My first encounter with Nora Roberts’ novels was when I
bought a bag of paperback books at a library book sale. The name of the book
was Sacred Sins, and I mentioned it in a critical way on a writer’s forum. My
remarks aroused the wrath of some writers who view her as a goddess in the
Romance genre. I still hadn’t learned my lesson, so I threw in a few additional
remarks about romance novels, and the ones who write them. Several of them
replied with the kind of remarks I hadn’t heard since grammar school. They
double-dog dared me to read some of Roberts other novels. I couldn’t turn down
such a challenge, so I read the suggested books and went back to apologize.
Some of them have not forgiven my unkind words, and occasionally make
suggestions concerning what I should read next. As I read a few others, I came
to realize that Nora Roberts knows her audience in an uncanny way, and this accounts
for much of her success.
As every writer knows, or should know, writing consists of
stringing words together into coherent sentences. It also involves giving your
readers the kind of book they have grown to love. Some readers evidently have the
barely suppressed urge to do what a woman did in Stephen King’s novel,
Misery. In case you aren’t familiar with the book, the plot involves a
psychotic woman who held a famous writer captive and forced him to change the
plot of his novel to meet her expectations. Nora Robert’s will never be
subjected to that kind of fate because she learned early in her career to give
the fans what they want.
Roberts is also aware that there are other fans that are not
interested in ordinary Romance novels. All of her books wisely involve love,
and The Chesapeake Bay Saga is no exception. The four novels in this series
trace the lives and loves of four men who were adopted by a college professor
and his wife. Each of them is tormented by the traumatic events that hold them
captive to their past. In all fairness, I must say that these books contain
more graphic sex than I like in a book, but that is my opinion. These four
novels are the kind of stories you will never forget. Sea Swept is the first
book in the series. Once you read it, there is no turning back. You might as
well order all four of them while you have the page in front of you. There is a
link to the first book in the series below. Thanks for visiting and happy
reading.
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