Identity

 

NORA ROBERTS

Stats for my copy: Kindle edition, Pdf, St. Martin’s Press; expected publication May 2023.

How acquired: NetGalley.

(Goodreads synopsis below.)

My thoughts: I’ve only previously read six books by Nora Roberts and for the most part I’ve enjoyed them (especially BLACK HILLS which I highly recommend). But this one...just wasn’t at all what I expected I guess. I didn’t love it, didn’t hate it, but it was a bit of a slog to get through. I mean, when work is really busy it can take me longer to read a book, but this one took a month. Literally a month minus one day. Part of it was the writing style, which I do not remember from her previous books.

When she went over to join him, sat, she let out a sigh.

Smiling, Olivia reached down, gripped Morgan’s chin, gave it a gentle wiggle.

Those are just two small examples of the myriad sentences in the book with multiple commas and an absence of such words as “and” or “then”. I found it a bit jarring. And while I read an uncorrected digital galley of the book, meaning those quoted lines could of course be changed in the final copy, there are so many instances of the issue I’m complaining about that I’m confident they are not typos that will be edited or fixed but rather an artistic choice by the author.

I expected a romantic suspense story. There was very little suspense until the very end, and while there is a romance it wasn’t particularly romantic, other than the occasional passage here and there. I did quite like the hero, Miles, but as appealing as he was he didn’t seem fleshed out as much as the heroine. Which, of course it’s really her story, so that could have also been a choice the author made.

Overall, I enjoyed some parts much more than others, and I did love the relationship between the heroine and Howl, the hero’s dog. But I probably could have misplaced the book (or lost it from my Kindle app) at any point in the story and not been invested enough to really care if I never finished it. Regardless, I will continue to read Ms. Roberts’ books since I have very much enjoyed some of her in the past.

*received via NetGalley and voluntarily reviewed*

Goodreads Synopsis: 

Former Army brat Morgan Albright has finally planted roots in a friendly neighborhood near Baltimore. Her friend and roommate Nina helps her make the mortgage payments, as does Morgan's job as a bartender. But after she and Nina host their first dinner party—attended by Luke, the flirtatious IT guy who'd been chatting her up at the bar—her carefully built world is shattered. The back door glass is broken, cash and jewelry are missing, her car is gone, and Nina lies dead on the floor.

Soon, a horrific truth emerges: It was Morgan who let the monster in. "Luke” is actually a cold-hearted con artist named Gavin who targets a particular type of woman, steals her assets and identity, and then commits his ultimate goal: murder.

What the FBI tells Morgan is beyond chilling. Nina wasn't his type. Morgan is. Nina was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. And Morgan's nightmare is just beginning. Soon she has no choice but to flee to her mother's home in Vermont. While she struggles to build something new, she meets another man, Miles Jameson. He isn't flashy or flirtatious, and his family business has deep roots in town. But Gavin is still out there hunting new victims, and he hasn't forgotten the one who got away.

Blithe Images

NORA ROBERTS

Stats for my copy: Mass market paperback, Silhouette Books, 1982.

How acquired: Book Mooch

First line: The girl twisted and turned under the lights, her shining black hair swirling around her as various expressions flitted across her striking face.

(For the Goodreads synopsis, scroll to the bottom of this post.)

My thoughts: In the beginning I thought standard (for the time it was published in) category romance. Also, the heroine is a model, and models/beautiful women who all the men are attracted to are not my favorite heroines. But Hillary actually has two men in her life, the photographer she works with and a friend she dates platonically, of whom neither have any romantic designs on her, and it was refreshing. The friend only makes one appearance, but the photographer gets a little romance of his own with the hero's secretary.

There was one scene that gave me pause, and I had to remind myself how old the book is - Hillary and Bret are kissing and one thing starts to lead to another before she stops him, and he gets angry. Really angry, and accuses her of being a tease. Not a scene an author can get away with writing today.

Of course there are misunderstandings and Hillary and Bret are often at odds with one another, as well as Hillary and the Other Woman, who manages to keep driving a wedge between them. But it all comes out right in the end, and I absolutely loved the way Bret finally proposed marriage.

