The Obsession by Nora Roberts

I recently lost my library card and when I went to the library with my tale of woe, the librarian gave me a new card. That's great and it was really easy and now I have a library card that fits in my wallet, but when I created this new account, my old account went away. And all the books I had on hold just vanished. This was a problem, particularly with respect to my ebook holds. So I had to start all over again at the back of the line, for books I'd already been waiting months for. The end result of all of this is that I ran out of books from my holds because now it's months before any of them will be ready and just searched for books available to download immediately on Libby and I stumbled upon The Obsession by Nora Roberts and just mindlessly downloaded it.

Roberts and I go way back. She is a classic in the romance genre and part of that is her absolute readability. I found myself stepping away from Roberts when she went through a bit of a fantasy romance phase (see the Key, Guardians, and Inn Boonsboro trilogies) that didn't do a good job of scratching my romance OR fantasy itches. This particular book is more of a suspense romance novel and was a bit more of a throwback.

Naomi Carson used to be a different person. She changed her name after her father was found guilty of committing terrible crime, but now she's moved to a new place, is renovating a rambling house, adopting a stray dog, falling in love with the local mechanic.  But then things start happening around town and Naomi wonders if her past is responsible. 

Interesting characters: Naomi IS interesting. How she deals with the trauma of her past is interesting. Her career as a photographer is interesting. Her slow-moving attachment to the dog is endearing and interesting. Her relationships with her family are interesting.  The mechanic, however, is not interesting and Naomi can do better than him.

Believable conflict: I mean, you have to suspend disbelief a fair amount in this novel. First, that Naomi's father would by the serial killer he is portrayed to be and that Naomi would run into a second man who has similar tendencies. So if you're willing to do that, sure, the conflict Naomi feels over starting a relationship with a dog or a man is absolutely understandable.

Emotional tension: There is none?  This is where the book really falls down. You know these two will get together. You know who the killer is after the fourth chapter.  The most emotional tension I really felt was whether or not she'd keep the dog.

Happily ever after: I feel like Roberts should have examined this a bit more. Naomi is "outed" at the end. She's been trying to live a life in which people don't link her to her father, but now it's national news. I get that we're playing off the HEA of Naomi and the mechanic and the dog living together in harmony, but I don't think I'm completely sold.

Endless descriptions of home remodeling: One of the biggest gripes of these vintage Roberts books is that she tends to go into deep dives of describing whatever the characters are into. In the Bride Quartet, there are endless passages of flowers, dresses, and music.  In the Inn Boonsboro, you had better strap in for all the ins and outs of purchasing flat and stemware for a B&B.  In this book, there is so much shopping for furniture and picking out paint colors and if that's not your jam, this book will drive you insane. But I like it.  I myself have written endless posts about buying things for our house and painting. I understand why people don't like this trait in Roberts books, but I think it really works for me. My mind is always focused on the things I want to think about (the pets, reading, and working out, mostly) with like 15% devoted to other things (work, keeping my marriage intact, household maintenance, what is seasonably appropriate to wear) and I like that Roberts reflects that in her characters. Naomi works a lot and is renovating her house, so that is combined with thoughts of her dog and that's the majority of her life. That makes sense to me and so I refute the criticism.  

It's not a great book. But it's a good book. And don't we all just want to be able to write a book as solid as Roberts? Let's not even get started on how she consistently writes multiple solid books a year (it has to be ghostwriters, right?).  Read it if you're a fan. If not, you can probably skip it.  Unless you want to read about that great lamp Naomi bought.