Tuesday, June 26, 2007

High Noon, Nora Roberts

Title: High Noon
Author: Nora Roberts
Published: 2007, Putnam
Category: Romantic Suspense
Rating: 8/10

My summer Nora Roberts fix. Woo hoo! I got to read it a little early, but it’s on sale soon---July 10, I think.

Phoebe MacNamara is the top hostage negotiator with the Savannah police. She’s called in to talk down a suicide jumper on St. Patrick’s Day and meets the jumper’s boss, Duncan Swift (who had just fired the poor schmuck and now feels terrible about it). Duncan is so impressed with Phoebe that he sets about persuading her to go out with him, even though she’s resistant because she’s trying to manage a demanding career and rather screwed-up family (she’s a single mom with an agoraphobic mother). Soon, Phoebe clashes with an idiot cop and makes a serious enemy. Then she’s the victim of an assault in her own station house and soon she realizes that someone is stalking her---a man from her past is determined to destroy her.

I don’t know exactly why, but the instant I start reading a Nora Roberts book I fall immediately into the story. Often with books you just push through the first 20 or 30 pages because you just know it’s going to get good soon. There’s none of that here; I’m sucked in the NR vortex from the very start. Maybe it’s because I’m so used to her writing style (I have read a lot of Roberts books) or maybe it’s just because she’s a good writer. I started reading on a Friday afternoon and didn’t really want to do anything at all until I’d finished it. It’s nice and long and meaty, chock-full of interesting characters, all with involved backstories. Not just the two protagonists, but a wide cast of friends and family. The action is good and pretty nonstop---the pages just melted away as I was reading.

Phoebe is one tough chick, a real no-nonsense kind of heroine. I loved this bit---Phoebe's daughter, Carly, is asking if Duncan is Phoebe's boyfriend:
"'Cause Sherrilynn's big sister has a boyfriend, and he makes her cry all the time. She lays across the bed in her room and cries all the time, Sherrilynn says."
"And I bet Sherilynn's big sister enjoys every minute of it." Phoebe reached down to cup Carly's face. "I'm not much of a crier myself."
Hee! Love it. Phoebe's also really good at telling people off---she's professional and intelligent, but when someone pisses her off, they know it. ;)

And Duncan was fabulous! There’s a blurb on a lot of NR books about her “fueling the dreams of millions of readers” or something (I’m paraphrasing) and it’s so true. All of Roberts’s heroes are pretty damn perfect. Duncan won the lottery, so he’s a multi-millionaire but he hasn’t let the money go to his head. He’s a smart businessman, but doesn’t get too caught up in the greedy business world. He’s just a lot of fun and I ate him up like a giant Hershey bar. There was a while there where he disappeared and I was like, “Commmme back, Duncan!”

So this may not make it onto my list of absolute favorite NRs. But it’s a damn good read. I loved the Savannah setting---especially good for a hot summer weekend.

12 comments:

Marg said...

I am looking forward to getting this! I think I am no. 26 on the request list at the library!

nath said...

hey there :D

I'm glad you liked the book and I'm jealous that you got it soooo early! I'm interested to see the couple dynamics in this one :D

Chantal said...

I can't get in to NR books, but that one looks pretty interesting.

Rosario said...

God, I want this one so badly! If someone wanted to see my head explode, all they'd have to do is give me High Noon and The Sharing Knife: Legacy. Trying to decide which to read first would kill me for sure.

Jennie said...

Marg--I hope they get plenty of copies in so you can read it soon. :)

Nath--Yes, the couple in this is lovely. I definitely recommend it!

Chantal--I'm pretty much a NR fangirl---I at least like nearly all her books and love a lot of them. :)

Rosario--LOL!! If you didn't live so dang far away I'd send you my copy. I'm excited about Legacy too---my copy is on its way from Amazon. Then I was in the bookstore yesterday and saw a copy on the shelf so I read the first chapter. EEE! It was so hard to put it back down.

Mailyn said...

He’s just a lot of fun and I ate him up like a giant Hershey bar. There was a while there where he disappeared and I was like, “Commmme back, Duncan!”

LOL!!! I have been thinking of trying Roberts but my tastes are so damn different from everyone I'm afraid to. LOL.

Jennie said...

Yeah, I'm not sure if you'd like her, Mailyn. But you should definitely give her a shot at least. She's a favorite with a lot of people, so who knows...

:)

nath said...

Sorry Jennie, going to high-jack your comment section for a while :P by the way, I've just pre-ordered High Noon. Can't wait for it to arrive :D

Hey Mailyn, if you want to try Nora Roberts, try her latest stand-alone books... I think you should actually try Angel Falls. :D Don't go into her trilogies or older books, might be too mushy to your taste.

Anonymous said...

This is one of my favorite Nora Roberts' books and I enjoyed Angels Fall but I just liked the characters so much more and the romance was a stronger part of the story than previous ones.

Jennie said...

See, Jane, that's interesting because I think the romance was a less important part of this story than her previous books.

***SPOILER ALERT***

NR hardly ever has the man "rescue" the heroine, but I felt that the hero had a really tangential role in this one. He didn't do much, and the heroine's character didn't change much from learning to love him. It was just kind of like here's this really cool woman doing this really cool job and she just happened to fall in love with this guy while she was doing this really important stuff over here in the spotlight. Falling in love is important (how could it not be?) but it didn't have much effect on the action of the story. Eh?

But I did love the strong heroine.

Anonymous said...

I'm from Germany but had to read this book ASAP and therefore I bought the English version. I loved the story, just like I loved every NR book so far.
I do wonder if there will be another part though. I mean the entire Ava/David storyline is MIA :) sure want to know more about them =) Does someone know if there will be more???

Jennie said...

Michaela--I think I've read in an interview with NR that she never goes back and writes spin-offs about secondary characters in her stand-alone titles. And I can't think of a case where she's done this except Chesapeake Blue, which was an add-on to the Chesapeake Bay Brothers trilogy. So I don't think we'll get to hear any more about Ava and David. Though it was hinted that David's accident at the end might have lit a fire under his butt with regards to Ava. So I guess we'll have to imagine their story for ourselves! ;)