River's End

Great book! I was sorry when it ended. The narrator did an excellent job with the different voices. I love Nora Roberts to begin with and haven't listened to (or read) a good Nora Roberts book in a while. I am going to order another one next. I totally recommend this book for those who like a good mystery, love story.

41 people found this helpful

An Early Nora Roberts

Written in the 90s. So, so. Her later works far superior. I would skip this one.

16 people found this helpful

Great!!

I watched all Nora Roberts TV Movies from 8 of her books. However, I never read/listened to any of her books. Until a couple of days ago. This is the second one l've listened to and really enjoyed this book. The characters are amazing and I love a great mystery. Got it all. Started reading another on my kindle.

16 people found this helpful

Illogical plotting. Not enjoyable.

AUDIOBOOK NARRATOR:
I was annoyed with Sandra Burr. She has a nice voice for general narration and women, but she is awful with men. She lowers her voice to create weird male voices. One guy sounded like a B-movie robot. The hero wasn’t as bad, but there was no emotional interpretation in his voice. It was monotone and wooden.

Less of a problem, but it still annoyed me was her twang (southern-ish or hillbilly-ish). She said “hees” instead of “his” And she did “ew” instead of “oo” for example stewed (stood) gewed (good) shewed (should). There are many actors who do a southern accent which I enjoy, but not this twang.

THE STORY:
Really bad plotting. Some crimes happen and there is no logical investigation or questioning. No logical evidence. Wrong people are accused. It was frustrating and not enjoyable.

When the main characters have a conflict or fight, illogical things were said. I think the author was tired when she wrote this book since she couldn’t come up with motivations fitting actions.


CAUTION SPOILERS ABOUT BAD PLOTTING:

Character A sees a dead woman and picks up the weapon/scissors. B walks in and sees A with scissors. B says “A killed her”. For the rest of the book everyone believes A killed her. No one even asks, did B sees A stab the victim? Or could someone else have done it? No, During the entire book, all characters say A killed her. There was no evidence or investigation or anything to question it. When someone wanted to talk about the murder, most of the characters would say I don’t want to talk about it.

Character A could not defend himself because he was high on drugs at the time of the murder and couldn’t remember what happened. A couple times later he said he killed her. But that was not true, he was just feeling guilty because he wasn’t the best husband. But the author used that comment to confuse the issue - not interesting.

The bad guy has no part in the story until the very end. So we don’t even get to watch his actions and motives during the story. That might have made things better, but no. He’s introduced at the very end.

Also the ending was too sad for me about an innocent man being in prison for 20 years.

A similar thing happened with a second crime. The victim sees his property destroyed and immediately says his ex girlfriend did it. That was not true but he assumes it was her. No one investigates or asks about her alibi until the very end of the book. But for the rest of the book all the characters talk about the exgirlfriend doing this.

END SPOILERS.


DATA:
Narrative mode: 3rd person. Swearing language: strong but rarely used. Sexual language: mild. Number of sex scenes: about 4, not much detail. Setting: 1979 - 1999 California and Washington state. Book copyright: 2000. Genre: romantic suspense.

10 people found this helpful

Another Nora Roberts Winner

I really enjoyed this book. I was hooked from the first 5 minutes and enjoyed the development and maturation of the characters. I loved the beauty brought to my imagination with Roberts' narrative about the Black Hills. And the animals, it was awesome. I didn't like the villain (I know you're not supposed to) because I thought the reason he was fixated on the female character was loose. Beyond that it was a great listen. And Sandra Burr did a wonderful job with the narration with the exception of the voice she gave Lucy. That one was irritating. But just how many voices can one narrator have??? :)

26 people found this helpful

River's End

Any additional comments?

I love Nora Roberts but for me this was not my favourite book by her. It was ok but seamed to lack in that special kick here books give me.

5 people found this helpful

Highly Disappointing

I truly did not like anyting about this book. I figured it out in the first chapter so it seemed endless. I just do not like books that are this depressing. I have enough things to get over, this is my entertainment therefore this book was a bad choice for me.

8 people found this helpful

I wanted to like it.....

I did. I really wanted to like this book...but it just dragged on and on and had I not been on a long road trip with no other options - I would have given up in the first hour or two. Not nearly exciting enough to hold my attention and it lacked the twists, turns and intrigue I've come to expect from Nora Roberts. Not her best work....

10 people found this helpful

Loved it!

The story was exciting from beginning to end. The narrator was perfect. This is Nora Roberts at her best...

2 people found this helpful

great story line. never would of figured the end

I loved the story. very suspenseful. The surprise ending surprised me. it even had some humor to it

2 people found this helpful