This is the first of the “Night Tales” series. So far, I’ve liked her series, so I thought I’d give it a shot. This is a very tried and true format, with the damsel in distress falling for the policeman sworn to protect her.
Night Shift
No, I didn’t forget to colour in the stars. This is a 0-star book.
This is the only Nora Roberts so far that disappointed me on all levels. First, I found the romance unlikely. While I’m used to the love-at-first-sight doctrine of Nora Roberts, this was too much. The hero sees her as a “bundle of nerves”. She is much ruder than she needs to be, without any excuse or softening touch. And he’s smitten. Right.
Second, while Nora Roberts likes her heroes to take control and sometimes completely ignore what the heroine wants in favour of what she supposedly needs, this went to far. He completely ignored everything she said. He stayed close to her beyond his shifts to way past the point of harassment. He insisted he loved her and they were going to marry regardless of what she said or wanted and practically kidnapped her. This is already emotional abuse, not romance.
Third, the characters had no development. They stayed pretty flat, with very few explanations.
Fourth, the mystery was lame, with such gaping plot holes that it was no surprise you don’t see it coming. It turns out (Warning! Spoilers ahead!) that the attacker is someone the heroine knows. Yet there was a scene in a party, where she received a note from her attacker, and she didn’t recognize him. Really?
Well, I guess that with 5 books a year, Nora Roberts is entitled to miss one 🙂
Romance/Suspense: very mild violence, mild suspense, mostly romance
Rating: 0 stars
Leftover Recipes 