Monday, November 14, 2011

"The Next Always" by Nora Roberts


The historic hotel in Boonsboro has endured war and peace, changing hands, even rumoured hauntings. Now it's getting a major facelift from the Montgomery brothers and their eccentric mother. Beckett is the architect of the family, and his social life consists mostly of talking shop over pizza and beer. But there's another project he's got his eye on: the girl he's been waiting to kiss since he was fifteen.

After losing her husband and returning to her hometown, Clare Brewster soon settles into her life as the mother of three young sons while running the town's bookstore. But Clare is drawn across the street by Beckett's transformation of the old inn, wanting to take a closer look ... at the building and the man behind it. These stolen moments are the beginning of something new - and open the door to the extraordinary adventure of what comes next ...

I have become a real fan of Nora Roberts novels and I was excited to see her latest release ... this series is set around three brothers and their restoration of a local Inn. Beckett is the youngest brother and he has been in love with Clare since high school. He has his chance with romancing her when she moves back to the town after being widowed. While a lot of the novel talks about the restoration of the Inn I was quite intrigued with that side of it and felt it fitted with the story quite well. I loved the play between the three brothers and being a mum of three boys myself loved to see that they did care and love each other. Each of the three brothers have strong personalities and each bring their own unique skills into the restoration of the Inn. Beckett seems to be the more sensitive of the three boys and has a wonderful fatherly appeal to him as he relates to Clare's boys.

The three women that are the main characters in this story are all strong in their own right, but each longs for a partner that they can share everything with. Clare is a widow who has three young boys that she looks after, a book store that she owns and runs, and a guy that just won't leave her alone to contend with. Having had to deal with all that by herself for such a long time, she struggles to let Beckett help with some of the load. I love the way that they both learn to give and take and to trust each other.

There is also a side story with the Inn beginning haunted and at first seemed a little weird but I did start to enjoy the play of the ghost in the story. I actually hope we get to learn a bit more about who the ghost is in the next two novels.

Overall I would give this book a 4 star rating, i really enjoyed it.

Warning there is some bad language in this novel which to me was not necessary but it doesn't detract from the story.

It's a light read for those rainy days....

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