Tribute by Nora Roberts

Title: Tribute

Author: Nora Roberts

# pages: 392

Date published: 2008

Genre: romantic suspense

Challenge(s): July Book Blowout, Shelfari Readers of Romance Summer Reading Challenge

Rating:

(highly recommended)

Setting: Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley

First Sentence:

“According to legend, Steve McQueen once swam buck-naked among the cattails and lily pads in the pond at the Little Farm.”

Synopsis: Virginia's Shenandoah Valley is a long way from Hollywood. And that's exactly how Cilla McGowan wants it. Cilla, a former child star who has found more satisfying work as a restorer of old houses, has come to her grandmother's farmhouse, tools at her side, to rescue it from ruin. Sadly, no one was able to save her grandmother, the legendary Janet Hardy. An actress with a tumultuous life, Janet entertained glamorous guests and engaged in decadent affairs—but died of an overdose in this very house more than thirty years earlier. To this day, Janet haunts Cilla's dreams. And during waking hours, Cilla is haunted by her melodramatic, five-times-married mother, who carried on in the public spotlight and never gave her a chance at a normal childhood. By coming east, rolling up her sleeves, and rehabbing this wreck of a house, Cilla intends to find some kind of normalcy for herself.

Random Thoughts: After years of reading Nora Roberts’ books and loving just about all of them, I’ve finally figured out why I like her writing so much. It’s not necessarily the stories she tells (although I enjoy the stories, too), it’s the characters she creates. Somehow, she is able to continually come up with characters I fall in love with (and not just the heroes, but, oy, what great heroes she writes! ;o)).

Take Tribute, for example, not only do I relate to Cilla and fall completely in love with Ford, the cuddly graphic novelist who lives across the street from Cilla, but I want Cilla’s house, too. To me, the house was just as much a character in this book as the heroine and hero. Roberts describes the rehab of the house in such great detail that I found myself wanting to run down to the closest Home Depot and actually believing for a time that I, too, could rehab an old house (and wanted to)! Thank Goddess that went away fast – she could have gotten me into some serious trouble with that stuff! ;o)

Other Tidbits:

• Author's web site
• Read excerpt from Tribute
  

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