True Betrayals

Rating:
Summary: Love and horses
Review: I'm a Nora Roberts fan and a horse-lover, so my expectations for this book were high. The book didn't disappoint, providing an entertaining story, strong characters to love and hate, and some mystery as well. Although she obviously did her homework about horse racing and the horse world, there were still inaccuracies that got in the way of my enjoyment of the story. Additionally, I found the analagies and puns about card-playing and roulette and other forms of gambling to be overbearing -- one of those times you just want to say "We get the point, OK? He's a gambler." Perhaps BECAUSE my expectations were so high, it doesn't rate 5 stars, but still it was a good story and worthy of staying in the bookshelf.

Rating:
Summary: A great mix of romance and suspense....
Review: Nora Roberts does it again! What a great story to curl up with and burn the midnight oil! She throws a little bit of everything in this novel to make it one of her best...betrayal, murder, romance and of course--love. The title says it all. I was hooked from the very first page.

Rating:
Summary: Good story with interesting characters
Review: This is the first Nora Roberts "mystery" that I have read. In the past I have read her more traditionally romantic books, and I was pleasantly surprised by this novel. There is a breadth of information and a depth of characters here that puts this above many of her other books for me. I was genuinely interested in Kelsey and Naiomi's relationship, and pleased with the way that both of them, and Kelsey's father as well, seem to learn and grow in the course of the book. The supporting characters are also good, and there is enough detail to the descrptions of the world of horse racing to make the story feel realistic.

Interestingly enough, I think the weakest character in the novel is Gabe, who seems fraught with contradictions that I think should have bothered Kelsey, given her concern for ethics and rights and wrongs. I am not disturbed by Gabe's background at all, but I am puzzled by the acceptance of him as a "gambler," which sometimes seems to feed into some of the stereotypes abotu racing that the novel seems to be trying to contradict.

Overall, I think this is a good vacation read. I enjoyed it and will look for mor eNora Roberts books from this sub-genre.