Hideaway by Nora Roberts is another one of her wonderful standalone novels. The story revolves around the Sullivan’s, a famous Hollywood family, with the oldest member, a film legend, having recently died at the age of 92, and many of his children/grandchildren are also Hollywood royalty. The story begins with a bang, as child star, 10-year-old, Caitlyn Sullivan (Cate), gets kidnapped during a family celebration in Big Sur. After being terrorized, she manages to escape, and ends up at a local ranch who protects her and brings her safely home. When the police come, they suspect an inside job, and Cate reveals that her mother was the one who told her where to hide during a hide and seek game, and when she was locked up, she heard the man talking on the phone and recognized her mother’s voice. Everything changes for Cate, as her mother and two others are sent to jail. She will spend a few years in Ireland with her grandmother, with visits from her father and grandfather.

At 18, she resumes her acting career, and the story revolves around Cate trying to cope with the past, and finding a way move on. She also keeps contact with the family that helped her years before, and to her surprise, the young boy who helped her, Dillon, turns into a hot young man. When Cate’s mother, an actress, is released from jail, Cate avoids her like the plague, as she hates her mother; who would do anything to get publicity, including using the media to fake plead apologies to her daughter.

What follows is a wonderful and intense story, as we watch Cate grow and become stronger, even when she starts receiving scary phone calls; as her ordeal is not over. I loved how the family was so loyal and protective of each other; always being there for Cate. After having some bad relationships, Cate returns home to Big Sur and meets up with Dillon and his family. In a short time, she and Dillon find themselves falling for each other, but she worries about anyone in her family getting hurt. The original two members of the police who helped solve the kidnapping years before, suspect some recent murders of those previously involved, might be an act of vengeance.

Hideaway was a wonderful, emotional and intense story that had a bit of everything; family, romance, love, betrayal and vengeance. I thought Roberts created a wonderful group of secondary characters that made this story even better. Nora Roberts once again gives us a terrific family saga story that was so very well written. I suggest you make sure you read Hideaway.

4.5 stars

An early trauma changes the course of one family’s trajectory in Hideaway—the latest domestic drama from author Nora Roberts.

Nine-year-old Caitlyn (Cate) Sullivan came from a long line of Hollywood royalty, a family who adored her. But while at the family home in Big Sur, California, Cate was abducted while she and her cousins played hide-and-seek.

Cate was no delicate flower, however. She was smart, resourceful and quick thinking, managing to escape her captors and finding refuge in a nearby farmhouse. There she collided with a young Dillon Cooper and his family, who gave her a safe space and beckoned for help.

That terrifying night would shape the course of all their lives—Cate, her family, the Coopers, and those involved—and years later, would come to a final, frightening culmination.

We follow Cate throughout the years, as she fled to Ireland with her grandmother to find comfort, to New York to explore her identity and seek new opportunities, and eventually back to Los Angeles and Big Sur, to confront the memories that haunted her since childhood.

But wherever she went, those whose sought revenge followed, threatening to derail her life once again.

Because the novel takes place over the course of many years, we really get to know Cate, Dillon, the Sullivans, and the Coopers. The characters come alive vividly through Roberts’ expert hand, making it easy to feel connected to them. The narrative had echoes of Come Sundown, where we have runway to see how characters evolve over time as Roberts simultaneously explores the deep scars of emotional trauma.

This is a story about the families we’re born into and the families that are forged. About betrayal, vengeance and love. And in true (and wonderful) Nora Roberts fashion, it’s a story brimming with ratcheting suspense and heartwarming romance.

Hideaway is another binge-worthy hit by an author who always delivers.

Hideaway is the latest novel from Nora Roberts. She wastes no time introducing us to the Sullivan family, known to be Hollywood royalty. The family has gathered at their home in Big Sur, California, for the funeral of Liam Sullivan, the patriarch of the family, and during the celebration of his life, 10-year-old Caitlyn (Cate) sneaks off for a game of hide-and-go seek and promptly gets herself kidnapped. She's a scrappy, determined young girl and manages to break free from her captors, running off into the woods until she finds safety at the Cooper home, who help reunite her with her loved ones. The whole ordeal is supposed to be over but even after reuniting with her family, she's still in danger from other forces at play. We follow Cate from when she is a young girl all the way up to adulthood, looking for herself.

I started reading Nora Roberts back in junior high so I've had a long relationship with her novels. The Chesapeake Bay Saga, the MacGregor trilogy, the books she writes under her pseudonym J.D., Robb, I really enjoyed all of them. After taking a few years off from reading her novels, I recently got back into them. I was excited to obtain an advanced reading copy of Under Currents last year and a Netgalley ARC of this one. I don't know; I felt a little disappointed by both of them.

First, this is not a suspense novel because we know who the villains are right from the start. The story is very black-and-white. Cate and her family, the good guys. Kind, thoughtful, caring people. The kidnappers, terrible, awful people. It was boring and her descriptions of how terrible the kidnappers were to harm such a family, well, it was boring. In addition, there is never a moment where you're left wondering how things are going to play out. As a result, the end feels pretty anti-climatic and ends on a strange note.

That said, Nora Roberts has always been very good at establishing familial relationships and that much is evident here among the members of the Sullivan family. Love and family are at the heart of the book while the secondary elements (greed, revenge, hate) aren't enough to keep the tension afloat. As for the romance, I simply didn't buy the fact that Dillon pined after Cate for nearly two decades and that she was the woman he measured all women against. Dude, she was 10-years-old when you first met and you rarely kept in touch. The book is long, with a lot of repetition and drawn out dialogue and scenes.

Also, on a final note, I get it. Nora Roberts writes lily-white characters. But the two POC characters she included in this novel, well, they didn't fare very well. There was an attack on Cate's boyfriend.
The attack was coordinated by one of the villains in the novel and to throw the police off the scent, the attackers used racial slurs. It was cheap and should not have been included. Second, the inclusion of the stereotypical housekeeper that pointedly had a Spanish name and couldn't speak "proper" English to get across her thoughts. Like c'mon.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the advanced reading copy.