Goodreads synopsis: Beneath her sophisticated beauty, fashion model Hillary Baxter was still just a small-town girl from Kansas. How could she be expected to resist the devastating charm of her new employer, mesmerizing magazine mogul Bret Bardoff? Bret knew all the moves, all the right things to say to leave a woman defenseless. But as he discovered the alluring innocence behind Hillary's world famous face, it was Bret who was left defenseless...against the pull of his own heart. 

Black Hills

NORA ROBERTS

Goodreads synopsis: A summer at his grandparents' South Dakota ranch is not eleven-year-old Cooper Sullivan's idea of a good time. But things are a bit more bearable now that he's discovered the neighbor girl, Lil Chance, and her homemade batting cage. Even horseback riding isn't as awful as Coop thought it would be. Each year, with Coop's annual summer visit, their friendship deepens from innocent games to stolen kisses, but there is one shared experience that will forever haunt them: the terrifying discovery of a hiker's body.

As the seasons change and the years roll, Lil stays steadfast to her aspiration of becoming a wildlife biologist and protecting her family land, while Coop struggles with his father's demand that he attend law school and join the family firm. Twelve years after they last walked together hand in hand, fate has brought them back to the Black Hills when the people and things they hold most dear need them most.

Coop recently left his fast-paced life as an investigator in New York to take care for his aging grandparents and the ranch he has come to call home. Though the memory of his touch still haunts her, Lil has let nothing stop her dream of opening the Chance Wildlife Refuge, but something ... or someone ... has been keeping a close watch. When small pranks and acts of destruction escalate into the heartless killing of Lil's beloved cougar, recollections of an unsolved murder in these very hills have Coop springing to action to keep Lil safe.

Lil and Coop both know the natural dangers that lurk in the wild landscape of the Black Hills. Now they must work together to unearth a killer of twisted and unnatural instincts who has singled them out as prey.

Stats for my copy: Mass market paperback, Jove, 2010.

How acquired: Bought.

First line: Cooper Sullivan's life, as he'd known it, was over.

My thoughts: I've only read two Nora Roberts books before this one, back in 2009 (Brazen Virtue, which I have no memory of now but my notes say “I really liked it”) and 2010 (Divine Evil, which I vaguely remember, and noted “I don't think of her as a great writer, I think some of her writing is cliched.”) Well, I'm here to tell you that Black Hills has put Ms. Roberts front and center of my radar and made a believer out of me. I loved this book. Seriously, loved it.

I loved Lil. I adored Cooper. Childhood sweethearts, lovers as young college bound adults, short long-distance relationship, breakup. Twenty years later Lil is still angry at Coop for breaking her heart, and we get a long ways into the book before Coop gets the chance to explain himself to Lil. I'd forgiven him long before then. Well, no, actually, that's not true, because I didn't feel he needed forgiving. Even not yet knowing the circumstances of the split, I certainly wasn't putting any blame on either of them. But maybe because it was inevitable that they would be together by the end of the book. It is a romance, after all! And from the moment Coop arrived back in town to help out his grandparents, I just knew he was a good guy, and it was obvious neither of them ever really got over the other.

Lil runs a wildlife refuge, and there is a LOT of detail about the refuge woven into the story. The day to day stuff. Updating the website, vetting the animals, feeding the animals, cleaning their cages, educating the public. And a lot of about the land, tracking, Lil's love of riding the mountainside. It all felt very real, and I've no doubt Ms. Roberts did a lot of research.

But there's not just cougars and romance. There's a serial killer in the hills, and he's got Lil in his sites. When I got down to the last 100 or so pages, my anxiety level kept ratcheting up. I knew something was going to happen, Lil would be in danger and Cooper would probably rescue her. But the end of the book kept getting closer and closer, with me waiting and waiting for it. And when it finally did, I was sitting up in bed, tired but too tense to sleep until the book was over.

The characterization is wonderful, not just Lil and Coop, but Lil's best friend Tansy, Coops grandparents, Lil's parents, and many others. I loved the side plot about Tansy and her reservations about a relationship with the younger Farley. I liked that it was an interracial relationship, and while that was mentioned it wasn't a big deal and was accepted by all their family and friends.

Now I understand why Ms. Roberts is so dang popular!