The statistics are pretty mind-blowing. US author Nora Roberts has written more than 190 novels and had 150 NY Times bestsellers. There are over 300 million copies of her books in print right now and yet somehow I’ve managed to get this far through life without reading one. Laid up in bed with flu recently, it seemed like time to remedy the situation. I was looking for a cosy read, something escapist and not too challenging. And Roberts’ latest novel The Next Always (Piatkus, $39.99) seemed to fit the bill.
The first in the new Inn at Boonsboro Trilogy. it’s set in small-town America and is about a rundown historic hotel that’s being renovated by three brothers, Beckett, Owen and Ryder Montgomery. Beckett’s always been sweet on a local girl Clare Brewster who’s returned to town a war widow with three young sons and opened the Turn The Page bookshop across the street from the inn. She’s the target of unwelcome attention from the town creep and spends a lot of time hanging out with her best friend Avery, owner of local pizza joint the Vesta Family Restaurant.
The first thing that strikes me with this book is the crushing amount of detail about the renovation of the inn. There is way, way too much information about dry-walling, building schedules and clawfoot baths. When I learn the story is based on fact, it becomes crystal clear why. Roberts and her husband renovated a historic hotel in their hometown Boonsboro and opened it as a B&B in 2009. What is more her husband owns the Turn The Page bookstore across the road and her son runs the nearby Vesta Family restaurant. The genius of it! Once they’ve read the book, Roberts’ fans are sure to want to visit the town and spent their dollars in all the establishments mentioned. She’s onto a winner however you look at it.
Other people’s renovations are dull and I have to admit to speed reading those sections in order to get to the bit I think most Roberts’ fans will be interested in – the male lead. She writes a damn good one. Beckett Montgomery looks sexy in a tool belt, he’s practical and gets things done, he’s manly but sensitive, polite, protective, does witty repartee with his brothers and knows how to talk to small boys….I’m picking there’s no one quite like him in the real Boonsboro.
As the inn is transformed Beckett and Clare do a ‘will they/won’t they’ dance around each other and even though you know that of course they will in the end, Roberts throws enough spanners (and hammers and drills) in the works to keep things interesting. For instance there’s a ghost haunting the inn…and the town creep is a lot creepier than anyone realised.
I imagine the other brothers will find their love interests in the remaining two books of the series. It's not remotely difficult to work out who they will be. But even so it’s tempting to re-visit Boonsboro, fictionally at least. There’s something seductive about Roberts’ storytelling, by the end of the book I felt as if the characters I was reading about were very good friends.
Footnote:
Nicky Pellegrino, (left NZH photo), a succcesful Auckland-based author of popular fiction is also the Books Editor of the Herald on Sunday where the above review was first published on 4 December, 2011
1 comment:
I love Nora Roberts and this book was intense a great read.I just finished this book, and I really enjoyed it. I have been a Nora Roberts fan for a long time. If you want a good read, this is the book for you. You won't be disappointed.
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