Book Review: ‘The Villa’ by Nora Roberts
The Villa is from a phase of Nora Roberts’ writing that I quite enjoy. March 2001 copyright, so it’s not one of the newest ones, but it is a nice stand alone title that is well fleshed out and a good solid read. There were a couple of main plot arcs and multiple love stories going on, as well as several murders and a twist at the end which was only very subtly hinted at. I only managed to pick up half the twist before it was revealed – but was drawn in by the clever craftiness of the author and the red herring she threw in along the way.
There is a lot of research and detail put into making the wine making side accurate, and for someone who is into good food and wine, it’s nice to see it portrayed well in a novel. It wasn’t a setting that I am overly familiar with and haven’t come across in any of her other books (at least not in any detail) so that helped keep this one feeling fresh and different from Nora Roberts’ other titles.
I burned through this in 2 days of evenings, lunches and a couple of sky train rides commuting to teach a creative writing class.
Heat level: a couple of somewhat steamy (but fairly vague) love scenes, but nothing too graphic. I’d loan this one to my granny or my teenager without worry.
Violence level: a few murder attempts, some carried out. Mostly poison, one shooting and a couple of more creative murder attempts but nothing that would leave me with nightmares if I read it before bedtime.
Did any of you read it? What did you think of this book overall?
Didn’t read it yet? You can get it from Amazon.
The Villa from Amazon.ca
The Villa from Amazon.com
The Villa for Kindle
Sneak peek from ‘Whistle While You Work’
When I was struck by a fun idea for a fairy-tale inspired (but sassy) romance a few months ago, it was the scene and character below that started the words pinging in my brain. That’s how it happens sometimes… I’ll be working on something else entirely when my brain is filled with distracting, but oh so amusing adventures that have nothing to do with the project I’m supposed to be working on.
In this case, I decided to run with it and have a little fun. Our recent trip to Vegas, where we saw The Peep Show at Planet Hollywood, managed to re-focus me on this story and provide some inspiration for the writing. I mean seriously, strippers (girls and boys!) with some awe-inspiring talents…and a fairytale theme?!? What’s not to like?
So, while the star of the show was just that – famous – the rest of the cast were impressive with the dancing, singing and dare we mention the pole dancing! Wow, is really all I have to say. I’ll never think of Little Bo Peep in quite the same way ; )
It was fun, funny, impressive and entertaining. And had the benefit of being research for my current writing project!
Here’s a peek at a very rough first scene from the story currently called: Whistle While You Work.
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Rose was pretty sure that if she had to listen to that stupid song one more time she was liable to drop kick a dwarf right off the stage.
Just whistle while you work… la-la-la la la-la aaaaaaaaaaa! She hoped her scream had remained inside her mind and tried not to giggle as she imagined Dopey flying through the air and landing in the lap of the overweight old man in the front row.
She was definitely losing her passion for this work.
It was hard to project sexy when all you could think about was that your rent was late, your car was broken down, your fridge was empty and your bank had just called to tell you your last paycheque had bounced.
Not to mention that finding her boyfriend in her bed with another woman hadn’t really helped the week off to a good start either.
Okay, so she wasn’t exactly on Broadway- but she was being paid for her talents on the stage. And she did get to keep her clothes on. Well, most of them anyways.
But now was soooo not the time to take stock of her life. She had bills to pay.
Rose pasted a pouty smile on her face, made sure the appropriate amount of cleavage was showing and took a deep breath. The bird trilling from the speakers had the same effect on her as nails on a chalkboard.
That was her cue.
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© 2012 CJ Hunt. All rights reserved.
