I received an ARC of this book via Netgalley, however I did end up borrowing the final published version of the audiobook from my local library. As always all opinions are my own. I opted for the audiobook because one of my favorite narrators, January LaVoy, narrates the audio version. As always she does a wonderful job acting out the different characters and really bringing the book to life.

This book is a bit on the long side, roughly 15 hours for audio or 450 pages, but I found it engaging to listen to and I was invested in the storyline. The writing gets a bit repetitive after a while and the plot is a bit predictable, but I still enjoyed it. I've found some of Roberts' thrillers to be hit or miss for me, but this had a good plot and kept me interested. I liked that we got perspectives from both main character Nora as well as the man who is trying to ruin her, Gavin. For it being a thriller I never was concerned for Morgan's safety, I think that was because it was predictable. You kind of knew where things were going to go by the time the final showdown occurs.

I did think the parts about Morgan's stolen Identity could have used a bit more work. Some of the facts about actual identity theft and hacking were a bit vague and loose. I feel like a little more care could and should have been taken with the information regarding identity theft and fraud protection. As someone who works in that field I would have appreciated a bit more accuracy and detail. Identity theft is a very real problem and this made it seem like there is nothing you can do once it happens and that it will keep happening to you.

Overall if you are looking for an entertaining thriller that isn't overly graphic this is a good one to check out. It has a nice family element and a decent romance that is light on the steam.

Identity theft is really scary - and this novel turns it into a nightmare! A quick-paced, heart pounding novel thatis quite enjoyable.

This is now one of my favorite Nora Roberts books EVER. I love most of her suspense books and this one clicked. I stayed up way too late reading this one and now I know I'm going to need to reread it and listen to it in audio!
Such a twisted story where we know the bad guy but we never know WHEN he'll come back.
And YES.
LOVED IT.

Nobody writes a book like this woman does. Her books make you smile, sit on the edge of your seat, and never never want them to end. This was one of them. When a predator steals a young woman’s identity and kills her best friend, it leads her back home to make a new Life for herself, but can she?

I received a complimentary copy of this book from NetGalley. The opinions expressed in this review are completely my own

I always love a good Nora Roberts suspense. This one was enjoyable, but seemed to have a different tone in the dialogue. It was as though the characters were talking in half thoughts at times. The romance and suspense was still amazing, but it felt a little too drawn out this time around. Overall, a good story.

Thank you for my gifted arc to review!

ARC of Identity by Nora Roberts
⭐️⭐️⭐️💫
Genre: Suspense with romantic elements
Publication Date: 23May2023

This is my first book by Nora Roberts and will probably not be my last. It took me some time to finish this book because of the subject matter and depth of the story, but it was still good.

The story follows Morgan, a former Army brat, who is settling down roots in a small town. Morgan is a bartender and meets Luke, a friendly IT guy working in the area temporarily. She lives with her roommate and friend Nina. Nina and Morgan host a dinner party and invite Luke, who knows his way around wooing women and technology.

Someone murders Nina and steals Morgan's identity, but wait ... Luke is actually a con-artist serial killer named Gavin. Morgan finds out Nina isn't his type, but Morgan is, and he is going to want to finish the job. Morgan moves back home with her mother and grandmother and starts rebuilding her life. While Gavin continues to kill other women, he hasn't forgotten about the one who got away.

Trigger Warnings:
Multiple murders on the page described in brutal detail

I would only recommend to readers who like Suspense book. This is not a romance book, and it shouldn't be labeled as one! There are romantic elements later on, but it is a book about resilience during a difficult time. I wish this book had trigger warnings on Netgalley because it was disturbing to read without a heads up. Round up to 4 stars on Netgalley, but my rating is 3.5 stars.

Thank you Netgalley and the publisher St. Martin's Press for providing me a free copy of the book for an honest review.

This book was wonderful on audio, I am sad to say I did not read my ecopy because I preferred how the narrator told the story and didn't want to miss out. The Serial Killer storyline was intriguing and mixed with the small town romance made for a perfect story.

No one does psychological thrillers with romance quite like Nora Roberts. It’s been so long since a good thriller really captured my attention, and "Identity" was the perfect choice. I was on the edge of my seat the entire time and stayed up too late to finish it. The villain was awful and terrifying — making the whole story feel even more intense. Roberts always does a great job of crafting the most evil villains.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the eARC. I truly enjoyed this one! And Nora Roberts continues to be one of the best!

Veena’s review of Identity by Nora Roberts
Romantic Suspense published by St. Martin’s Press 23 May 23

Identity is a beautiful multi-layered book about murder, relationships, trust, and life coming a full circle that might bring us back to a different place than we expected. I absolutely loved the wonderful three-dimensional characters and how the story played out.

