The Obsession- Nora Roberts

The Obsession- Nora Roberts
Berkley Publishing Group
April 12, 2016














The Obsession- Nora Roberts
Berkley Publishing Group
Advance Readers Copy. Release Date: April 12, 2016

Synopsis: Naomi Bowes was 11 years old when she followed her father into the woods one night, and freed the girl he was keeping in the cellar. Discovering her father was a serial killer/rapist haunted her entire family and changed Naomi's life forever. As an adult Naomi is a successful photographer who abandons a nomadic lifestyle to settle in the small town of Sunrise Cove. Before she knows it, she's making friends, rehabbing a house, and developing a "thing" with local mechanic Xander Keaton.  But the past casts long shadows, and nightmares never go away completely.

Naomi Carson (unsurprisingly, the family changed their last name) is one of the best and most realistic characters I've read in a long time.  She's a wonderful combination of who we all wish we were (you'd like to imagine yourself brave enough to save someone from a serial killer, or moving forward from childhood trauma), and who we realistically are (she has panic attacks and nightmares- who wouldn't?). In Naomi, Roberts gives us a character that's completely relatable instead of an idealized perfection.

My favorite parts of the book actually came from the descriptions of Naomi's photography. They are so well written you have no trouble seeing the photographs she's taking, whether it's a mossy log or a bookcase.  You become as immersed in the process as the character, and absolutely have your own favorite photographs by the end of the book.

I was a little disappointed by the slow pace of much of the book.  The book begins fast-paced and tightly focused on young Naomi. Discovering her father's victim, rescuing her, moving with her family to keep from being recognized. The tight family unit of brother and sister, mother and uncles is well done, and the constant looming shadow of her father, manipulating her mother even from prison, keeps the conflict and challenges front and center.  The end of the book introduces a serial killer obsessed with Naomi and her father, and the upheaval he brings to Sunrise Cove before being caught.  The tension is kept up by seeing some scenes through the killer's eye, and I was pleased I wasn't able to figure out who the killer was before the big finale (and equally please to think, when we discover who it is, "That makes perfect sense. Why didn't I think of that?").  However, most of the book is much slower paced than I remember other Nora Roberts books being.  While full of great descriptions and characters, I kept waiting for something to happen.  I don't need a book to be edge-of-your-seat action from beginning to end, but when I'm more than halfway through a book and find myself asking if there's ever going to be more to the plot, it might be time for some extra editing.

Overall a book worth reading, especially for its great descriptions, although I could have used a little more mystery in the plot.

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley for an honest review.