Brazen Virtue

Rating:
Summary: A Suspenseful, Satisfying Read
Review: "Brazen Virtue" is a great romantic suspense novel, written in true Nora Roberts style.
Grace is a successful murder mystery author who is looking for some peace and quiet after a stressful book tour. When Grace discovers that her usually straight-edge sister Kathleen is earning extra money as a phone sex operator she is concerned. But because of the company's strict anonymity policy, she figures that Kathleen will be perfectly safe. Unfortunately, she couldn't be more wrong, as she returns home one night to find her sister strangled with the phone cord. It seems as though Grace has walked right into one of her books, only this time she is the dazed survivor.
Detective Ed Jackson, Grace's new neighbour is assigned to the case. But he is having trouble concentrating on anything but his attraction to Grace and his desire to keep her safe. Grace is determined to avenge her sister's death, so she sets up a daring trap to lure the killer to her. Ed doesn't like the idea one bit, and is concerned for this feisty woman he has fallen in love with.
But neither Grace nor Ed knows that Grace's trap has already worked and that this brilliant madman has turned his obsession to her. As the killer closes in it will be up to Ed to put things together and get to Grace in time to save her life!
This is a thrilling and fast-paced read with a lovely romance added to the mix. Grace and Ed will charm readers with their endearing quirks and mannerisms. This is a follow-up to "Sacred Sins" although it can easily stand alone (I read this one first and had no trouble following). This is a wonderfully entertaining book and I have no doubt that you will enjoy it!

Rating:
Summary: Not As Good As Sacred Sins
Review: I bought this book after reading Sacred Sins and enjoying it tremendously. Usually If there is a second book about the other characters in the first book, I have to read it. Brazen Virtue was good, but it was disappointing that Nora Roberts did not go deeper into Ed's character, as I find him quite a fascinating one. With his obsession with healthy food and books, he would have been a lot of fun to get to know better.
The book ended too fast for me, as if Nora Roberts poured most of her creativity into Sacred Sins so that little was left for Brazen Virtue. All in all this was a good read, but Sacred Sins was more satisfying that Brazen Virtue

Rating:
Summary: Great Overall but Could Have Developed More
Review: I loved this book but it had some underdeveloped sub-plots. The real plot, between Grace and Ed Jackson, is nicely constructed. Their interaction is described from the beginning as Grace liking his bedraggled house that he is redoing, and Ed liking Grace's cheerfulness the first time he saw her while working. The interaction was great till the ending too.

I had also liked Tess' character. She's the psychiatrist who ended up analyzing the killer. I liked the juxtaposition of her thoughts with the actual thoughts of the rapist/killer. Roberts wrote a good deal about the psychology of a rapist and how they think they are doing the victim a favor and I thought that was interesting.

But there were a few underdeveloped plots. Like I would have liked to know more about the marriage of Kath and her husband, Jonathan. Roberts only devoted a couple short paragraphs telling readers about them. Also, I would have liked to know the reaction of the son, Kevin, to all of these goings on. Readers didn't even get to know Kevin as a character. At the ending when Grace resolved her feelings for Jonathan, Roberts didn't go into what was said. A few chapters before the book ended, Grace said that she would call some other people and maybe Jonathan about Kath but the book ended without telling readers of the phone call so we were left hanging.

The book was great overall. It had a fast plot and I didn't have to skim over anything like I usually do if the book gets boring in the middle--which it didn't. This is my first book of the series and I understood everything. It can definitely stand alone as a wonderful suspenseful story. So I recommend it.