Morgan has a contentious relationship with her parents and is content to create her own life far from them. She has a lot of ambitions and is not afraid to work hard to achieve her goals. Having experienced a dysfunctional relationship with her family, she has no time for men in her life until she lets the wrong man in the door. It’s enough to give you nightmares, since the man is a serial killer and con artist in a totally different class of con artists. When her best friend falls victim, a chain of events is triggered that will have repercussions for both parties.

Drowning in debt from the identify theft perpetrated by her erstwhile wannabe boyfriend/con artist, Morgan finally gives in and returns to her hometown where her mother and grandmother now run a business and live together. She finds herself welcomed warmly and discovers that her mother has grown after heart break, and they might actually be able to forge a lasting relationship.

She finds a job that she loves and gives herself permission to heal and grow, and, lo and behold, she also opens her heart to a new relationship. I love Morgan’s story as she revels in her creative side and develops new friendships and finds love. In the meantime, the identity thief/serial killer is not faring so well. It’s almost as though his failure with Morgan threw him off his game and nothing seems to go right for him, even though he does not stop killing.

I found the story so inspirational as Morgan wrests control of her life again and finds happiness and new strong relationships. I loved the secondary characters and wonder if the author will give us more stories that are waiting to be told for these characters.

Grade: A

Morgan Albright has a knack for friendly banter and reading people, which is what makes her a very good bartender. She works hard to build a solid future. But she wasn’t prepared for the likes of Gavin Rozwell, a ruthlessly clever identity thief of whose long line of victims, all women, lost every cent they had, and then some. They also didn’t survive his ultimate act of thievery, stealing their final breaths just for the pleasure of it. Morgan manages to escape being murdered, but she is completely ruined financially, and forced to start over. Meanwhile, Gavin obsesses over his failure to finish her off. It eats at him and amplifies his crazy. He won’t stop, can’t stop, until he finishes what he started. In all my reading, rarely is a villain this utterly repulsive. Every despicable thing about him only ratchets up the suspense. The reader is firmly in Morgan’s corner as she rebuilds her life, finds love, and prepares for the showdown with Gavin. To paraphrase Morgan’s grandmother, Karma is a righteous …! Loved it!

This book is a page-turner. It's full of twists and turns and will keep you turning the pages. If you enjoy romantic suspense, you will love this book.
I received a complimentary copy from St. Martin's Press via NetGalley and was not required to write a review. All opinions expressed are my own.

Thank you to the publishers and NetGalley for the eARC of this book. Over the years, I have read and enjoyed countless Nora Roberts books. This one did not disappoint! I opened this book knowing nothing about it besides the title and author. I started off thinking, "Oh, just another romance." but boy what I wrong. I loved the twists and turns of this suspenseful novel. We start off meeting our main character Morgan Albright who spends her nights bartending and her days dreaming of having a bar of her own. However, her life changes almost in an instant when she meets Luke. I loved Robert's development of all the character's throughout this book, you really feel like you know them. I highly recommend this novel if you have the time to be sucked into a book and enjoy the twists and turns of a good thriller.

Identity is a wonderful suspense that keeps you on the edge until the very end. The family dynamic helps draw you in even more.
Morgan ends up moving home with her mother after a tragedy and having her identity stolen. She feels like she has hit rock bottom and then she learns how to emerge so much stronger.
Nora Roberts keeps us enthralled as always .

This was great, I loved the suspense and the romance. The Jamison and Nash families were amazing, and I really loved seeing Morgan reconnect with her mom and grandmother. This book gave me some real badass women to look up to as well as a super sweet HEA. *I received an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I have been a fan of Nora Roberts for years. Identity is one of my favorites. Morgan is a workaholic. The child of divorced parents and an Army brat who never had roots she finally settles down in a Baltimore suburb after graduating from college. She works two jobs, one as an office manager at a home improvement store, and the other as a bartender. Her goal is to open her own bar, something she is obsessively saving for. She doesn't have time to date and have fun like her roommate Nina. She and Nina share a house that Morgan has purchased with an inheritance from her grandfather. Slowly Morgan is renovating it, learning new skills along the way and making it into a home that she is proud of. Morgan's only splurge is a relatively new Prius, a car she loves. One night in the bar a nice young man reaches out to her. Morgan likes him. He is handsome and really listens to her. She and Nina invite him home for a double date and a night of fun. It goes well. Then all Hell breaks loose in their lives. Morgan and Nina are both lost. Can Morgan find her way back? to do so she must hit rock bottom and reunite with her family. To tell you more would be over-telling. Just know you will love this book full of hardship, hard work, and love. Thanks to #NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this book.

