Member Reviews
This is a new to me author and I was not disappointed. I loved the characters, the mystery, and the happily ever after. It held my attention from beginning to end.
Legacy is everything you’d expect from a Nora Roberts novel: detailed look into the main characters backstory, heroine (and hero) has to overcome some crazy messed up life roadblocks and emerges stronger, love is found along the way, villain is defeated. But Legacy is so much more than that. A few moments had me laughing at the ridiculousness (oh five year old boys), and I teared up on two occasions. Roberts finds the balance between the ugliness of the villain and the love of family for the main characters.
I received a copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley. All opinions are my own.
I was given the chance to read this book for free in NetGalley in return for my honest review.
Legacy is about a woman, Adrian, who grew up with a fitness guru single mother. When Adrian turns 17 she makes her own fitness video and starts on her journey of becoming famous for fitness also. She starts to receive threatening poems in the mail, one a year, but is encouraged to ignore them. After a few years of living in NYC, she decides to move to her grandparents home in the country and continue to do her fitness from there. The poems never stop and eventually it escalates and comes to a thrilling and action packed peak.
I've always loved Nora Roberts style of writing and how she makes you feel like you honestly know the characters from your real life, and this book didn't disappoint there. However, I did feel the book was a bit predictable and didn't really get suspenseful until the last 200 pages.
I love the romantic suspense that Nora Roberts does . This one had it all. I loved the slow build of the relationship all their life so when they get together it didn't feel like insta love. The character build was amazing , the suspense was pure Nora , you know who done it but you are still at the edge of your seat.
I highly recommend Legacy by Nora Roberts. It's a stand alone Mystery/Romantic Suspense and one of her best. I loved everything about it. The characters are believable. The writing is descriptive and vivid. There were twists I wasn't suspecting.
I did receive an ARC and this is my honest review. I will be purchasing the audiobook when available.
The story started out good, but I quickly became bored and found I was forcing myself to read. I decided to give the story to 25% before making a final decision. I might try to come back to it again one day, but for now, I'm giving up.
Thanks to Netgalley for giving me an ARC.
As a long time NR fan, I am so sad that this one didn't work for me. I just never connected to the story and felt like it needed to move a little faster. This could absolutely be my mood, but it just didn't land for me this time. Thank you for the early copy.
Thank you NetGalley, Nora Roberts and St. Martin's Press for the ARC of Legacy. This is my personal review.
This book was amazing! Nora Roberts has again for me written a very captivating novel.
The suspense was heart pounding to read and kept me on the edge of my seat as I read.
The family dynamics along with the connection of friends and the storylines of Adrian and Raylan intertwining are so well written.
This is one book to add to your books to read this summer. It has everything a perfectly written novel should have- romance, family, suspense, and mystery. Nora Roberts has given us another novel that will stay with you long after you have read the last page.
Nearly twenty years ago, Nora Roberts sparked my love story with fiction. I fell in love with her stories and spent the next two decades reading darn near everything she's ever written.
Nora is my "go-to" author. She's my comfort blanket. She's that one author that I can read without even knowing the synopsis. So... imagine my utter delight to be given an arc of Legacy! ❤
This book did not disappoint. It is everything you'd hope for in a Nora Roberts novel: strong women, friendship, family, suspense, mystery, and of course, a love story, 🥰 I absolutely adore Adrian and Raylan. I love their friends and family, Sadie and Jasper. I didn't want it to end!
I don't know how Nora does it... but she finds a way of making her readers care so deeply about her characters. I was so invested in them and their stories. And that, my friends, is what makes a fantastic story. 5 huge stars for Legacy!
Thank you NetGalley, Nora Roberts, and the publisher for my free copy in exchange for an honest review. 💕
Someone has been sending creepy letters to Adrian for years but now things have amped up. The daughter of Lina, a fitness guru, she now has her own business and a happier life than she could have expected given what happened when she was 7. Luckily, she had strong grandparents and good friends to help her through her adolescence and they are still with her. Especially Raylan. While this is a thriller (the stalker turns out to be a serial killer), it's also a romance, thus satisfying Roberts' fans who rely on her for plots that pull in multiple elements, No spoilers from me but this gets a little wild near the end. You'll root for Adrian and Raylan. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. A perfect travel or beach book.
