Review: Come Sundown

Book Review: Come Sundown, by Nora Roberts


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Love. Lies. Murder. A lot can happen... COME SUNDOWN
Bodine Longbow loves to rise with the dawn. As the manager of her family's resort in Western Montana, there just aren't enough hours in the day - for life, for work, for loved ones. She certainly doesn't have time for love, not even in the gorgeous shape of her childhood crush Callen Skinner, all grown up and returned to the ranch. Then again, maybe Callen can change her mind, given time...
But when a young woman's body is discovered on resort land, everything changes. Callen falls under the suspicion of a deputy sheriff with a grudge. And for Bodine's family, the murder is a shocking reminder of an old loss. Twenty-five years ago, Bodine's Aunt Alice vanished, never to be heard of again. Could this new tragedy be connected to Alice's mysterious disappearance?
As events take a dramatic and deadly turn, Bodine and Callen must race to uncover the truth.
Genre: contemporary romance

Publication date: May 2017

Mature content: yes

Review: Nora Roberts has been one of my favorite authors for a long time, but Come Down gave me a hard time because of the conflicting feelings I had as I read along. There were parts I clearly loved, but there were others I could have just as easily skipped through. In the end, I settled for three stars because I don't think Come Down deserves much more.

What I liked about Come Sundown:
- the concept of the plot itself. Even if it's not totally original, because Nora Roberts has touched bits and pieces of it in previous books, I still liked the background story and the suspense.
- the flashbacks into the past that picked my curiosity. They sort of hook you into the book and I couldn't wait to find out the whole story.


What I didn't like so much:
- too many characters and too many side stories. Once in a while the story randomly switches to the point of view of one of the secondary characters, which can be a bit confusing.
- I didn't care much for Bodine, though that's just my personal opinion. She seems too bossy, too controlling and too resentful of any perceived threat to her authority. It didn't click with the rest of the family's dynamics which, by the way, also sounded a tad too perfect to be realistic.
- the way sometimes we are treated to endless details or scenes that drag on unnecessarily. They are not relevant for the story to flow and seem to add pages just for the sake of making the book longer. To be brutally honest, some parts were plain boring.

In my opinion, Nora Roberts has been trying to evolve from the more traditional and basic romance/suspense novels with two main characters to some sort of epic family tales, which is not necessarily bad. But until she completes the transition, the books are not going to be one or the other, and that's just too confusing for readers. In my opinion, Nora Roberts has published better before. A lot better.

Happy readings!

the book worm, book blog

 

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