It’s very infrequently that I start a review by focusing on the disappointing aspects of a book, but the last few Nora Roberts’ books I have read have been disappointing. The suspense storyline is not the problem. This could have been a much better book given the premise of an ordinary hard working young woman, Morgan, who starts a casual relationship with a psychopathic serial criminal/murderer who steals her identity, ruins her life financially and murders her best friend. ‘Identity’ is romantic suspense with a greater emphasis on romance. When I realized that the episodic emergence of the criminal storyline was what kept me reading, but I was less interested in the parts dealing with the protagonist’s rebuilding of her life, I knew that the issue for me was the imbalance between the romance and the suspense.
I felt sympathetic toward Morgan but there was something missing. The secondary and tertiary characters, Morgan’s family, friends, associates, and law enforcement, were all likable, sometimes too perfect, but helped me enjoy the romance storyline. The bad guy, Gavin, is the most interesting character. His psychopathy is well written and put the reader into his head with intensity. But this is not his story. Again it was an imbalance in interest level between the protagonist and the antagonist which was disconcerting.
Overall the book was an okay read which did improve from a very slow start. It fell short, but I have learned to adjust my expectations when considering a Nora Roberts book. As a romance, it was on par with her previous books.
Thank you to the author, St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review an ARC.

I've been agonizing over this review for a while now. Do you have a favorite author you can't wait for their latest book to come out? If you're like me, right or wrong, you have certain expectations that you want to be met. Identity is one of the rare Nora Roberts books that I feel let me down a little. Don't get me wrong - it's not a bad book. It just didn't resonate with me as so many of her other books have. If you have read almost all of an author's books, again, for better or worse, you become familiar with their writing style, and Ms. Roberts has some pretty specific writing traits that she uses frequently. Unfortunately, I felt like she used every one of them in this book, which took me out of the story more than I would have expected.

I also felt as though the story arc was the same one she used in Angels Fall, The Witness, and The Liar, but with less effect. The biggest difference, for me, was the characters. I just didn't connect with any of them. They all felt bland compared to her previous heroes and villains. In most of her books, the smackdown that the heroine deals the villain is really satisfying. And considering the amount of damage that this creep had done, I was hoping for a serious butt-kicking. Alas, the scene did not deliver the literal punch that I was anticipating.

Another of the many aspects that I enjoy when reading a Nora Roberts book is the behind-the-scenes look at what the main characters do for work. I typically find the descriptions very interesting, and the amount of research that Ms. Roberts must conduct to be so convincing in her descriptions must be extensive. She is usually great at creating a balance of giving just the right amount of background without drowning the reader in it or distracting them with too much jargon. Again, not the case here. I got to the point of wincing every time the bar was referred to as "the stick." It was just another instance where I was pulled out of the story, which is not typical when reading NR novels. Normally, the house could be burning down around me, and I wouldn't notice until I got through reading the book.

I'd like to thank Netgalley for giving me the opportunity to read Identity in advance and in exchange for an honest review. Again, for those of you who are new to Nora Roberts, I encourage you to read Identity. As I mentioned above, it's not a bad read, it's just not up to my exacting standards, which I fully acknowledge as being borderline unreasonable. I'm looking forward to her next novel, and in the meantime, will go back and reread one of her Irish or witchy (or both) trilogies for the umpteenth time.

Nora Roberts consistently writes five star books, and Identity is another hit in her long list of bestsellers. I loved the characters In the story. Morgan shows such strength in a horrible situation, but she also shows personal growth in the story. Miles is the perfect person for her. I enjoyed the characters of her mother and grandmother, too. One thing I love about Nora Roberts' books is that there will be a satisfying conclusion, and this one definitely has one. This is one of my favorite Nora Roberts’ books, and I am thankful that I received an ARC from NetGalley.

Identity is a remarkable entry into Nora Roberts' stand alone books. Her story of identity theft and serial killer rolled into one psycho and the innocent woman he targets was chilling because it could so easily happen to any one of us. I particularly loved seeing the protagonist grow- from before her first interaction with the killer, to during, and the years afterward, dealing with the fallout and trying to move on. I highly recommend Identity if you like a good mystery thriller.

I received an e-galley from the publisher through NetGalley,

This is one of the best books I have ever read! I loved how the story flowed and the way it took off! Thank you to NetGalley and the Publisher for allowing me the chance to read and review this amazing read.