has a tough time finding love. Woman has heartbreak over losing a child. Woman caters to the rich and famous. Definitely a theme going on here. Still, there was a plot and a storyline.. And lots of gratuitous sex scenes which could have been cut out of the book completely...
November 4, 2013
It is just a regular book, but if you expect the third book of the Butterfly Trilogy, forget it, go for other book, this one has absolutely nothing to do with Butterfly and Stars. On top of that the story is very repetitive for those who read the other 2, a poor girl that got involved with a bad guy,go through fificult times, got rich and go looking for some lost relative and is persued by some guy that was poor and got rich as well. Not even the city where the resort which is the main scenario here as well is changed, like Stars it is near Palm Springs.
January 1, 2015
ok, i loved the first two books. after reading the first two books in this "trilogy" I was excited to read this one. should have saved my money. I was really disappointed. it is in NO way connected to the butterfly or stars characters. the storyline had promise and made sense. but the characters were flat and shallow. the sex scenes seemed almost an afterthought written by a high school student. I really am having a hard time even believing the same person wrote the first two books and this one. sad because I wasted money and time on this one.
October 7, 2012
This is supposed to be the third book in The Butterfly Trilogy. The first and second books, Butterfly and Stars, were quite good. However, compared to them, this one was pretty much trash. I had to make myself finish it. I definitely would NOT recommend anyone waste their time reading it. Read Butterfly and Stars, but forget this one as it truly has nothing to do with the characters or plot of the first two.
August 22, 2023
This was disappointing. Butterfly was such an excellent novel - it would have been better as a stand alone book vs a trilogy. The second one UNdid the awesome ending of the first, and this one was unrelated. 🤨
April 15, 2012
Gründe für das Buch:
- viele verschiedene charaktere und Sichtweisen
- gute verflechtung der Charaktere
- schnell zu lesende Schreibweise
Gründe gegen das Buch:
- einige unnötige und auch nich nachzuvollziehende Handlungen
- Sichtweisen manchmal nicht auseinander zu halten
- manchmal zu vorhersehbar auch wenn das Ende teilweise überraschend war
- viele verschiedene charaktere und Sichtweisen
- gute verflechtung der Charaktere
- schnell zu lesende Schreibweise
Gründe gegen das Buch:
- einige unnötige und auch nich nachzuvollziehende Handlungen
- Sichtweisen manchmal nicht auseinander zu halten
- manchmal zu vorhersehbar auch wenn das Ende teilweise überraschend war
August 15, 2012
Well, I thought it was a pretty good book but didn't have a clear trail to the other two Butterfly and Stars, other than the baby stealing ring. I did enjoy the two female characters stories of success after great injustice.
August 2, 2015
quite liked the story, illegal baby smuggling/adoptions & the search for a lost/stolen child. but at times, especialy getting towards the end, it occaionally got difficult to keep up as it began to change character POV every few paragraphs/pages, rather than at each chapter as it had been.
March 25, 2014
While good, I have no idea why this is claimed as the third book of the Butterfly series - I don't see how it connects at all. Besides maybe the mob guy is the one that sold the two woman in the previous books.
August 16, 2012
I really enjoyed this book/trilogy!
December 30, 2012
excellent!!!! Loved the entire series!! love how the characters changed from book to book yet stayed slightly connected.
February 21, 2013
Marshmallow trashy fun! Just in the mood for it.
August 17, 2013
Not as good as Butterfly or Stars, but I still enjoyed it. It is a story in itself and I'm not sure how it is considered part of a trilogy.
October 7, 2016
A different character introduced every other chapter all the way through.
January 15, 2014
Book 3 Loved it.
January 15, 2018
Barbara Wood hat wohl schon gespürt, dass dieses Buch nicht ihr großer Wurf war, deshalb unter Pseudonym geschrieben. Mehr solche Bücher und ich hätte niemals alle ihre Bücher gelesen.
Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews