The Liar

Honestly, my reason motivation for writing a review is to give a review that I might've found helpful prior to buying the book, as opposed to the spewing of author-specific criticism I was surprised to see in other reviews. Not sure who peed in some of the reviewer's Cheerios but those who felt the need to post spoilers need to knock it off and move on with their shattered lives. Find another author if you didn't like the book, but stop acting like it's a personal affront that you didn't.

That said, I enjoyed the book. It was entertaining, with fun characters and pace, engaging storyline. It wasn't an earth-shattering new concept and was written in a typical pattern for these types of books... strong female protagonist (Shelby) - check. Dilemma (husband dies suddenly, Shelby is left in debt and realizes that there's much about her husband that she didn't know) - check. Return to family and friends who love you while you figure out what to do next - yep. Hot love interest - definitely. Yes, the "twist" was predictable, but I still found it entertaining. I liked how the relationship with Griff and Shelby's daughter progressed, liked the conversations about how life with a controlling person can happen to a smart but inexperienced person and the way it affects on the family. Forgiveness, love, and family are all strongly emphasized. Do things go smoother than you or I would likely have happen in life? Yes, and I sure would like to find me a Nora Roberts man while I live vicariously through the books I read. I thought the writing captured supportive family, small town antics, and southern conversation patterns. If you're looking for an enjoyable read and like previous Nora Roberts storytelling, give The Liar a chance. If you're looking for novel situations, unique characters, and surprises around every corner, this is probably not your genre.

Now, with that said, the amount of nastiness in some of the recent reviews was surprising. Not that I'm personally invested whether people enjoyed the book or not, but good Lord, people, get over the idea that someone's family conversations might be different than yours, that some characters respond differently than you would, that small towns have their own personalities and influences on a person's life. I do agree that the book introduced characters that felt like they'd fit into a trilogy and I wondered about their stories, but the book functioned well as a standalone. Griff being a handyman in no way made me think of whether Nora Robert's husband is or is not a handyman or construction worker or whatever some of the reviews said. I don't even care what career Nora Roberts' husband has, if he has one, or if she's married at all. Shelby calling her mother "mama" worked just fine for me even though I wouldn't ever call my mom it, and my mom might be surprised but wouldn't have a heart attack if I came up behind her and hugged her or put my head on her shoulder. Callie's language didn't set off any warning bells of impossible language use or development, nor did her openness to being around strangers. The barrage of similar sounding negative reviews seemed more like a concerted effort than true feedback, more like a dogpile than a discussion. If this book upset you so badly, stop reading it, then take a nap or a chill pill and move on. Yes, you have an opinion and you're more than welcome to it, but let's remain civilized and refrain from catty comments and spoilers disguised as reviews...bless your heart.

I just want to start off by saying how much I LOVE Nora Roberts. Jewels of the Sun was the first "real" book I ever read after finishing with things like Babysitter's Club, Sweet Valley High, etc... and here I am exactly 10 years later and I still count down the days until her next book comes out so I can buy it immediately. She is the reason I became a writer.

I've noticed something in the past couple years, however, and that's that Nora Roberts has somehow fallen into this writing pattern that she just can't seem to get out of. A lot of authors discover a formula that seems to work for them and tend to stick with it and there's nothing wrong with that. Nora just seems to be following that pattern way too closely. Woman (very rarely a man) gets scorned, set up for the "main story line", she/he forced to go home and find solace in family, meet a guy (girl), fall in love, a bit more about the actual story line, quirky secondary characters, couple has a problem that's easily solved, climax to the main problem, couple resolves all of their issues and then the end.

Now, I have absolutely no problem with happy endings. In fact, I love happy endings. It's just that the happy endings in Nora Roberts' stories aren't always so plausible anymore.

In The Liar, Shelby's husband dies and leaves her with a child and massive debt. She finds out he was a lying, cheating bastard and she goes home back to her family to recover and quickly meets a man and falls in love, picks herself up, yadda yadda, predictable ending and they all live happily ever after. It was all very predictable and I knew exactly what was going to happen before I even read the first line. I figured it out when I read the description on the cover and that would be okay but the way we were all lead to that ending just wasn't satisfying.

Anybody who's ever read more than one work by Nora Roberts knows how much she loves her redheads with wild curls but there just isn't any deviation anymore. The grandmother and mother could have been the exact same person and it wouldn't have made a difference. Most of the time, actually, I had to stop and think which one was which. The grandpa and dad were completely useless. I saw no value in either of them other than to show the readers how totally awesome and in love these couples are after so many years. The brother, Clayton, was also useless. He served no purpose, was hardly in the book at all and I had to wonder what the point of his scenes even were. Emma Kate was supposed to be this best friend who went all the way back with Shelby and I felt no familiarity with them. There were no inside jokes, no comfortability, nothing. I saw my best friend last week for the first time in two years (since she moved to Europe) and we fell right into the same groove; same jokes and we could convey messages just through look. I know they had a falling out but then everything was, supposedly, okay again and I felt nothing. Matt was Emma Kate's boyfriend and Griff's best friend. I left the book feeling like he was a total stranger. There was no chemistry between he and Emma Kate and no camaraderie or "bro-ness" between he and Griff. I felt like his sole purpose was a reason for Griff to have moved to Rendezvous Ridge.

Too many characters as well. Big family, great but I didn't need to meet every single one of them. Nobody calls their cousin "cousin johnny" or "cousin vonnie". I have anywhere from 75 to 100 cousins/second cousins (from my dad's 9 siblings and my mom's 4) and I can barely keep track of all of them and have never called them "cousin so-and-so". That whole "your mother's sister's son" thing was unnecessary when "cousin" would have done just as well.

The dialogue was exactly the same no matter who was speaking. All the women spoke exactly the same and I often had to stop and follow the dialogue again to see who was saying what and, even then, I was still sometimes confused.

Griff was absolutely the best character out of the bunch. He had a great sense of humor, he was sexy and sweet and (supposedly) totally in love BUT I felt like there could have been more. There was one scene in which he showed us something besides amiability and, if you weren't looking closely, you might've missed it. The so-called problem between he and Shelby served no purpose and I think it was just there to try to mix their relationship up a little bit because it was going too smoothly.

The relationship between Griff and Shelby had some potential but it moved much too quickly. They had a couple dates and he was ready to dedicate his life to her. They were absolutely not ready to get married in the end.

Some of these characters were also just outlandishly unrealistic. All the "good guys" were perfect and all the "villains" were comically cartoonish. I know Nora loves family but not every family has to be all kissy and huggy and playful with each other. I have a big family. One of my brothers and I don't talk. The rest of my siblings and I get along wonderfully. If I ever came up behind my mother, put my arms around her waist and rested my head on her shoulder, we'd both feel awkward and embarrassed and it's not because we don't love each other and aren't close but because not every family does that. Please understand that, Nora.

I understand that Shelby was played all these years but, seriously... you didn't suspect a damn thing? Absolutely nothing?? Come on, he wasn't THAT good of a con man. Also, he got a vasectomy and you guys had tests done but you didn't ask to see any of the results?

Shelby's husband ran off with $30 million, a PI follows her all the way back to Tennessee, someone gets killed in the parking lot of her work, the PI gets killed, a horribly dangerous man escapes from prison and breaks into Shelby and Griff's houses and steals information and nobody thinks to be just a little cautious? These people are mind-numbingly stupid.

About halfway through the book, Shelby finds out that Richard (or whoever) had been married before... which invalidates their own marriage. She doesn't owe his debt anymore. She's not his wife and owes nothing that she didn't cosign for. And if that wasn't enough, he's alive at the end which means that even if their marriage had been legitimate, she STILL doesn't owe his debt anymore now that he's found alive.

Richard was just ridiculous. In the beginning, he's portrayed as a man who was supposed to be very good at what he did. He lived with her for 5 years and she didn't suspect a thing, he managed to con all of these people and even his own partners, fake his death and get away with it. He gave me the impression of practical, cold, and efficient. What we got was inefficient and just plain dumb. Everything he said was some insulting comment about Shelby and where she's from. This hick little town, this s***ty road, these dumb houses, you stupid girl, you simple girl, you moron. He just wouldn't shut the hell up about it. Also, I know you don't love your daughter but threatening to sell her? Even the worst criminals in prison are offended by pedophiles. That took it too far.

Richard's so called "wife", Natalie what's-her-face was Woman Richard.

Melody was so pointless, I don't even understand what she was doing in the book. I mean, seriously, waste of time and words. Everything that happened with Melody was needless and childish. People can be cruel, but she just seemed like a little girl having a tantrum and was just an excuse for Shelby to punch someone.

The only one I might've found interesting was this Jimmy Harlow but we didn't get to see enough of him or know enough about him at all.

The scenes with the FBI served no purpose.

How the hell does Shelby text such clear messages with one hand and her phone in her pocket? I'm the same age that she is and if that was what was going to save my life, I'd be screwed.

And just one more thing... I could've done without so much setting description. Nora loves flowers and that's perfectly okay but I have no idea what a rhododendron is and I don't need to know every single flower that's planted everywhere that Shelby goes. The descriptions of the house were typical of Nora (ie, warm colors, big fireplaces, gorgeous kitchen, library, full-of-nature backyard). I actually had the urge to skim through some of the setting descriptions because it was just too much.

I really hope Nora Roberts takes a break for a little while and stops working on cruise control. She's producing books like she works the line at Ford and doesn't seem to care anymore what's in them. This story had some real potential but was ruined with cartoonish characters, overdone plot and solution, and way too much setting description.

I love Nora's books. Love them. But I was thoroughly disappointed with this one.

SPOILERS

This was a good book, mostly because of the name on the cover. Not the best Nora Roberts I've read--I was able to put it down and go to bed--but it wasn't horrible. The characters were the tip of the iceberg, but I'll start there. No one, aside from the villains, who were required to be psychotic, and Shelby's repressed personality, had any flaws. Many of the Pomeroys were unbelievably affable and disgustingly exemplary persons, and most of the characters--except for the villains, actually--kind of ran together. That could be because one: there were so--many--of--them. Most of the time when someone besides Shelby, Griff, or Forrest was speaking I had to stop and think about who they were and how they were relevant (made all the harder by the people who had two names, first and middle). I understand that family was a major theme, I love when family is a major theme, but did we have to meet everyone and their third cousins twice removed? And two: everyone but the villains seemed to share the same opinions, speech patterns, and thought processes. It got a little tedious.

That makes it sound like I didn't enjoy the characters. I really did. I'm not sure Griff is my type of romance hero, he was very steady, almost boringly so (I almost didn't catch when he got mad, it was all so calm). Dispassionate might be a good word for him. It could be his word of the day. But I understand how he appealed to Shelby. And I liked Shelby, too. In general. Apparently she used to have a temper before she ran off, and she demonstrates it a few times toward the middle and end of the book, as if she's rediscovering herself, which is the point I suppose. But it just seemed those sudden bursts of temper--though amusing--were at odds with her low-key, stay-out-of-the-way habits and mannerisms. I know Richard had suppressed her personality into those habits, but except for those few sudden (dare I say uncharacteristic?) bursts of temper, she didn't show very much spunk, which is so unlike a Nora Roberts heroine. I didn't get the feeling that any dormant boldness lied under her surface. She even thought passively. She showed determination, sure, regarding the debt that wasn't at all her responsibility, yet she insisted on paying it back. But 'bad-ass' is not a word I would use to describe her. The Shelby Pomeroy everyone remembered so fondly seemed, to me, gone for good.

And--I have to say it. I have to. Shelby had to be the stupidest Nora Roberts' main character I can remember. I don't mean because she got knocked up by and ran off with a stranger when she apparently had the best family and friends possible at home. It happens to the best of us. But get this: Her sociopathic maybe-husband had never been confirmed dead, thirty million dollars were missing and everyone thought she knew where it was, a dead body was found in a town that had probably never seen real murder, a criminal escaped from prison, their homes were broken into, and someone tried to seriously injure Griff, but only because they couldn't get to Shelby to seriously injure her. And every time Griff tried to keep her safe, specifically follow her when she drove home, she said something like "Is that necessary?" or "That's silly." If I could have reached into the book and smacked her, I would have. All that going on, and neither she nor anybody else did a thing to protect her, save perhaps locking the front door. And Forrest gave her pepper spray. Gee, that'll stop those pesky murderers. Griff mentioned a security system, but I don't remember him using it. I'm not exceptionally smart, but even I would have been at least looking over my shoulder, and only because carrying an AK47 into the supermarket is frowned upon.

There were two characters who stole scenes and took no prisoners. Well, three--Callie (Shelby's daughter) holds a place in my heart. Forrest and Emma Kate (Shelby's brother and best friend) stood out to me, because they were the only two characters that weren't villains who didn't seem to be on Xanax. They were grumpy at times, a little bossy but not pushy, and I am so surprised they didn't end up a couple. I started wanting to see more of them than Shelby and Griff. Nothing against Matt (Emma Kate's beau and Griff's best friend and business partner), he seemed nice, though he was still a stranger to me at the end of the book. Too bad this was a stand alone novel, because I would give my brother's firstborn child for Forrest and Emma Kate's story, which I bet would have been very passionate in many ways. (Sorry, Matt.)

Okay, enough picking on the characters. I feel Nora's powers of description deserve an honorable mention. She put more effort into describing the topography of Tennessee than developing the half-assed plot. Maybe she was trying to make the setting its own character, which is awesome and I can't fault her for. She made me want to visit. But I spent almost as much time reading about what the picnic area looked like as I did about what happened there. But that's not all. A contractor could use her descriptions of the houses as blueprints. I love architecture, I almost became an interior designer, but holy crap, leave a little to the imagination, please. I skipped most of the remodeling discussions, of which there were many, and imagined the places as I darn well wanted to. It's a fiction novel, not a textbook. I understand potential romantic interests need things in common to discuss, but it became a lesson. I almost took notes.

Your husband's an amazing person, Nora, and the best contractor in the world. We get it.

And lastly, the plot. Wow. A very un-Nora-like plot. What a cluster. At the beginning, in fact for most of the first half, we get very invested in Shelby, and remain mostly invested in her. Only a handful of times did Nora switch to Griff's point-of-view, which is unusual for her writing. It's usually a good fifty-fifty. But this book was predominantly about Shelby, which is why everything else in it seemed secondary and almost subversive. I'm tempted to be blasphemous and say this was a work of women's fiction. Her romance with Griff started late and was poorly fleshed out. We barely got to know Griff. I definitely did not think they were ready for marriage. The sub-plot of murder and grand larceny was in no way suspenseful or intriguing. It seemed to be written in as an afterthought, like Nora's editor told her to put some action into a manuscript about Shelby's homecoming and rebirth. I think Shelby's personal rediscovery would have made a nice story by itself; a repressed and abused widow with a small child returns home to reclaim her fortitude and lets her loving family heal her wounded heart. Melody, the "old" Shelby everyone remembers, and her relationship-PTSD would be the antagonists. It's been done, but it's still inspiring. A woman doesn't need to fall in love with a man in order to find herself. Letting a man dominate her got her into the mess to begin with. But I'm digressing.

This whole book seemed lazy to me. Maybe Nora needs a vacation. She used an occupation she knows very well, when her atypical occupations for the characters are usually what I love about her books. She drew out the book like she had a minimum word count to meet, and half-assed the suspense--she can do a LOT better than that, I've read it. She's one of my top five authors, which is saying something because I like a lot of authors, but I'm disappointed this is the book I eagerly anticipated since last spring. Usually her writing style is unique and could tell the same story differently from any other. But her quick wit was scarce and she could have used more action, like gestures and mannerisms, during dialogue, not to mention vary the dialogue. Even the sex scenes seemed shorter and just...less...than normal.

What's sad is that any spoilers I might have given away in this review, didn't really spoil anything. You could guess the ending within the first chapter, you know all the characters are going to fall in love and get married. I mean, I know the happily-ever-after is a given, that's why I love romance novels, but that doesn't mean I want their relationship rushed just to get to it. I have a theory that I haven't really researched, but I noticed in some of Nora's books the climax and resolution begin on the twentieth page from the end. It's like there's a template she follows.

This review probably made me seem like a mean person, but I really do have the utmost respect for Nora. I collect her books, have a copy of every title. It's probably because I care about her work so much that I felt compelled to write such a nitpicky, and maybe cruel, review. She's one of my role models. I wish I could be half the writer she is. I hope she'll find more inspiration for the next stand-alone. I know she can do better.