I received a complimentary digital copy of this book from the publisher and NetGalley. This review is my voluntary and unbiased opinion.

“power to do good, is the true and lawful end of aspiring.” Sir Francis Bacon

A tumultuous and disturbing story about unconventional families and struggles to maintain safety and resilience. It might be a trigger for those sensitive to stories involving domestic abuse, serial killers and mass shootings.

“Some people leave a legacy of goodness behind them.”

In Georgetown, Adrian Rizzo has only known an unconventional family environment moving several times since age 7 with her mother, Lina Rizzo and her friend, Mimi. They have lived in LA, Chicago or Miami where she was homeschooled by Mimi as Lina focused on building her company, Yoga Baby. Everything changed the day Jon Bennett barged into their house, beat Mimi, grabbed Adrian and began beating Lina. Jon had taught English literature at Georgetown University until a reporter exposed his affair with Lina. It was this fatal night as he toppled over the railing that Adrian learned that the angry man was her father.

Lina developed a successful career in fitness, yoga, and healthy lifestyle. She was raised in rural Travelers Creek where her parents Sophia and Dom run a restaurant, Rizzo Italian Restaurant. Adrian spent most summers with her grandparents as her mother traveled promoting her business. It was during that time she met 7 year old Maya and her friend Cassie and Maya’s older brother Rylan, 10. Jan Wells worked as a cook for Rizzo's Restaurant after her husband left her to raise Rylan and Maya alone.

As the years pass, Adrian seems to follow in the path of her mother developing yoga videos for kids. She moves to NY where she meets friends who help her with her ambitious campaign to be as successful as her mother. Unfortunately, the independent teen soon becomes the target of a stalker after appearing on magazine covers with the success of her business growing. Adrian has legitimate reason to worry as she begins receiving creepy poems and senses her life is in danger.

Although there is a backdrop of suspense and danger, several characters exhibit extraordinary strength and courage with their sacrifices and acts of bravery.

While this book wasn't my favorite of the author's, I would still consider it an enjoyable read. This is a thicker book but it read fairly quickly. Looking forward to more from this author.

Adrian Rizzo was almost killed by her father when she was seven. Her mother Lina protected her, going so far as to leave her with her grandparents for an extended visit. As an adult, with a successful business that she started in her teens, Adrian continued to enjoy the visits, meeting up with childhood friends. Plagued by letters from a mystery writer for years, will Adrian's decision to stay in the country put her loved ones at risk?

With Nora Roberts books, what you see is usually what you get. The suspense thriller aspects are good, but too predictable. The romance angle is typically straightforward and what one might expect.

I personally thought that the side plot regarding the mystery letter writer went on entirely too long. Regarding the romance, it was forshadowed so long that the eventual relationship was almost an afterthought. Readers who like Nora Roberts, especially the romance angle, will enjoy this quick read, but I would not recommend it for readers of suspense thrillers.

Disclaimer: I was given an Advanced Reader's Copy by NetGalley and the publisher, St. Martin's Press. The decision to read and review this book was entirely my own.

This book was amazing! I enjoyed it so much, great storyline with interesting characters! I love everything Nora Robert’s writes! I highly recommend this book to everyone!

FINAL DECISION: The mystery wasn't that strong for me, but I loved the relationship between these characters and the glimpse of these lives that we learn about. Adrian is a great heroine, and Raylan is just adorable. Very enjoyable read even if not perfect.

THE STORY: Adrian Rizzo met her father on the day he tried to kill her and her mother.
In the aftermath, her mother Lina brought her to her grandparents who live in a small town in Maryland. Adrian enjoyed that summer and met her best friend -- and her older brother, Raylan. Decades later, Adrian and Raylan are living in the same town and things seem to bring them together. At the same time, Adrian is dealing with a stalker who has sent her threatening poems for years. Her stalker is escalating, however, and is taken with murdering women as he zeros in on Adrian.

OPINION: This was quite an enjoyable journey with these characters. I really loved Adrian and Raylan, who are both such caring people. Their story was very compelling, and their life as they grow together was engaging to me. I liked that the two of them had complete lives apart, but then their lives begin to overlap.

Roberts does such a great job of building these towns with characters who are interesting in their own right and yet don't overwhelm the story. What she also does so well is create stories where the romance is essential to the story, and yet this is the story of a woman who has managed to build her own life with friends and family. The man adds to her existence, but she has a pretty good life even without him.

I've been reading a lot of women's fiction these days, and this book demonstrates what I find missing from those stories. This book has complex characters and never seems to scream -- I'm a powerful woman. Instead, the characters are so good, and I am interested in their lives. Even without the drama of the mystery in the story, I would have been satisfied reading how these characters manage to find one another and create the possibility of sharing a life together. I supposed I should go back and read more of Robert's standalone romances.

