Tribute by Nora Roberts

Copyright: 2008

Pages: 451

Genre: Romantic Suspense

Janet Hardy was a Hollywood legend - glamorous, brilliant & deeply trouble - and she died in mysterious circumstances at her home, Little Farm. As her granddaughter Cilla McGowan moves in to the rundown farmhouse, determined to restore it to its former glory, she finds herself dreaming of the grandmother she never really knew and wondering exactly what happened in her past.

As Cilla settles at Little Farm growing ever closer to her neighbour Ford Sawyer, she slowly begins to unravel her family's secrets. But someone else in the communtiy wants Cilla to leave the past alone, and she becomes the target of increasingly brutal acts. - book jacket

Wow 2 Nora Roberts books in as many weeks. Tribute wasn't a 'cloud 9' read like Vision in White but it was enjoyable.
This was definitely another character driven novel, the suspense wasn't particularly suspenseful and the mystery was a little artificial if I'm being totally honest but on the postive side, the identity of the 'real' baddie came as a surprise.

What I did like was Ford & Cilla, a simmering pot, the wait for chemistry to overcome caution was worthwhile. Ford, is not your typical hero, he can't tell a hand tool from his elbow but he's steady, unflappable, patient & funny, old-fashioned chivalrous and gets a 'certificate of excellence' in the bedroom when they finally make it that far. Sound almost too good to be true? He's also a famous graphic artist. Cilla is athletic, independent & capable, she's looking for a place to belong and she has 'issues'.

Being a home renovation show junkie, I loved the house flipping, rehabbing details but if blow by blow descriptions of wall demolishing, designing, plastering, tiling, choosing fixtures, chrome, nickel, brass, copper, brushed, satin, antiqued, paint colours, landscaping, & plantings aren't your thing, then a word of warning, you may find Tribute a bit of a bore. But ... if all the renovation talk is a turn-off then let me tell you this book is worth a read just for Spock, he's the real show stealer in Tribute, a hilarious, adorable, ugly-as-sin dog.

A cartoonishly ugly black-and-white dog with an enormous box of a head on a small, stocky body trotted beside him.

She liked dogs, and hoped to have one eventually. But this was one odd-looking creature with bulbous eyes bulging out of, and little pointed devil ears stuck on top of, that oversized head. A short, skinny whip of a tail ticked at his behind.

As for the man, he was a big improvement over the dog.

All in all, an enjoyable not so challenging read.

This month on The Eclectic Reader you could win Frostbitten by Kelley Armstrong OR The White Queen by Philippa Gregory OR Prophecy of the Sisters by Michelle Zink. Check this blog post for details. International entrants welcome.