The Next Always

Title: The Next Always
Author: Nora Roberts
Series: Inn of Boonsboro (Book 1)
Genre: Romance





Nora Roberts has always been one of my favorites. Her latest series centers around a family of 3 men and their mom who are renovating a historical building into a bed and breakfast. The first of the three men, Beckett has had a crush on Clare since he was in his early teens. She has gotten married, moved away, had 3 sons and then returned a widow. 

A nice and fluffy read. Lately I feel like I've been reading less plain, contemporary romance novels and this was a nice change. My favorite was Lizzy the ghost!

Happy Ever After

Title: Happy Ever After
Author: Nora Roberts
Series: Bride Quartet (Book 4)
Genre: Romance


Parker, the coordinator and "general" of Vows, is perfect. She always looks immaculate, she can fix any problem and has the up bringing that lets her know how to act in any situation. She is one of the "Browns" and that should speak for itself.

Malcolm has had a less then perfect childhood, including being knocked around by an uncle, an unfortunate accident that almost killed him and other not so great relationships.

This romance has been leading up throughout the other books, and unfortunately the best I can say once again was it was okay. I don't know if I've changed through the years leaving me to feel like Nora Roberts just isn't putting out the same quality stories as before, or if she's already hit the high note in her career and is going south.

That being said, I did enjoy the story but much like the others there wasn't much meat to it. Perfect flowers, perfect cake, perfect photos, perfect couples, just perfection from Vow. The relationship between Parker and Mal didn't have much in the way of bumps either and the few they did encounter were swiftly smoothed out an unrealistic too short of time.

Hopefully when her next book comes out, which we know there will be more, she can redeem herself.

Savor the Moment

Title: Savor the Moment
Author: Nora Roberts
Series: Bride Quartet (Book 3)
Genre: Romance



Laurel, the pastry chef for Vows, likes Del, Parker's brother. She thinks that Del views her as another sister and couldn't have feelings like that for her. One day in a moment of frustration, she kisses him, and he kisses her back.

They decide in a very adult (and slightly unemotional way) to try out dating for a month (without sex) and see where it goes. See if they can move past their past "label" and become more to each other.

I felt that the story overall was severely lacking in conflict or essentially plot. Couple kisses, decides to date and then BAM! One day Del asks Laurel to marry him. Sorry if that was a surprise.

I looked forward to this book more then any other in the series and I felt a little disappointed in it. Although I might not enjoy the descriptions of photos or flowers from the previous stories, I LOVED reading the descriptions of the cakes. I cannot wait to pick out a wedding cake when that day comes. I wouldn't say it was a bad book, just simply non-eventful.

A rather uneventful book, although come November, I'll pick up the fourth in the series and hope that it can redeem itself.

Bed of Roses

Title: Bed of Roses
Author: Nora Roberts
Series: Bride Quartet (Book 2)
Genre: Romance



Emma is the florist for Vows. She is a hopeless romantic and wants it all. Her big dream is to have a moonlight dance in a garden with the man she loves.

Jack has been around the family for years. As one Parker's brother's best friend he knows all the girls and is almost like a brother, except to Emma. Jack is an architect and has a few issues with people invading his space. He goes through girlfriends quickly, but still seems like a nice guy.

During a wedding at Vows, Jack takes a leap and kisses Emma. The two have been yearning for each other all of these years and a romance breaks out between the two of them. It's an interesting pairing when Emma wants it all and Jack wants to keep her at a distance. Eventually this comes to a head and the two have a major fight and "breakup."

The book couldn't end this way, so eventually after everyone has calmed down they reunite and Emma gets her Happily Ever After

This book definitely brought out the hopeless romantic in me. It had me dreaming these amazing dreams where I was being whisked away to far away places (Stowe, Vermont) and having incredibly romantic vacations (Here). I've never been there before, but always have wanted to go and those pictures stayed in my mind and came to life.

Aside from that, the book was decent enough. I don't remember enough about the previous book to remember if it was better or the same. Sometime there would be paragraph long descriptions of the flowers, which makes sense that's what she does. But I cannot picture many of the flowers that were used. I also felt like maybe Emma was to simple of a Character. I noticed this when talking about her above, I really didn't know what to say about her.

Still a good book, and Nora Roberts remains a favorite.

I am very excited about the next book. It revolves around Laurel, who is the Pastry Chef for Vows. I love cake and would love to make wonderful cakes. I really would like to go to Culinary School. This makes me wait for those paragraph long descriptions of cakes :) Unfortunately, it looks to be released May 2010. This may be a long 6 months.