WORTH MENTIONING: This book has significant violence, including abuse, murders, and a school shooting. Most, but not all, of the violence occurs off-screen.

CONNECTED BOOKS: LEGACY is a standalone book.

STAR RATING: I give this book 4.5 stars.

NOTE: I received an eARC of this book via Netgalley. I was not required to write a review or to write a positive review. All opinions contained herein are my own.

Nora Roberts never disappoints me and this book didn’t change that thought.

It was such a picturesque setting and drew me in right away.

I love the detail she provides in her writing.

I enjoyed Nora Roberts’s latest release, Legacy, immensely, so let’s get that out of the way first. However, readers who expect something like Whiskey Beach or Come Sundown, which are based around suspense plots but focus heavily on romantic development, won’t find that here. Legacy continues the pattern Roberts began with Shelter in Place in 2018. Her most recent standalone novels aren’t structured as romances or romantic suspense stories. Instead, they follow the characters through long periods of their lives as they learn who they are and forge their paths. Shelter in Place, Under Currents, Hideaway, and now Legacy are more in the vein of women’s fiction with suspense and romantic elements built in.

We meet the heroine, Adrian Rizzo, when she’s seven. Her father, who had an affair with her mother, Lina Rizzo, when she was in college, has had no part in Lina’s or Adrian’s life since Lina told him she was pregnant. Now, however, the news of their affair and Adrian’s birth has come out. He’s enraged and comes to Lina’s home in Georgetown for revenge. Because I don’t want to spoil it, I’ll just say this doesn’t go well for him.

Roberts introduces the supporting cast slowly and gives us the chance to get to know them. This starts after the clash with Adrian’s father. To protect Adrian from the resulting publicity, Lina takes her daughter to her parents in Maryland. There Adrian meets Maya and Raylan Wells, who’ll be part of her life going forward. Raylan is a comic book geek and an artist with a good bit of skill despite being in grade school, and that seeds his character’s future. This interval also establishes the importance of Adrian’s grandparents in her life and her love for their big, old house.

We next meet Adrian when she’s sixteen. Lina has a successful video fitness company and travels a lot for promotion. She’s about to leave on another trip, but Adrian, who’s tired of being hauled from pillar to post and just started a new school, refuses to go. She talks her mother into letting her stay home. What she doesn’t tell Lina is that she has plans to start building a life of her own while she has this time to herself.

When she goes to school the next day, she recruits the crew she hopes will help her build that life, the table of nerds in the cafeteria. They play supporting roles through the book, particularly Teesha, who remembers all sorts of obscure facts and has a head for math. Her son Phineas, who arrives much later in the book, is one of my favorite-ever Roberts characters.

From this point, with a little help from her mom’s team, Adrian launches a successful business of her own. Success is great, but sometimes it draws attention you don’t want. Shortly after the release of her first video, Adrian receives the first of a series of threatening poems. She turns them over to her mom’s publicity manager and the FBI and goes on with her life, but the poems arrive at regular intervals through the book.

Roberts shows us Adrian and her friends at different points in their adult lives. Raylan and Maya both marry and have families. Raylan works in comics and eventually launches his own graphic novel company. Teesha and the rest of Adrian’s high school crew build their life paths. Aside from the threatening letters, things are going well until losses bring both Adrian and Raylan back to Maryland.

The two pick up their friendship easily. I like the way Roberts handles that. Adrian was friendly with Raylan’s late wife, so she understands and sympathizes with his loss. His grief and his children’s are not given short shrift. His and Adrian’s transition from friends to much more occurs slowly and believably. They don’t become involved until a couple of years after they both return to Maryland.

There’s no deep romantic angst between Raylan and Adrian. Its absence works well for me since there’s plenty of other angst to go around in the book.

Meanwhile, Adrian’s friend and business manager, Teesha, has moved to Maryland with her family, including adorable geek child Phineas. All the children in this book are great. Raylan’s son, Bradley, is a Batman fiend. His daughter, Mariah, is a fashionista at six. Roberts knows how far to go with cuteness before it stops being endearing and becomes tiresome.

There’s also a sweet relationship between Adrian’s dog, Sadie, and the Wells family’s dog, Jasper. When it turns out to have more than entertainment value, the turn it takes has been nicely seeded.

One of the pleasures of the story was seeing Adrian build a relationship with her friends’ children, including Raylan’s. When the time comes for Raylan to talk to Bradley about his changing relationship with Adrian, Roberts handles that with sensitivity and grace.

