Book Review: LEGACY : A NOVEL by Nora Roberts

A change of pace here with a romantic suspense...

Synopsis

Adrian Rizzo was seven when she met her father for the first time. That was the day he nearly killed her—before her mother, Lina, stepped in. 

Soon after, Adrian was dropped off at her grandparents’ house in Maryland, where she spent a long summer drinking lemonade, playing with dogs, making a new best friend—and developing the stirrings of a crush on her friend’s ten-year-old brother. Lina, meanwhile, traveled the country promoting her fitness brand and turning it into a billion-dollar business. There was no point in dwelling on the past. 

A decade later, Adrian has created her own line of yoga and workout videos, following in Lina’s footsteps but intent on maintaining creative control. And she’s just as cool-headed and ambitious as her mother. They aren’t close, but they’re cordial—as long as neither crosses the other. 

But while Lina dismisses the death threats that Adrian starts getting as a routine part of her daughter’s growing celebrity, Adrian can’t help but find the vicious rhymes unsettling. Year after year, they keep arriving—the postmarks changing, but the menacing tone the same. They continue after she returns to Maryland and becomes reacquainted with Raylan, her childhood crush, all grown up and as gorgeously green-eyed as ever. Sometimes it even seems like the terrifying messages are indeed routine, like nothing will come of them. Until the murders start, and the escalation begins… 

Review

Adrian is a strong protagonist who manages to undermine her mother's domination as an adolescent, collaborate with fellow students and create an empire. Her mother, Lina, is consumed by her business. Adrian's most positive memories surround her time with her grandparents and her childhood friends. Marring her success is her experience of meeting her father for the first and only time and annual menacing messages. Lina brushes them off as part of fame, while Adrian continues to turn them over to her manager and share them with Raylan. Only the threat is real and slowly but surely the deaths move closer to Adrian's circle of family and friends.

As with other books by Nora Roberts, the tension will build and then you'll be lulled by Lina's logic, only over time the tension only builds. There are twists and turns that keep you flipping pages late into the night. The character and plot development is well done as expected with a Nora Roberts novel.  Fans of her other books will not be disappointed.

FTC Disclosure: I received a complimentary copy of this book in the hopes that I would post an honest review. This has not affected the content of my review in any way.