Review: The Next Always by Nora Roberts

 

The historic hotel in Boonsboro has endured war and peace, changing hands, even rumored hauntings. Now it’s getting a major facelift from the Montgomery brothers and their eccentric mother. Beckett is the architect of the family, and his social life consists mostly of talking shop over pizza and beer. But there’s another project he’s got his eye on: the girl he’s been waiting to kiss since he was fifteen.
After losing her husband and returning to her hometown, Clare Brewster soon settles into her life as the mother of three young sons while running the town’s bookstore. Busy, with little time for romance, Clare is drawn across the street by Beckett’s transformation of the old inn, wanting to take a closer look . . . at the building and the man behind it.
With the grand opening inching closer, Beckett’s happy to give Clare a private tour - one room at a time. It’s no first date, but these stolen moments are the beginning of something new - and open the door to the extraordinary adventure of what comes next . . .

Ikira's review - 3 out of 5 stars

Awww, I do love a Nora Roberts book - they always leave me with a warm and fuzzy feeling. All except this one. The ending of this made me want to throw my kindle across the room. I know its part of a trilogy and the idea is to keep me drawn in enough to buy then next in the series but actually, argh! It felt unfinished, like there just hadn't been enough of anything. Whilst I want a trilogy to have continuity, I also don't like unfinished business and like to be able to read other books between the series so prefer them to actually end with an option to continue.

Relationships still unfolding, the Inn unfinished, the bad guy locked up admittedly but I get the feeling not for long, only 1 of the Montgomery brothers in a relationship and to be fair, I saw that coming from the start....What about the rest of them? And the other ladies? I liked all the main characters and I REALLY hope we see more of them in the next two of the series but I also REALLY hope the obvious isn't going to happen. If they all end up as a happy little group of 3 couples, I'll be annoyed but I don't know if there's another ending I will like.

Anyway, back on track - sorry about that! The book read well, the scene setting was beautiful - as you'd expect from Roberts and the small town community really shone through. The characters were all believable and the story too. In fact, it was quite lovely to read a story where the great looking, kind, funny guy didn't immediately get the girl, that he couldn't manage to speak when she was around and didn't know how to move forward until many, many years later. It was also nice to read of the strong, independent female who knew what she wanted young, went out and got it and was prepared to make sacrifices for it - without being shot down for knowing what she wanted so young!

I feel this is a bit of a marmite kind of book. Some will love it, others hate it and me - well I sit on the fence (as I do with marmite) and say 3 out of 5 stars because I loved it but it frustrated me! (I loved it more though).