Vision in White: Bride Quartet Book 1

Title: Vision in White
Author: Nora Roberts
Series: Bride Quartet (Book 1)
Genre: Romance


I had my eye on this book a while back and was waiting and waiting for it to be released. Then I simply forgot about it until a few weeks back when I was at Target and saw it there on the shelf. Being Nora Roberts, I had to buy it to add to my bookshelf :) Shortly after that my life was a spinning disaster and I had other library books I had to read first. Luckily, I finally got the chance to read it over the past few days.

The basic premise behind these books is a group of four female friends that run a wedding company. Each woman has a different role in the company. Mac, who Vision in White is about, is the wedding photographer. We also meet Emma, Laurel and Parker, each of which will be the main character in one of the following books.

Mac has a screwed up relationship with both her parents. Her mother bleeds her dry for everything she needs and makes sure that the world revolves around her. Mac's father isn't in the picture. Needless to say this sets her up for some screwed up visions of what her love life should be. When she gets close to someone she wants to run.

Along comes Carter, a man who she went to high school with but never really saw. Carter has always had a crush on her, but now it's as a grown man. The two hit it off and things go wonderful. Of course Mac tries to screw it up due to the parental issues mentioned earlier.

I thought the book overall was okay. It has only gotten three stars on Amazon, and I can agree with some of the posters that it wasn't one of Nora's better books, but I still highly enjoyed it. Usually after I read her books I feel like I am left waiting to read the next installment because I've fallen so in love with the characters and stories she's created. This time, it was over (with a mediocre ending in my opinion. Sorry to ruin it, but I wanted a wedding, they do after all run a wedding business. Perhaps this will show up later in the series, or maybe the ladies will have a 4 part wedding) and I closed the book and was done with it. I didn't even read the little excerpt from the up and coming.

Bed of Roses is Emma's story. She is responsible for the flowers for the weddings. The book is released December 2009, and it will be on my Christmas list.

Sign of Seven Trilogy

My favorite thing about Nora Roberts is that she often writes in series or trilogies. Her latest one has been the Sign of Seven trilogy. The trilogy is about three men, Fox, Cal and Gage, who were all born on the same day (7/7) and are the best of friends. On their tenth birthday they go camping in the woods and become blood brothers. In doing so they accidentally unleash a demon. This demon comes back every seven years and reeks havoc on their home town during the time of 7/7. People become crazed and kill each other, themselves and create lots of problems.

They have tried to kill/vanquish the demon several times, but have never been successful. They eventually learn that this year is the most important year. If they don't vanquish the demon this year he will come into all of his powers and it will be many times over as bad as it is now.

Three women eventually make their way to this town, Layla, Quinn and Cybil. Each book is about a couple coming together and the group learning more information about how they are going to vanquish the demon.

Blood Brothers tells the story of Cal and Quinn, who can see the past, as well as most of the background information needed to get into the basic story. The girls arrive in town in this story and it is the furthest away from the Seven. This means that the nuisances that the demon creates are the most tame and easy to deal with.

The Hollow follows Fox and Layla, who can see the present. Fox has some serious issues to overcome in this story. His past love died as a result of the Seven. This of course being a romance novel, he needs to learn to deal with it so that he can be with Layla.

The Pagan Stone, the most recent story, tells of Gage and Cybil, who see the future, as well as the time leading up to and including the Seven. I really enjoyed being able to learn things through Gage and Cybil's visions and them later coming true or being proven wrong. I think it added a nice touch.

Overall another great series from Nora Roberts, she doesn't often fail (see Tribute). I now anxiously await her next series/trilogy.

Tribute

Title: Tribute
Author: Nora Roberts
Series: None
Genre: Romance



I am a Nora Roberts fan, I believe I've written all (romance novels) that she has written. I usually love them all, but this one, was disappointing.

Tribute follows Cilla, a washed up child star, as she moves into her grandmother's (who was a very popular movie star back in the day) abandoned home in a rural area. It is an accepted fact that the grandmother committed suicide but when Cilla finds love letters in the attic from that time, she's not so sure anymore. Cilla meets her neighbor Ford who lives across the street and his so ugly he's cute dog Spock. The two weather through the mystery of who the unsigned letters are from, and finally what really happened to Cilla's Grandmother. And of course, being a romance novel they are engaged by the end.

I don't know what it was about the story, it just didn't grip me and pull me in like she usually does. Perhaps it was less developed because it's a stand alone book instead of a trilogy. But either way, reading this was a straight and boring line, little excitement and it took me a while to read it because I just didn't care.