Book Review: Whiskey Beach by Nora Roberts

 

Author: Nora Roberts
ISBN-13: 9780399159893

Publisher: Penguin Group (USA)

Publication date: 4/16/2013

Synopsis:

For more than three hundred years, Bluff House has sat above Whiskey Beach, guarding its shore—and its secrets. But to Eli Landon, it’s home…

A Boston lawyer, Eli has weathered an intense year of public scrutiny and police investigations after being accused of—but never arrested for—the murder of his soon-to-be-ex wife.

He finds sanctuary at Bluff House, even though his beloved grandmother is in Boston recuperating from a nasty fall. Abra Walsh is always there, though. Whiskey Beach’s resident housekeeper, yoga instructor, jewelry maker, and massage therapist, Abra is a woman of many talents—including helping Eli take control of his life and clear his name. But as they become entangled in each other, they find themselves caught in a net that stretches back for centuries—one that has ensnared a man intent on reaping the rewards of destroying Eli Landon once and for all…

When I first sold my business and found myself with a lot of time on my hands, I picked up the Twilight series.  I became obsessed with it!  Much later than most.  I think most of the movies were already out by the time I picked up the first book.  But after reading that, I began searching out other books to read, preferably romance.  Never having been a big fiction reader, I relied on suggestions from friends and family to fill my to-be-read shelf.

That's when I discovered Nora Roberts.  I think in that first few months, I bought or checked out almost every book she had ever written.  I loved her story telling, how there was always a suspenseful feel to her books.  And I especially liked the ones that had a hint of magic or other-worldly elements. 

She is one of the major reasons I write what I write.

That being said, I did not like this book at all.  The more I read her books, the less I like them.  I really prefer her older books. 

Every thing she writes feels like it was written in 1980 (which was a fantastic year btw) and that was cool when I first started reading them, because they were older books.  But the book she just released has that exact same feel. 

And her dialogue drives me BANANAS!  The male and female characters sound exactly the same.  You could literally switch all their speaking parts and not notice a difference.  It makes it very hard to read because I'm constantly having to look back to see who is actually speaking.

And she writes with a very heavy New England influence.  All her characters are very east coast.  Which is great because that's her comfort zone.  But I just don't think people talk like that.

This book in particular fell very flat for me.  I really struggled to finish it.  The characters seemed to have the same conversation over and over again.  The suspense was borderline boring. 

In the end, I didn't really care who-done-it and I didn't care what happened to these characters.

If you've read Whiskey Beach, or any of Nora Roberts books lately, I would love to hear what you have to say!