I know Nora Roberts is a huge best seller but I have never been a big fan even though I always try reading her newest books.
I feel her stories are all close to the same story line and I just find them to be rather boring.
I know I’m one in a million and I’m glad of that. Nora had made many names for herself and she deserves the recognition.

The Obsession by Nora Roberts

Nora Roberts is a very prolific author, with so many books and so much success under her belt. And honestly, I don't understand why. I have tried. I want to like her books so badly. I've read multiple books she's written, in multiple different genres: contemporary romance, fantasy, and romantic suspense. All of them have been extremely long and boring. In every book of hers I've read now, her female characters are so perfect that they lack humanity and are impossible to connect with. They don't grow or change or develop because they're already perfect. Naomi is dull. And very dumb. But hey, she's renovating and redecorating her house so if you want to read a book that's supposed to be a romantic suspense novel but is actually mostly a blow-by-blow accounting of every single thing a person could do and buy for their home, then you've hit the jackpot. The beginning is great, and then it's endless decorating. Descriptions of houses, rooms, plans, selecting colors and patterns, visions of what things should look like, people coming to see said house and rehashing everything, construction, renovation ideas, how the heroine paints a room, furniture that other people have, taking progress photos of the house project, and on and on and on. I didn't sign up for this! I wanted a romantic suspense. There's no romance. The sex scene is formulaic. The hero tells the heroine to leave the light on if she wants to sleep with him. So she does. So they do. There's no build-up, no special moment. It may as well have been the red light district over there. The hero figured out who the heroine is so unbelievably easy that I laughed. I mean, really? He figures out she's the daughter of a serial killer because she leaves after seeing a book about her dad on a massive shelf filled with books? It's never been talked about. She could have seen any book. But no. It must be that book, and it must be because she's the serial killer's daughter. There is no other option. And bing bam boom, done. There was no suspense. No romance. But I could have used some trigger warnings, my gosh. I read a novel about renovating a house and was upset a multiple times for having to read about rape and torture. I think it's time for me to stop reading Nora Roberts.

Nora Roberts use to be my go-to author. She seemed to always have new books coming out and I always looked for them. Then I stepped away from her. This is the first book from her that I have read in quite a while. I love that it isn’t a series book, that it is so much more than a romance, and that it is from an author I loved.

The mystery of this book was horrific. I started to tie it all together. From Naomi’s father, to her acquaintances throughout her life the clues started to pile up. For a big part of the book I was sure I knew who done it, boy was I wrong. Entirely, totally wrong. When Mason shows up the clues start to build even more and I made another guess. This time I was right!

I have to mention the romance. In true Nora Roberts fashion the romance was amazingly sweet and wonderful. It was not rushed, the flames grew as the story went on, and went it happened it was wonderful. I love the romance. I expect it when I pick up a book from Nora Roberts and she has yet to let me down.


The Obsession is amazing. From the New York life to the shores on the West Coast to the amazing characters, including The Uncles, there is nothing about this book I would change. I recommend picking up your own copy right away.

The one word to describe this book, would be terrifying. Roberts has been writing for decades, yet she never loses her touch. Naomi struggles to recover after it comes to light that her father is a serial killer of college women. Years later it seems a copy cat killer is back and coming for Naomi. Will she make it out alive this time?

I had to sprint through The Obsession by Nora Roberts to even get close to my deadline. Luckily this book grabs a hold of you so quickly that I would have sprinted through it even if I had started it a year early. The first few chapters document the first 20 or so years of Naomi's life that at one point I was pretty disappointed not to get more into those pivotal years. We go from Naomi learning the awful truth about her deranged father and saving a young woman's life to buying a huge house on Puget Sound, Washington that it was a bit whiplashy. But you soon learn that The Obsession is a roller coaster ride and that was just the opening drop.

I want to stop and give major props to Roberts for her ability to describe the Puget Sound area so vividly. I have family in that area and have spent some time in that area, thus my photo at the top of my blog post. If there is one area outside of Chicago I would move to in a heartbeat, it would be the Pacific Northwest. Roberts doesn't come out and say exactly where Naomi's house is, but from the small names dropped and description, I knew exactly where it was. I could smell where Naomi would hike to take her photographs. I envied her sunrise view cause I have seen the same views from my godmother's kitchen.

