Birthright

Rating:
Summary: Ms. Roberts, you have a new fan!
Review: I have seen Nora Roberts's name around the bookstores for years but never picked up one of her novels to read until last week. Well, much better late than never! "Birthright" is such a good story! Romantic suspense at its very best!

The novel revolves around a young woman named Callie Dunbrook who was abducted at the age of three weeks from her stroller at the mall. While working as an archaeologist on a dig in a small southern town Callie is recognized by her birth mother while doing an interview on the local TV news. Her mother recognizes her because the resemblance to herself is so very strong. From that point Ms. Roberts weaves a wonderful and completely engrossing tale of a young woman coming to grips with the fact that her life will again never be the same. The interactions between her real family and her adoptive family are especially moving. There is a nice mixture of romance and suspense as Callie , with the help of her ex-husband and co-worker, tries to uncover the facts surrounding her abduction.

Just an all-around great read!!

Rating:
Summary: One of My Favorite Books by Nora Roberts!
Review: The town of Woodsboro, MD was divided over the new Antietam Creek development. Half of the town thought it was great that they were building some new homes in the area - the building brought jobs and the new families would breathe new life into the little town. The other half of the town wanted to preserve the beautiful area which sat by a tranquil pond as a nature conservation area. However, nature lost out to commercialism and the Antietam Creek development was underway when a construction worker found a human skull while he was digging.

When archaeologist Callie Dunbrook discovered that the skull was 5,000 years old, she jumped at the chance to go and excavate. This could be the find of the century and make her career. Not even the discovery that Jake Greystone, her ex-husband, would be the anthropologist on site could keep her away. Callie throws herself into her work, but quickly has her world pulled out from under her. Suzanne Cullen, owner and founder of Suzanne's Kitchen, a successful bakery business, spots Callie on TV and knows that Callie is her long lost Jessica, her baby who was stolen when she was only a few months old.

Callie refuses to believe it. Her parents never said anything about adoption and she thinks that Suzanne is not very mentally stable to boot. Unfortunately, Callie soon learns that she was adopted and that her parents paid a quarter of a million dollars for the privilege. Callie knows that she cannot be the daughter that Suzanne has always waited for, but she is determined to bring those responsible to justice. But as Callie uncovers dark secrets she discovers that someone is determined to keep the past buried - even if they have to kill for it...

I think that this is one of Nora Roberts best romantic thrillers. Her characters are absolutely riveting in this book and I identified with and loved them all. Callie, who loved her parents and thought that being independent was the only way to be free; Jake, who thought that expressions of love didn't have to be verbal and that if there was no trust there was no love; Suzanne, a woman who had sacrificed everything including her husband and her other child to find the child that she had lost; Lana Campbell, Callie's beautiful, capable lawyer who had lost her husband in a senseless shooting and now found herself falling in love again; Doug Cullen, as Callie's older brother, he hated himself for not taking care of the baby Jessica and didn't know if he wanted a sister in his life; and many, many other characters. Lana and Doug had a nice secondary romance going on and Suzanne started to fit her life back together again in the book. The villains were great, evil and a little insane and a complete surprise (to me, at least). The icing on the cake was the archaeological and anthropological detail that Roberts included, which was absolutely fascinating. A great read - well worth your time!

Rating:
Summary: Too many plots
Review: I was looking forward to Birthright because the plot sounded really good. A thirty year old Callie Dunbrook finds out that she was adopted and learns she was kidnapped from her stroller at three months.
It was a major disappointment. There were too many plot lines going on that you got lost. I didn't like the main charactor Callie at all. She was raised in a loving home so why did she have a hard time accepting love and trust? Neither of her birth or adoptive parents had problems in that department. Even her reason for it didn't make any sense. She blamed it on her adoptive parents' relationship but not once during the whole book did you ever see an example of it.
Her language was bad and mouthing off to anyone and everyone got old really fast.
The real reason behind the murders was so farfetched it didn't make any sense neither did the end of the story. From the final climax you expect me to believe one person managed to knock out, drug and tie up four people?
Would of liked Callie's relationship with her birth parents to of been worked out more. More of Suzanne and Jay working out their problems and getting back together.
I did like the charactor Lana. Usually the dead husband is protrayed as evil or a jerk it was a nice (an realistic) change that she loved her late husband and realized she could move on with her life and Doug.
I did like that Suzanne and Jay were portrayed very realistically as parents who's child was kidnapped but I think they deserved a little bit more at the end.
The fact the person responsible for the kidnapping and black market ring will never have to pay for the crimes made the story fall flat. After all the suffering all those years Suzanne and Jay deserved to face the man who arranged their daughter's kidnapping.
I felt like they were playing down the crime. Sure Callie ended up having a great life but that doesn't change the fact she was kidnapped and sold on the black market. She spends more time whining then being angry about the whole crime. Her immature additude at Jake was annoying. Jake came across as a good guy but I couldn't imagine why he liked Callie especially since I didn't even like her.
Defently not the best Nora Roberts book. No where near True Betrayels, Public Secrets and all the other great books. Hopefully the next one will be much better

Rating:
Summary: good page-turner
Review: This is one of those books that once you start reading its very hard to put down. It has romance, adventure and murder. Callie Dunbrook is an archaeologist who while on a dig dicovers more than century old bones. It turns out she may have been kidnapped as a 3 month old infant from her biological parents and sold to another family. Its a very intriguing story because the more she tries to connect to her past the more certain people try to stop her adding danger to her life and her loved ones. Complicating her life is her ex-husband Jake who is also an archaeologist working with her side by side. The attraction is still there from both sides causing Callie to really think about her life. There are lots of twists and turns making this a very enjoyable reading experience. If you like Nora Roberts you will not be disappointed.

