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The Reef

The Reef

List Price: $7.99
Your Price: $7.19
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Something was missing for me
Review: I just finished reading The Reef by Nora Roberts. Ok, so I'm a little behind the times since this book was written in 1998. And yes, it has been on my bookshelf for that long (I joined a book club a few years ago, got tons of books, and I'm still trying to catch up).

Anyway, I have only read one other book by Nora Roberts, so I am not what you would call her "average" fan, since I know she is widely popular amoung romance genre readers. I think this makes me a prime candidate to review her books objectively...

The Reef is about two families, one comprised of an uncle & his nephew & the other a family with one daughter. They are both what you would call treasure hunters (or something like that, they dive for treasures, shipwrecks under the sea). So, they team up & embark on a mission to find a certain shipwreck with a certain very valuable necklace called Angelique's Curse. Why you might ask- well, because it's worth millions & the main hero in the book has set out to beat an old enemy to it. Of course he & the daughter, Tate, begin a romance. Come on, what did you expect?

What ensues is a fairly interesting fiction novel. It' nothing extraordinary. No real big surprises or plot twists.

I did have a bit of a problem concentrating on this book. I don't know if I've just been restless, or if it's the book itself. I would often find myself drifting off into my own little world about what I had to do the next day, what's for dinner; while I was reading.

I give this book three out of five stars. It was surely lacking something. Maybe creativity. But then again, what do you expect from a book like this?

However, I still enjoyed the plot & the characters. I even learned a little about treasure hunters. Neato!

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Worth the read.
Review: This was a very entertaining Nora Roberts book. Tate and Matthew had wonderful chemistry. Matthew Lassiter is just the kind of guy every girl would like to meet. He's handsome, he's a little dangerous, he's very loyal and he always says just the right thing at the right time. It was interesting to read about deep sea diving, though I have to think if it were that easy to discover sunken Spanish galleons teaming with gold, we'd all be scouring the ocean floor. There is definitely enough suspense to make this story interesting and there are a few surprises also. There were times the storyline got a bit monotonous but overall it was a great read.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: It's Worth It
Review: This book was really cool. Personally, every book written by Nora Roberts is worth reading. The Reef was no exception. Because Nora Roberts intertwines a real plot with the romance story, she has become one of my favorite authors. There is quite a bit of suspense in this story. I really loved how Taylor became so independent. And poor Matthew, he tried to do his best for Taylor and she ends up hating him. But not for long...*wink*wink*. This story is a quick read only because it is so very hard to put it down. I recommend this book for anyone who has a soft spot in their heart for romance. You won't be disappointed.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Loved it, yet not the best of Nora
Review: The Reef was full of heart in the characters, as usual for Nora, yet lacked the skill to string along my heart. When reading I felt for the characters yet not like I did for some of her other books such as Heaven and Earth or the Irish series.
When reading it the plot came to a happy ending if not perfect and i was ready for it to be over cause it was closure for the book yet it kept on going. Maybe I'm one for all the romance to find a perfect ending in the last chapter of the book and be happily ever after. In this they got together yet there was more to the book when it could have easily ended.
In all, i loved the book wiht it's flaws and all it's heart.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: This is a great book!
Review: I actually got this book because the cover attracted me to it it looked exotic, and thats exactally what it was. This was such a great book and such a change from the average romance novel this wasnt about a lawyer falling in love with his secretary in rurual USA. This was an exotic story set in the caribean and includes many very differant interesting characters, and Nora explains this so well you really feel as if you are underwater exploring sunken treasure, this book was amazing its definatly one of my top 10 fav books I suggest anyone who want and exciting, exotic, advetourus tale to pick this book up asap.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Ok Plot, but some issues
Review: At the outset, let me say that I really did enjoy the read, for the most part. The treasure-hunting/suspense/romance combo comes off pretty successfully. The Reef is a fun read, and you'll like Roberts' vivid, mostly apt, and occassionally witty descriptions.

However, there are two flaws. The first is the motivation of Silas Van Dyke. Yeah, the guy's evil, greedy, and psychotic. We get that from the temper tantrums and megalomaniacal musings. What we don't get is any sense of "why?" In other words, instead of chasing the Lassiter/Beaumont folks, why the heck isn't he, say, the head of a crime family or assassinating world leaders?

I suppose his raison d'etre is his fancied (but vaguely and belatedly described) connection to the amulet itself, but that's pretty weak. There is nothing in the description or action that explain how Van Dyke's passion for the amulet dovetails with his basic evilness. The lack of connection didn't confuse me, but it did make me feel that a piece of the puzzle was missing. This missing piece needed to be there all along; tossing it in at the end won't do it - too deus ex machina.

The second flaw is editorial. My favorite example is when Matthew dives to do "recognizance." Uh, no. What Matthew is doing is reconnaisance, a completely different concept. I forgive Nora. It's easy to confuse words that sound similar, and I haven't seen any gaffes like this in subsequent novels. The person to blame is the editor. As an editor myself, I am actually appalled that s/he let this one slip. To someone who is supposed to know words, 'recognizance' an obvious error.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Disappointed Roberts Fan
Review: The Reef is definitely NOT her best, compared to Ms. Roberts earlier stories. I wonder if Ms. Roberts is not just doing a "edit and replace" with her latest books -- same characters, personalities, scenes, etc. I so much enjoyed her earlier books, such as Montana Sky, Villa, The Quinn Brothers Series (my personal favorite). My advise is to pick another book from this prolific author.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Ignorant book
Review: This book is about ruthless treasurer hunters, not marine archaeologists as she states. No archaeologist would look for artifacts to sell unless they were highly unethical. Ms. Roberts should have talked to real archaeologists rather than people who rape and pillage the past. Plus, the wreckage was the property of the St. Kitts-Nevis government. Her heroine broke the law by removing the artifacts.

Also, her discussion of St. Kitts shows her ignorance of the island. Most of the discussion regarding the relative location of various places is flawed. She should really have looked at a map more closely. AS for the hospital, she should have visited the Basseterre hospital before she wrote about it.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Really liked this book :-}
Review: This is an excellent story. There's realistic romance as well as lots and lots of adventure. What I really liked about this book was how much I learned about treasure-trove, deep sea diving, marine biology and all of this done in a very interesting, fast paced dialog. This book is so good that the scenery description made me feel the breeze through the sea air. I would say that this story was somewhat predictable but so is the birth of a child or graduation from college and all of that is still exciting. But, I do want to say that there is a bit of a surprise near the end.....a big surprise.
Pick up this book, it'll be worth your while....it's very interesting, very entertaining, adventurous, romantic, with a touch of mystique and loads of suspence.
You'll truely enjoy this book..

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Not the most memorable, but a good read.
Review: I found this book to be a fast read. The romance was wonderful (which is typical of Nora Roberts books). The story line is interesting. However, I think that this book, while good, is not her most memorable. Many times after reading a Nora Roberts book, I will wonder how it would have ended if I had been the main character, or what I would have done differently. I didn't do that with this book. I did enjoy it though.


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