Guess you already know how I feel about that. I liked Cade. I liked Tory. I liked Wade. I liked Mongo. She can come up with descriptions and images that are wonderful and to be envied by anyone who seeks to be a writer.
Had the plotting been as nicely done, Carolina Moon might have shone rather than having been eclipsed by so many flaws. Marianne Stillings. Naked In Death by J.
Perfect by Linda Howard. You couldn't erase the past, or kill it, or wish it out of existence. Nor could you will away the present or change what was coming.
We were all trapped in that cycle of time, just circling around the core of yesterdays. Sometimes those yesterdays were strong enough, willful enough, to suck you back no matter how hard you struggled.
This story is more of an ensemble piece with a secondary romance that I kind of wish got its own book and two handfuls of family and townspeople edging into the spotlight. This, along with the slow almost murky like way of the atmosphere of the story, kept the main couple's romance from being felt. Our hero Cade was the brother of Tory's bestfriend that was murdered and he never truly felt fully fleshed out for me. He comes on a bit stronger at the end but he kind of instantly goes for Tory I love me some build up and it ends up more of a willful strong arm relationship, Cade, at times, just telling Tory how it is going to be with Tory initially balking but eventually going along with him.
I like a man who knows and shows what he wants but he immediately starts off this way and without the foundation for knowing Tory, it felt pushy and not too terribly romantic. By trying to keep it contained, as always, I thought I'd limit the fear and humiliation. It's hateful to be a victim, Cade. Makes you feel exposed and angry and somehow guilty at the same time. Tory's father was physically abusive and with her psychic abilities Tory can sense emotions from people so strongly she can "see" their thoughts she can sense some other dark aspects of his personality.
Cade's family has the emotional pain of losing a daughter and sibling, swirling around and tearing them apart. The two handfuls of secondary characters are indirectly and at times directly affected by these issues, which leads to some great real moments between characters. However, it also lead to some dragging issues in the middle. I'm a Yankee, so sometimes when I read these books set in the south I don't quite jive with the beat or tones. There was a languidness, thick, humid, slowly fanning yourself on the porch while you sip iced tea, that I thought slowed the pace the down.
Tory's life after her bestfriend was killed isn't really explained until more towards the end but it felt implied she moved back to her hometown to find out truly what happened, for such a big issue, it felt pushed too much too the side. I know mysteries like, to well, keep the mystery going but when they stay to the side for so long, I think they end up feeling unknown or ineffectual. There are clues to who the murderer is but I wanted more insight into them, instead of one ending scene where thoughts and motivations are relayed concisely but quickly.
I liked this, some great emotional complexities were weaved in out, but it was a little slow moving for me. The rape and murder of an eight year old girl is never easy to read about, so be prepared for that, along with physical violence. If you're looking for an unhurried heavy on the family dynamics, mystery, with some romance, and love iced tea, this would be a well written option.
View 2 comments. I enjoyed it even though it sort of dragged a bit halfway through. I kinda find that with long books though I had an inkling of the "bad 'un" about halfway through.
It was fairly obvious to me. There was a Lifetime Movie made and the following are some pictures from it. Not really how I imagined the characters I would have liked an Epilogue! You know me! We are in the South. You gotta have some sweet Iced Tea. Dec 04, Jacob Proffitt rated it really liked it Shelves: romance , steamy. This is one of those I've come to think of as Roberts' "super" romances--they're longer, have a strong family presence or community or both , and with at least two romances simmering to resolution.
This one features the small town of Progress, North Carolina as its setting and is dominated by two families, one local royalty, the other Her uncle is the town banker and a minor "big man".
Generally speaking, if you conn This is one of those I've come to think of as Roberts' "super" romances--they're longer, have a strong family presence or community or both , and with at least two romances simmering to resolution. Generally speaking, if you connect with at least one of the couples, these books go off well enough. That said, it's hard to connect strongly as there tend to be multiple story threads, lots of viewpoint shifts, and the unifying suspense they tend to be suspense-based may or may not carry enough weight to maintain momentum in the resulting chaos.
This book was one of the rare super romance stories that drew me in completely. Tori was the cornerstone for holding my interest. She has the interesting psychic ability and has a fragility that draws sympathy and a strength that maintains the emotional connection when things go badly. Her through-line is the most obvious and it's well-supported. Cade helps this by being not only what she needs, but by also needing Tori as much, in his own way, as she needs him.
Wade and Faith were more background, but their arc was as strong, though in their own unique idiom. So the characters were strong as individuals. But their backgrounds raised this book to the next level by drawing in the long-lasting effect of parents, family, and the need for love that children have.
Not in the sappy way that you might first imagine, though. This story is mostly about the crappy things parents do to their children out of their own emotional weaknesses. Whether physical abuse or emotional starvation, our main characters all well, not so much Wade have deep-seated issues to overcome to be healthy enough that we can believe their HEA will actually work.
The beauty of it is that they do so naturally, without didactic preaching or authorial intervention. In other words, it works out in a way that is not only believable, but actually central to both the story's plot and the development of the characters into the relationships that they eventually build. It was artfully done and I loved watching it unfold. The suspense plot of the story is the weakest aspect of the book, but even that folded into the exploration of abuse in families in interesting ways.
There weren't a lot of reveals or a building of suspense as such, though. I didn't mind this, though, as I am seldom engaged by the suspense. I do have to admit that I was a bit surprised by two kind of random jabs at Republicans in the book. I was getting all pissy about it when Roberts made one of the most sympathetic men in the book also a Republican.