This was a great book of how Adrian found her own way in life, instead of more easily capitalizing on her mother's success. What starts out as a story of a child raising herself with the help of a nanny, you can't help but fall in love with her, as she really starts to love herself, and do what she thinks is best for her.
My review of Legacy by Nora Roberts is in the May 2021 issue of GumshoeReview.com and is exclusive to them until June 1st, 2021. You can read the review at this link: <http://www.gumshoereview.com/php/Review-id.php?id=6746>.
Once again, Nora Roberts delivers. You go into the book knowing exactly what to expect - a protagonist with an absurdly lovely lifestyle that is 95% magical, 5% deep underlying trauma. But what keeps people coming back is the knowledge that there will be a happy ending and strong female friendships throughout. Not the best, far from the worst, feels comfy and just right.
I've read and enjoyed some Nora Roberts novels in the past, so I was excited to be able to get an advanced copy of this book. She often tells very complex tales about women and their relationships to each other, and she does it well. This book is no exception. Lina and her daughter Adrian are not very close due to the fact that her mother was often gone, traveling to build a billion-dollar fitness business while Adrian was a child. Adrian follows in her mother's footsteps, producing increasingly popular fitness videos for the masses, but her fame bring unwanted attention in the form of death threats that Lina doesn't take seriously, causing a further fissure between the two. This book also tells the story of Raylan, a young boy Adrian had a crush on as child who has grown into a very attractive man. Though there is the mystery of who is sending the threats, the main focus of the book is not on those threats, so this is not the usual Roberts thriller. This is more about the characters, who she builds up masterfully. It's about Lina and Adrian and their cool tolerance of each other, and the burgeoning relationship between Adrian and Raylan. I especially love Raylan, who falls for Adrian even though she is the definition of a strong, independent woman. In my experience, few of these men exist in the world, so it is quite dreamy to read about one here. Yes, we get to the heart of the mystery, but this is mostly about character building, so be ready for intense dialogue and a romance at the heart.
Adrian Rizzo was destined for greatness. After all, her mother Lina was a fitness icon. Following in the footsteps of her mother, Adrian forms her own alliance consisting of video and tech-nerdish high school classmates. Together, they develop a their own fitness brand and exercise DVDs that rivals that of Adrian’s mother.
Meanwhile, there are dark forces at work threatening to undermine Adrian’s brand as well as her life. Who could be behind the threatening letters disguised as poetry?
Tagged as a mystery/thriller/romance, I didn’t think this novel quite fit into those genres. To me, it was more women’s fiction since the primary focus of the novel centered around the mother-daughter dynamic and how Lina’s actions shaped Adrian’s life and her relationships.
I could relate to all of the characters in the novel. There were Adrian’s nerdy classmates, who because of Adrian’s own intelligence, became a team of tech and video dynamos. The lovable Popi, Adrian’s grandfather. And, of course, Adrian’s childhood crush, Raylan Wells.
The plot was well planned, and flowed very nicely. However, the novel was seemingly too long. At several points in the novel, I just wanted closure. To me, the novel could have ended earlier than it did, and I probably would have rated it higher.
Overall, Legacy was a very good novel, but not one of Nora Roberts’ best. Three likable stars.
I received a digital ARC from St. Martin’s Press through NetGalley. The review herein is completely my own and contains my honest thoughts and opinions.
It has been a while since I read a Nora Roberts standalone novel. I tend to be more of a fan of her long-running In Death series, which is always a day of publication purchase. But when I was offered an advance copy, the premise was so interesting I jumped right on it. Legacy sounded like the perfect pandemic read for someone who has been in a bit of a reading "slump." I was not disappointed.