As Raylan and Adrian’s relationship deepens, however, the sender of the threatening poems is escalating. Matters come to a head in a terrific sequence with Adrian taking on the one who wants to kill her. Raylan and Teesha’s husband, Monroe, rush to her aid. But will they be in time?

Though the plot spans a long period the moments it showcases are important to the progression of the story and the development of the characters, who were the real pleasure of Legacy for me. A superb plot helps drive any book, but engaging characters we can root for, as we do for these, are the heart of it.

A good summer read from Nora Roberts. Enjoyed the book, just not as much as many of her others. Nice use of the decades in telling of the story. Strong women, which is nice.

This is a solidly readable Nora Roberts suspense thriller. Legacy has a likeable heroine, Adrian, and an interesting cast of back-up characters. The story is a bit thinner than what I normally expect from Roberts, though it does have a bang-up opening with Adrian’s horrid father attempting to kill her when they first meet. Still, good romance and fairly good suspense. Reliably Roberts.

***I received an ARC from Netgalley and the Publisher in exchange for my honest review.***

This was my first Nora Roberts book and I have to say, I was very underwhelmed.

Although I love a good mystery as much as the next person, I felt this book was very "obvious" so to speak and lacked a bit of the "wow" factor I look for in these kinds of stories. Although the characters were relatable, they were almost too much so - think stereotypes. I also thought the book lacked that romantic factor that I had expected from with it being a book by this particular author.

This book was, as always, another hit in my mind. I love everything Nora writes. I've only ever DNF'd one of her books. This one though, this one I finished in just an afternoon. It had everything I look for in a Nora book. Romance - Check
Suspense - Check Check
Family - Check Check Check.
I love how these books always drag me into everything that is going on in the story, making me feel like I am right there and usually wishing to be as well. I am always amazed by Roberts ability to take a story she's done a million times and put a new twist and spin on it. I am always surprised by the ending and blown away by everything.
I really appreciated the friend connections in this one. The girl made friends and they stuck by her the entire time. We got to fall in love with so many characters and I really appreciated that.
I highly recommend this and anything else she writes, always.

Nora Roberts never fails to deliver. I can't wait to read more of her books! She's been my favorite author for over twenty years, and she continues to be so!

This copy was kindly given to be by Netgalley and the publisher to read for review. All opinions are my own.

As a yoga instructor, I absolutely loved that aspect of this novel. Like the last few novels Nora has written, this one was slow to the climax and action but I really enjoyed it non the less. The first time I picked it up to read, I won't lie, I put it down because I wasn't loving it (and might have been in a reading slump which never helps when making opinions). but decided to listen to the audiobook and from there I flew through it.

the killer was disturbed (who it was was a little easy to guess but that's okay).

Overall, if you love Nora Roberts mystery/romance books, its worth the read.

Another great read by Nora Roberts. Adrian begins her career in her mother's shadow, making her own yoga videos right out of high school. Her hear belongs with her grandparents, however, after they helped raise her. After moving back to their home her fame starts to catch up with her when she starts receiving threats. While her mother blows them off, they may be more serious than first believed.

I enjoyed this book, Nora Roberts usually has a good story. I do think it took a while to come to a head with the stalker but overall the story had a good pace to it

Thank you NetGalley and St Martin's Press for an eArc of 'Legacy" by Nora Roberts. I thought Robert's did an amazing job of well developed characters. I also loved how this has a slight thriller feel to it. But this is a pretty typical Nora Roberts book so you really can’t go wrong. Overall, a great read and look forward to another great read for her!

Loved reading this book and author. If you haven't read it yet I highly recommend her and her books. Happy reading and enjoy

As a Nora Roberts fan, to me, LEGACY did not have the suck-you-straight-in beginning that I am accustomed to. It seemed a bit...choppy. But overall, it was a decent story.

A fairly typical Nora Roberts book in that the plot is tight and the major characters are pretty well developed. It's a page turner for sure and will be popular with her readership. Sorry to have reviewed this so late - I forgot to write it up after I read the book!

Thank you NetGalley and St Martin's Press for an eArc of 'Legacy" by Nora Roberts. This book was a healthy blend of everything I like to see in a women's fiction novel. I thought Robert's did an amazing job of introducing our main characters (what a beginning). I grew fond of Adrian and how dedicated she was to her pursue of her own career inspired by her mother. I loved being able to witness the life changes for the main characters. The romance was a great blend throughout, I love second chance romances. Throughout the story you get glimpses from the stalker and as the story develops the plot behind their reasons. I love how fast paced the ending was! It gave me such a thriller feel. My only complaint would be how long it was. I think it would've been fine without some of Adrian's day to day work out discussions. Overall, a great read and look forward to another great read for her!