Rating:
Summary: Worth the Time
Review: Though nothing can top the Reef as Roberts' best book to date, I found Birthright to be an exciting read. The characters were not quite so static as usual, although Jake could have been more well developed as Callie's ex-husband. I only wish that Roberts had written the first part of their relationship together, instead of keeping us guessing as to what actually happenend. Even flashbacks would have worked nicely. The only disappointment to this book was the ending. It was abrupt, confusing, and unsuspenseful. It seemed like Nora got tired of writing, and left us readers in the dust. I usually spend the entire book guessing "who did it?" but with Birthright that was nearly impossible, because the supporting characters were not well developed. The book had a bit too much going on at once-- an archeological dig, finding Jake, Lana's relationship, Callie's new mother, the murders-- all were a bit overwhelming. But Callie was a very real character, as was Lana, and they worked nicely. I hope Roberts continues to write "fun" books though, as this was a bit sappy. We need adventure in our lives, and we rely on Roberts to bring a little piece in. An enjoyable read, 3 1/2 stars!

Rating:
Summary: a good thrill
Review: Well, quite opposite of the other reviews of this book, I liked it. I was excited to see that archaeology was the medium used to anchor the story. As someone who's been on archaeological digs before, the portrayal of the site, events, and all characters was quite realistic (if a little fantastic at times). Callie fit the bill perfectly. Women who get involved in and make it in the world of archaeology are tough and sometimes they're mean. I liked that she never stood still, stood up for herself, and really did care for the other characters around her. Jake was also great, even though he could have been a little more developed. I thought the story was good. Was it realistic? I don't know that for sure but why read a romance novel if what you're after is realism? Taken at face value for what it is, Birthright was an entertaining story and a great escape from reality.

Rating:
Summary: A great read
Review: This is the best Nora Roberts book I have read so far. I read the "Jared Brothers" which was ok. I enjoyed the book from the start but once I got into it I couldn't put it down. It was very fascinating. A wonderful book to transform yourself away. Yes, I have read better book this so far is HER best.

Rating:
Summary: Sophomoric flapdoodle!
Review: That this idiocy masquerading as a novel could be published is beyond me. This review won't earn me many positive ratings, but in the hopes of saving just one person from suffering through this tripe I'm going to give it to you straight. Can you handle the truth?

I was at the airport and had forgotten to bring a book and was forced to purchase something to read. I must have done something terribly wrong to annoy someone in a previous life for me to have chosen this insipid hokum and I must have been terribly bored to finish this garbage, but finish it I did. My time would have been spent far more productively cleaning out the johns on the airplane.

Ms Roberts characters are ridiculously contrived and shallow. They appear to have been cooked up in the fetid imagination of a high-school sophomore cheerleader who didn't bother to take any English or literature courses. Ms Roberts has NO insight into the human condition. Her characters are all androgynous hermaphrodites. Her men are simply oozing with sensitivity lurking just beneath the surface. And her female characters are constantly getting into bar fights when they aren't insisting on having sex with the hapless sensitive men in the book. I guess her total lack of insight into human nature could be forgiven if she'd managed to craft a good tale, but Nooo-o-o-o-o. I wasn't so lucky. This storyline was so silly and inane that I am still kicking myself for bothering to read it.

Do youself a favor. Pass on this travesty and find something (ANYTHING) else to read.

Rating:
Summary: Boring, repetitive, tedious
Review: This is the first book I've read by Nora Roberts and probably the last. I picked up the book because the topics of archeology, Maryland and Robert's popularity were intriguing. After 50 pages, I just speed-read the book to get the plot (mostly about an adoption/kidnapping, which was not what I expected). I found I could skip page upon page and still get the story (which maybe could be witten in 10 or 15 pages). I know Roberts is popular, but this book was like a worn-out, unnecessary, mediocre, lukewarm "romance" with potenitally semi-serious plot (archeology, land disputes, legal-medical issues around adoption) which drown amidst the "need" for romance. Also Roberts tries to sound too "hip" citing rock groups, etc. I felt like this book was really pandering to the readers. So, guess what, I don't recommend it!

Rating:
Summary: Fantastic Story*
Review: The things I learned from reading this book is unbelievable. Archeology is so facinating and the underlying love story kept me turning the pages. For a bit I began to lose interest, but it picked back up when dead bodies began turning up. Great read!