Under Currents

Her thrillers are just very hit or miss for me. This one felt a bit too all over the place with the only cohesive theme to the plot lines being domestic violence. Just not for me.

A reread, since apparently I'm getting into “horrific events treated gently and kindly” at the moment. This lives up to the rest of Roberts' novels. I think my only quibble was with the concept of every bad guy coming out of the woodwork in the span of a couple months, just to throw themselves upon the barricades and get hauled to jail. I know that's just the nature of a story, but it was right there at the edge of my suspension of disbelief. The characters, though, are believable and a delight, as always.

I'm glad I listened to this book rather than read it. When I thought it was over, it wasn't and it kept me from looking too far ahead and guessing so I was more surprised. If I read the book I would have known it wasn't over and would have been guessing regarding the next parts of the story. As with any Nora Roberts book, I liked it. Nothing deep. I call these cotton candy books and it did the trick!

4 stars because I read the whole dang thing in one evening + one morning, but the book had its weaknesses. The first 100 pages were horrifying and impossible to put down. I was right there with Zane feeling trapped and abandoned, then so relieved when someone finally believed him about the violence he was experiencing. But then we're 20 years later and it suddenly turns into a Nora Roberts contemporary romance with lots and lots of landscape porn. I would have liked to see more about Zane and his sister's recovery from their trauma, but instead my eyes glazed over as the amazingly perfect Darby described another bed of plants and retaining walls. Then the suspense picked up again with several Big Bads coming after our hero and heroine. It might have been more interesting if one of them had a shade of gray instead of being completely Evil, and it felt unrealistic to me that they didn't figure out the identity of one of the villains but that lapse set up an exciting climax to the story.

Oh well, another summer, another Nora Roberts single title release. You know what you're getting and you know you are going to like it, flaws and all.