As a fan of Nora Roberts’ books, it took me awhile to get into it but once I did, I couldn’t put it down. I wouldn’t say it’s my favourite book of hers. It’s not the worst. It falls somewhere in the middle.
This review contains some spoilers. Please don’t read any further past this point if you don’t want to know!
The story flashes back and forth between the 1990’s and the present, following the lives of the Bodine/Longbow family. They are owners of a Montana ranch and resort. There’s three love stories interwoven into a murder mystery.
Who’s killing all of these women in the area? Why are they breaking down on a deserted road in the middle of nowhere? I enjoyed the murder mystery plot, but the murderer kinda surprised me. Mostly, because you thought it was someone else and it wasn’t (typical bait and switch) and it’s not fully explained why – other than “Oops, I didn’t mean to hurt her so badly!”
In the flashbacks back to the 1990’s, it follows the life of Alice Bodine. She ran away from home at a young age – only to return a few years later and ended up getting kidnapped by a creep named Sir. She never made it home and nobody knew she was coming. So they didn’t even know she was missing. But sure, let’s walk all the way home from town in the dark, wearing hardly any warm clothing.
He locked her up in the basement and repeatedly raped her. Sir got her pregnant many times (she ended up having six kids). He was trying to get a son and sold off any girls she gave birth to. They managed to have one son, named Rory, who survived. Sir took him away from her after he started walking. I didn’t understand why Sir referred to his son as a selfish thief for stealing things from him and being ungrateful later on in the book. By this time Rory would’ve been at least a teenager. Wasn’t he what he wanted? Didn’t he raise him? Why did it seem like Rory was living in the woods, like some kind of feral animal? This storyline alone could’ve been a book. I think it would’ve been fascinating if Alice escaped and tried looking for her other children, the girls who were sold off. I would’ve liked to have seen how her son Rory was raised too. You do get the sense of it based on how Sir was as a person (religious zealot and misogynist) but as I said before, Rory seemed like a feral animal.
Nora is one of the best in the business at writing romantic suspense, IMO. If you’ve read any of her other books I’d say this one is kinda a cross of “Montana Sky” and “Sacred Sins”. The main couple are Bodine and Callen. Bodine is the manager of the ranch and resort along with her brothers Chase and Rory (not to be confused with Alice’s son).
Callen’s horse was hilarious. His name was Sundown and he was one of those horses who can do tricks. To me, he was a scene-stealer. Sometimes you need a little bit of comic relief, especially after a chapter about Alice or one of the murders.
Another complaint I have is the reuse of the names of the characters. Alice’s last name is the heroine’s first name. Bodine was Alice’s niece. (Alice’s sister is Bodine’s mom). Alice’s son’s name, Rory, is the same as Bodine’s brother’s. Alice named one of her daughters after her grandmother, Fancy. I understand they’re all family, but I got confused at times thinking of which character she was talking about in that moment. Whew! Just reading this back while proofreading, I’m confused once again! I hope you caught the gist of it. I’m not going to repeat it.
Overall, I think this story seemed too rushed. There was too much going on. The book covered too much mundane stuff about running a ranch and resort, instead of things more important to the plot. It should’ve been a series instead of a standalone book. I find I have a lot more questions than answers after reading it.
I give this book 3 stars.
Thanks for reading my review!
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