Legacy by Nora Roberts

SYNOPSIS

Adrian Rizzo was seven when she met her father for the first time. That was the day he nearly killed her—before her mother, Lina, stepped in.

Soon after, Adrian was dropped off at her grandparents’ house in Maryland, where she spent a long summer drinking lemonade, playing with dogs, making a new best friend—and developing the stirrings of a crush on her friend’s ten-year-old brother. Lina, meanwhile, traveled the country promoting her fitness brand and turning it into a billion-dollar business. There was no point in dwelling on the past.

A decade later, Adrian has created her own line of yoga and workout videos, following in Lina’s footsteps but intent on maintaining creative control. And she’s just as cool-headed and ambitious as her mother. They aren’t close, but they’re cordial—as long as neither crosses the other.

But while Lina dismisses the death threats that Adrian starts getting as a routine part of her daughter’s growing celebrity, Adrian can’t help but find the vicious rhymes unsettling. Year after year, they keep arriving—the postmarks changing, but the menacing tone the same. They continue after she returns to Maryland and becomes reacquainted with Raylan, her childhood crush, all grown up and as gorgeously green-eyed as ever. Sometimes it even seems like the terrifying messages are indeed routine, like nothing will come of them. Until the murders start, and the escalation begins…

Synopsis from Goodreads

---

PERSONAL REVIEW

I've been a fan of Nora Roberts for years and have the bookshelves to prove it! But her last few novels haven't struck the same cord with me and I'm finding that the romance and characters that I used to count on her to create isn't always found in her newest books. While Legacy included some great characters, it definitely lacked other things.

Great Characters 
I really enjoyed the different characters in this book! Adrian's family, friends, coworkers - they are all really well written and I honestly wish I lived in the same little town as them. I'm always a fan of when Roberts write time jumps because it lets us see characters as they age. This was a great way to follow Adrian, Raylan, and all their friends so that we see them mature and create families while continuing to be friends. My heart hurt for Raylan and Adrian as they dealt with the deaths in their lives and I celebrated the births of new characters with them as well! Roberts does a great job with family novels and this was no different.

Lackluster Romance 
It was a total letdown to find that I truly didn't care if Adrian and Raylan ended up together. Their romance was boring - while it didn't feel forced, it did feel like an add-on to the story. These characters could have easily continued living their respective lives in the story without falling in the love and the story wouldn't have changed much. That's fairly depressing, especially compared to some of Roberts' other stories where I wholeheartedly believed the romance. I think this had a big part to do with knowing so much about Raylan's marriage to Lorilee. They seem like such a perfect couple and family, so when he starts dating Adrian it's hard to believe it. Maybe if we met up with Raylan again after Lorilee's death instead of during it, it would've been easier to watch him fall in love again. I'm interested to hear other reader's thoughts on this!

"Mystery Killer" Is Boring
 Adrian's stalker storyline should've added a sense of fear and tension to the novel, but instead it fell flat over and over. There have been countless Roberts novels in the past that have included a killer that stalks and scares the protagonist before finally meeting them, and yet this book left me completely uninterested in this storyline. Simply put, something was missing. I was left feeling very underwhelmed by the final meeting between Adrian and her stalker and the ending of the book in general. It almost seemed as if Roberts had a page number to reach and once she did, the story was done. 

Overall, this was not my favourite Nora Roberts book. Like many of her recent releases, this story felt bland and was missing the romantic and suspenseful tension of her previous novels. While some longtime fans may enjoy this book, I actually think new readers may enjoy it more because they won't have the same expectations as older fans.

What did you think of this newest Roberts novel?

​FINAL RATING: 2.5/5

---