Night Moves by Nora Roberts

Night Moves (1985) (Silhouette Books)
Nora Roberts
Grade: C+
Genre: romantic suspense
Sex scenes: mild
Source: own

TBR RBC 2015: A romance novel 

When award-winning Hollywood composer and golden child Maggie Fitzgerald leaves her comfortable life in L.A. for a rundown and abandoned house in the tiny town of Morganville, population 142, no one believes she’ll last. Least of all, Cliff Delaney, the local landscaper Maggie’s hired to tackle her overgrown garden. Their chemistry is instantaneous and explosive, yet both parties try to deny and suppress their feelings based on a mutual dislike of the other. When Cliff’s crew dig up a body where Maggie envisages her new pond, a ten-year-old mystery is dredged up that somebody wants to keep a secret …

I didn’t expect this to be of the romantic suspense persuasion (rather, straight contemporary) but that was more than OK. The dead body added a bit of mystery to the story and gave Cliff more than ample reason to act even more alpha, protective male than he already was. Of course, the actual suspense element wasn’t nearly as developed as it might have been in one of NR’s more ‘modern’ romantic suspense’s, but I found that since Maggie (and to a lesser extent, Cliff) were so great, I couldn’t care less.

I’m not sure what the history about Maggie’s parents and ex-husband really added to the story, but I wasn’t really fussed. Loyal fans (i.e. myself) don’t read Nora Roberts’ novels expecting award-winning level literature; I read Nora Roberts for escapism and because I know I can rely on her to provide me with a cute, fluffy HEA. That’s exactly what I got. I liked the glimpses into Maggie’s work as a composer, which is one of the reasons why I love Nora Roberts so much – she cares about the detail. Also, watching Maggie take responsibility for renovating her house when she doesn’t have a clue about where to start and flits about between projects, is hilarious.

This definitely isn’t a keeper, but it puts me one step closer towards my goal of reading all of Ms Roberts novels. Her latest standalone, The Liar was released recently and so that’s another one to read at some point. I’m astounded by Ms Roberts prolificacy – she’s well over 200 books by now and still going, releasing about five books per year. I did like this a little more than some of her earlier novels of the early 1980s, but still, it would never make any favourites lists.

Image courtesy of Book Depository.