Not that I care much for Republicans, myself, really, but it seemed out of character for Roberts as she's seldom overtly political. Anyway, it ended in a wash, even if I was preparing to get all het up about it In the end, I enjoyed the book a great deal.
It's a solid 4 stars though I reserve the right to bump it to five if I'm still mulling it over after a week or so. Could do A note about Steamy : This had more explicit sex scenes than Roberts' standard three plus with more than one plus , though it's also a good bit longer. So really, I think it ends up about her standard, really. View all 8 comments. Tory Bodeen is a little girl who has visions.
She is psychic and for her it not always a gift. She lives in Progress, South Caroline with a abusive "God fearing" father and a mother who cares more for her husband than her daughter.
Her family lives on the land of the well off Lavelle family. She made friends with Hope Lavelle even though do to status and class they shouldn't be friends. Unfortunately, Hope is murdered and Tory sees it thru a vision but can't see who did it.
Tory tells Hope's fam Tory Bodeen is a little girl who has visions. Tory tells Hope's family and lead them to the body and it changes her life and their life too. Tory's family moves away after the murder and when she is old enough she escapes from her abusive father but is still burdened by her gift and the death of her old friend.
She decides to move back to face things she has been trying to run from and make a new life for herself. Hope had two siblings. Cade and her twin sister Faith. They were emotionally abandoned by their parents after their sister's murder and went on how every they could with support from their cook Lilah. Their father died years later and their mother has turned even more cold, disapproving and aloof from her surviving children. Cade became the heir to the family businesses as well as their family farm.
Even though he father taught him a lot when it went to college and came back and with his own ideas of how to do things against not only his mother but other people who farm in their town. He is someone who has had to find his self and his own way in spite of people and he has his own guilty feelings about Hope. When Tory comes back to set up a new shop in town.
She ends up deciding to rent the home she used to live in with her parents to face some of those old ghosts as well. Cade comes to see her and finds himself very attracted to her. Tory is very standoffish with him even as she finds him attractive too. Things get stirred up when she discovers that Hope wasn't the only victim of this killer and that she is in the sights to be killed to keep her silent.
I really enjoyed this book. It was good though Tory had moments that got on my nerves. I did like them though. They both have had some hard times and they also have not really had much real love in their life but found a lot of what was missing in their life with each other.
The twin sister Faith got on my nerve a lot because she wanted to blame everyone for her issues and why she was how she was and I hated how she did Wayne even though he let her which made me lose some respect there too. It was a very interesting story though even though it had a paranormal aspect to it, it worked for me. I did have a feeling about who did it but it was interesting how everything unfolded.
This book also remind me of Carnal Innocence in many aspects too which I think had a impact on my reading experience too. But a solid story. View all 3 comments. I dithered about the rating and thought about giving this book four stars. However, the romance between Tory and Cade didn't sit right with me at least the initial stages of it--I can't take it in romance novels when the dude bullies the heroine into being with him probably cause of the insta-lust on his side of things.
The mystery aspect of the book was interesting, though how Roberts tried to work in Tory's ability to "see" things didn't really work for the most part of the book for me. Prob I dithered about the rating and thought about giving this book four stars.
Probably because I have read of too many cases about faux psychics for me to be really fall into the story the way that I should have. I do wish that Tory's character had been a bit better developed.
I don't know how or why she got interested in selling high end jewelry and other items. Also Roberts skips over her New York years and she info-dumps on Cade about what happened to her there. I do think her burgeoning and then friendship with Faith was a highlight though.
Tory ran away from her abusive father and emotionally absent mother as soon as she was able to. After something mysterious happens to her in New York that has her running from there, Tory returns to her hometown of Progress, South Carolina after a few years of building up her savings and working. Returning to Progress is an issue for Tory though. When she was 8 years old, her best friend, Hope Lavelle was found raped and murdered. Many people in town believe that Tory left Hope to her fate in order to get away from the man that ultimately killed her.
Very few know that Tory has an ability to see visions of people and knew when Hope was being killed. Now that Tory is back in Progress, the murderer is intent on making sure that Tory will not be able to name them. On top of that, Tory starts a relationship with Hope's older brother, Cade. As I said above, Tory as a character doesn't have a lot of there there until the middle and end of the book. We hear about how her father abused her. How her mother stood by and did nothing.
We also know that she has a caring grandmother, aunt, uncle, and cousin. Besides Tory interacting with her grandmother and uncle though, it seems as if she is pretty adrift. When you read about what happened to her as a young girl and then when she went to New York though I sympathized. I just wish that she had more of a backbone when dealing with Cade.
Speaking of Cade, I felt uneasy with the romance in this one. Maybe because the character bullies Tory into going out with him and then gets angry if she doesn't tell her what she is thinking and feeling all the time. Him going around calling her his woman made me roll my eyes too. I saw shades of Roarke in this character so maybe that's why he read as familiar to me while I was reading. Years ago, Tori saw her best friend's dead body in her mind before Faith's body was found.
People wondered how she knew, and Faith's family wanted to blame her. Tori's own father had been attempting to beat her visions out of her for years, and her life became more severe following Faith's death. Now, Tori has moved back to the town where she spent much of her childhood. Fifteen years later, Sari was shown to have become a bitter woman, adamantly believing Han to be a good husband.
When Han went on the run after assaulting his parole officer, Tory and her cousin Wade Mooney went to question her. Sari was shown to be displeased by Tory's arrival, saying she always arrived just as trouble began. She went on to defend Han's actions, accusing the officer who she referred to as a slut of lying about Han attacking her and claimed she had actually been beaten by a boyfriend. She also defended Han's alcoholism and clearing out of their bank account, claiming the bank had taken their money.
0コメント