Seven-year-old Adrian Rizzo met her biological father for the first and last time on the day he tried to kill her. Adrian was the product of an ill-advised affair between Lina, her mother, and her college professor. Lina had broken off the affair when she discovered the professor was a married philanderer. She had gone on to be a famous and successful fitness guru and raised Adrian alone. With fame and fortune came a curious "journalist" who dug up the affair and wrote about it, bringing the murderously enraged professor banging on her door. Lina knew he was bad news, but not a psycho, and managed to dispatch him before he actually killed Adrian. In the wake of this scandal, Lina sends Adrian to her parents in Maryland to get her away from it. It was a wonderful solution, as Lina's parents are both charmers who gave her a chance to be a child, make friends, and learn some wisdom from them. She also meets her first crush, the green-eyed Raylan, the brother of a friend.
Years later, Adrian has built a successful career as a fitness guru on her own, globetrotting and turning out bestselling videos. She made good friends in school who have made their individual contributions to her success and their own. They are a tight group, not only business partners but true friends. With success comes unwanted attention in the form of threatening rhyming messages. At first, they appeared about once a year but have increased in frequency and virulence. When events take Adrian back to Maryland, she will need the support of all her friends and that early crush, Raylan.
Good characterization and plotting are hallmarks that Roberts has developed over her long and prolific career. I thoroughly enjoyed this suspenseful and romantic novel. Thanks to NetGalley.com and St. Martins for an advance copy. The opinions are my own.
I devoured it in a day and loved every second. I loved how Adrian used her skills and became an entrepreneur so young. She worked hard and had such a clear vision of her goals. It was awesome to see. Just like in all of Nora's books, family connections are extremely important. I loved the relationship with Adrian and her grandparents.
Raylan was such a gem of a character. He was sweet, and nerdy, and loving and so much fun. I got a little worried when his story took a turn that I hadn't expected, but I knew Nora would work it all out in the end.
The only thing I would have liked was a bit more underlying steam to their relationship. It was more of a slow burn friends-to-lovers thing, rather than a bam! attraction. But if I'm honest, it suited the characters well.
Overall, this book was wonderful and everything I would expect from Nora Roberts.
This is an honest review in exchange for the NetGalley copy I received.
If you have read enough Nora Roberts, you've read this. I love her books. But I feel the themes she's handling are gettinga bit of for me. It happens especially if you've been reading her for 15 years.
Coke-guzzling pasta-making heroine, stalker, idyllic mid Western setup, friendship, family, etc. The author has brought in so many elements from her usual tropes, including a supernatural/superhero story within story, that she doesn't have space to explore the relationship between the hero and the heroine. Somewhere in the middle of the book there was also like a justification of why the author writes what she writes, that felt too out of place to me.
The 3-rating I'm giving is for old times sake.
I am very grateful for the advanced reader copy of this book by Nora Roberts. It was an exciting read and I loved it. The way Nora Roberts wrote made me feel like I was there with the characters feeling all their emotions with them. It was so easy to imagine all the details. She kept the pace of the book moving which I appreciated because I do not enjoy books with a slower pace. The story was very plot driven, with some added character growth as well. Although I could predict some of the love story, the rest of the events kept me guessing the entire time. The only drawback I had was when I first started the book I was getting confused at who was talking and who everyone was. The multiple points of view changing in the middle of a chapter was something I had to get used to, but once I remembered who every character was it was no longer an issue. Great read!! Thank you for the advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.
I don't really know how I feel about this novel. The beginning sucked me in, it had my interest, I was invested but then... nothing really exciting happens. We are given wealthy, perfect characters, side stories that don't really do much for the "big" picture. The amount of characters to keep track of is lengthy, yet you don't really know much about anyone in the end. As a reader of thrillers, I just don't think this was meant for me. Roberts is a fantastic writer. This book was well-written, just not what I had in mind when I picked it up and read the synopsis. Having said that, I am still a fan and plan to continue to read Roberts' work.