Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly
On the heel of the breakout hardcover success of bestseller Montana Sky, Roberts plows through a predictable saga of passion, betrayal and murder involving an estranged Southern family haunted by tragedy. Recovering from a nervous breakdown brought on by a malevolent stalker, photographer Jo Ellen Hathaway returns to Sanctuary, her childhood home located on a small resort island off the coast of Georgia. But the lush island offers little solace, for there Jo must face the troubled family relationships and painful memories caused by her mother's mysterious disappearance 20 years earlier. Soon, however, Jo finds unexpected joy in the love of a man who leads her to the truth about her mother's life and death and about the crazed stalker who wants Jo dead. Roberts has a talent for vivid description: the sounds and smells of this verdant island waft from the page; her characters' sexual encounters mirror the island's fecundity and shimmer with Southern heat. But she dilutes the story with a silly murder mystery that distracts from the intriguing elements of Jo's confrontation with her past, her discovery of true love and her reconciliation with her family. The denouement arrives with a yawn, despite the arrival of a clichd hurricane, which is just one example of how Roberts succumbs to the temptation to throw everything into the pot. 250,000 first printing; $250,000 ad/promo; Literary Guild main selection. (Mar.) FYI: Roberts was the first writer to be inducted into the Romance Writers of America's Hall of Fame.
Library Journal
There's no looking back for Roberts, who made the break to hardcover with the best-selling Montana Sky (LJ 2/1/96). Her latest tells of a young woman who finds danger and love when she returns to her childhood home.
Kirkus Reviews
Roberts is the perfect perpetual-romance machine. She churns out an almost inhuman number each year; she meets an annual March deadline for her hardcovers (this one even has the same number of pages as last year's bestselling Montana Sky). And each is lively, sexy, and well researched.
Her latest concerns three siblings (the Hathaways) who find lovers and strained relationships while a homicidal madman is threatening their safety. The three live in a beautiful white gothic on the Georgia Sea Island of Lost Desire, which they've turned into an inn. Brian, the eldest—tall, cute, and morose—runs the establishment and is chef of its five-star kitchen. (His father Sam can't understand how a man can "enjoy creating a perfect meringue and still prefer women for sex.") Brian fights halfheartedly against the amorous advances of Kirby, the pretty Yankee doctor who runs the island's clinic; the two eventually end up locked in an embrace against her refrigerator door. Meanwhile, the youngest sib, Alexa Hathaway—sexy Lexy, the island princess with the gypsy hair—has failed at acting in New York and come home to waitress and throw a few tantrums. She fights halfheartedly against the honorable intentions of childhood buddy Giff Verdon, who's good with his hands and doesn't let her get away with much. Finally, there is Jo Ellen, a world-famous photographer who's returned to Desire after a nervous breakdown and is fighting a losing battle against empathic architect Nathan Delaney. Twenty years earlier, the Hathaways' mother, Annabelle, had disappeared, abandoning her family—or so it seemed. Now someone is stalking the family, having even sent Jo Ellen a picture of her mother, dead and naked.
As usual, the romance is better than the weird violence. There's not much suspense here, but it's good to see that heroines are becoming gutsier and heroes better in the kitchen.
From the Publisher
[Nora Roberts] is at the top of her game.”—People
“Her most seductive and tempestuous work to date.”—Tulsa World
“Sometimes the atmosphere of a novel is so powerfully rendered that the setting assumes the importance of another character. Anne Rivers Siddons has this knack, and so does Nora Roberts.”—Chicago Tribune
“Nora Roberts just keeps getting better and better.”—Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
“Roberts has a talent for vivid description: The sounds and smells of this verdant island waft from the page.”—Publishers Weekly