When Naomi moves to Washington, she was finally stopped running from her past as the daughter who caught this century's most notorious serial killer. After having been raised in New York by her gay uncles and enduring the suicide of her emotionally abused mother, Naomi finally settles down in an old bed and breakfast in much need of a rehab. She is making her living as a photographer - half artsy stuff that sells in NY galleries and half stock photos. While she has changed her last name, Naomi is always on high alert for anyone who might discover her real origins. This is in fact one reason she chose a sleepy small town to lay down roots.

Naomi quickly is drawn into this small town's social scene, especially after catching the eye of the town hottie/rocker/mechanic. See...it takes awhile for the romance to show up! You get how it took me awhile to realize I was in for some steamy love scenes. I have to admit that I felt the same as Naomi when Xander showed up. He is brash and overconfident in himself. Ugh, I thought. Then as he worked his way into Naomi's heart, he also did to mine.

When Roberts gets this roller coaster moving through the zero-G loops, you are racing through the pages again. I'm proud of myself for picking up on some of the foreshadowing to figure out a little of the ending. There were certainly times when I was thinking, "No, No..NO!! This is not how this ends up!" But Naomi's past does indeed catch up to her now that she has stopped running.

The actual conclusion of the mystery part of the book was only half-satisfying. But the ride was good enough that I would recommend this book be tossed in your beach bag this summer. It will keep you engaged as you take in some sun, but also a book you could conceivably leave for a few days and pick up without a problem. But....I highly doubt you'll be able to put the down long enough for that to happen.

After I did find out I had read a romance novel, definitely not my usual genre, I did a bit of a search on Nora Roberts. She is listed as a feminist romance novelist. Indeed Naomi does mention feminism in the book. The manner in which the book treats Naomi's mother's abuse is honest and gentle in a very feminist way. In fact, I kinda felt that one conversation could had been ripped from an emotional abuse brochure. I would not be surprised if Roberts gets letters from women who say, "I didn't realize I was in an abusive relationship until I read this book." When Naomi discovers her father's secret life, the family moves in with her mom's gay brother and his husband. Their relationship is treated without much fanfare outside of moments early on where Naomi's mom and uncle have to talk out the contradictions between his marriage and the morals she came to believe under her husband's rule, especially since it is an interracial marriage. Naomi is a strong character who determined to not only support herself, but save herself from her father's sins.

I love Nora Roberts books. But not this one.
It was like someone else had written it. Not up to her high standard that kept me gripped before in her books.

The start.

The beginning was good, that got my initial interest peaked so I was ready to delve in.

But then it took some nose dives for me personal. The fact that she was young from the start of the book to a great big giant leap to her being grown was a shock to my brain. It was asking " what happened in between?" But of course, there was no satisfying my major brain cells that kept ticking away at me whilst I continued to read.



There were another two instances it dive bombed for me. But if I write more I'll just be seeming to be a spiteful critic, which I'm not as I usually enjoy this authors books.


My thanks to Berkley Publishing group for my copy via Net Galley

Setting: From the woods of West Virginia to New York City and the small town of Sunrise Cove, Washington

Characters:
Naomi Bowes (Carson) - Successful photographer. As a child, she stumbled upon a horrible secret
Xander Keaton - mechanic, small town bad boy (with a good heart), lead singer in a band
Mason Carson - FBI agent, Naomi's brother
Set & Harry - Naomi and Mason's uncles

Plot: On a hot and sticky summer night, as a thunderstorm brews, Naomi Bowes follows her father into the woods, thinking he's off to cool down in the river. Instead, she finds a woman who her father has abducted and tied up in an abandoned root cellar. As Naomi and the woman stumble through the dark towards help, Naomi knows what she has uncovered will change her life. As she grows, Naomi struggles to put the past behind her. She becomes a talented photographer, traveling wherever and whenever the mood strikes. When she finds a beautiful home in a small town in Washington state in need of a lot of work and repair, something tugs at her to stay. Naomi slowly gets to work and starts to settle in. But when a woman goes mission and is then found near Naomi's new home - murdered in a very familiar way - she begins to second guess everything.

Pacing: Steady

Predictability: Low

Wild Card: The Obsession is an intriguing and captivating story. It's easy to get caught up in the telling; so easy, in fact, that I stayed up past my bedtime more than once just to keep reading!

Hit, Miss, Or Draw: Hit

A great single title by Nora Roberts - chock full of thrills, chills and surprises. This one was impossible to put down! Great plot, great writing makes for a winning combination in THE OBSESSION!