Rating: 
Summary: Contemporary Romance Meets Futuristic Romantic Suspense
Review: Nora Roberts combines her skills as a contemporary romance author with her alter ego, J.D. Robb, who writes futuristic romantic suspense in this single two-part novel. Part I involves Laine Tavish, attractive owner of a small Maryland antique shop. But when her father Jack's ex-partner Willy tracks her to her business before he is killed in a traffic accident, Laine finally realizes that her past as the child of a con artist has reared its ugly head. Private investigator Max Gannon also meets Laine, as he believes that she may know where Jack hid the diamonds stolen in his most recent heist. In this crafty mix of suspense and romance, Max and Laine become allies personally and professionally as they try to discover where Willy might have hidden the diamonds during his brief visit to Laine's shop, as they must also elude Alex Cross, the mastermind of the heist who wants to recover all of the diamonds. Fast forward to year 2059 when Lieutenant Detective Eve Dallas is investigating the murder of a woman who was house-sitting for her friend, Samantha Gannon, an author who wrote a book about the meeting of her grandparents, Max and Laine, and their investigation into recovering the diamonds, though the one quarter belonging to Alex Cross was never found, and he died in prison. And when Samantha's cleaning lady is found murdered, Eve and wealthy entrepreneur husband Roarke believe that the murders are somehow connected to the missing gems, as they seek to locate the whereabouts of Cross' son. No holds barred suspense, terrific romance between Eve and
Roarke are carefully combined with references to the technological advances in the not too distant future.
Rating: 
Summary: Very good romance/mystery
Review: I've been reading Nora Roberts for nearly as long as she's been writing, and have enjoyed seeing her talent grow as a writer. Here, she combines both her personas/aliases into one book. Part one is more standard romantic suspense; Part Two is the futuristic detective mystery featuring Eve Dallas. The entire story centers around a diamond heist, and the stones that were stolen. I found myself reading more for the mystery element and found the occasional bits of steamy hot sex to be mildly distracting. If you're familiar with Ms. Roberts work under either her own name or her pseudonym of J.D. Robb, you'll probably be satisfied with this book. If you've never read her before, this isn't one I'd necessarily recommend as a "starter" - Part Two relies heavily, I think, on prior knowledge of Eve Dallas and her world, and so some characters aren't as fully fleshed out in Part Two as they are in Part One. While the mystery/suspense portions are fairly simple (I figured out who was the Big Bad fairly early in the book), the writing remains Ms. Roberts's typical style - that is, her characters act and talk like real people; she's not afraid to use pop culture to flesh out her world; the sex isn't written in such purple prose that you laugh out loud at the descriptions, nor is it so descriptively pornographic that you're offended [though this is definitely a PG-15 book with the descriptions of blood, violence, and sex]; and overall, it's a fairly enjoyable reading. What I didn't like, and what keeps this from being a 5 star review, is the sheer length of the story. Some of the scenes dragged on too long, some of the descriptions for the characters were unnecessary (Peabody seemed to take more center stage than she should have, which I would find distracting if I didn't understand there's a story arc with her through the other Eve Dallas stories), and the Bad Guys were cardboard villians. Additionally, the ending felt flat, too Hollywood, and I didn't feel like anyone tried too hard to get anything. Nora Roberts did a much better job with thieves, IMO, in one of her older books, and writing as J.D. Robb, I think she did Eve Dallas better when Eve Dallas was newer.
Rating:
Summary: excellent story - mystery & love
Review: This book consists of two novels - the first one is the story of Laine Tavish and Max Gannon on the trail of stolen diamonds. This was excellent - the Nora Roberts we've all come to expect - mystery, romance, and a good, well written, well plotted story. I truly enjoyed this portion of the audio book. It is followed up by the second novel which features Eve Dallas working to solve a mystery case, involving the same diamonds and the grandchild of Laine & Max 56 years in the future. It's completely different in style - written as J.D. Robb it follows her formula in her "In Death" mystery series. This was a highly enjoyable set of stories (especially the 1st of the two stories) and I highly recommend them to any Nora Roberts fan - you won't be disappointed.
Rating:
Summary: Great Combination
Review: Having oneself for a co-author makes a very dependable partnership if the 'two' coconspirators are as exceptional as Nora Roberts. In 'Remember When' J. D. Robb joins her alter ego Nora Roberts to write a two part story about a diamond heist which occurs early in the twenty first century when Jack O'Hara steals twenty eight million in glittering gems along with his friend willy Young and their ruthless and conniving associate Alex Crew. When Crew turns on his associates Jack sends Willy to stash their part of the loot with his daughter Laine Tavish (formerly Elaine O'Hara) while he believes that he is lead Crew away. However, Crew and a handsome private investigator, Max Gannon continue to pursue Laine. Crew wants the diamonds at any cost while Max discovers that he needs Laine more than he needs to find the diamonds. Thus begins the search to find the elusive diamonds. This first part of the tale is engrossing and sets up the second half which features Eve Dallas and Roarke as they investigate the death of a young woman that may be related to the recent publication of a book about the infamous heist of half a century ago. The murder occurred at the apartment of Samantha Gannon, the grand daughter of Laine and Max and revealed that in excess of seven million dollars worth of diamonds were never recovered. Someone wants those gems now worth twice the original value and is willing to kill for them. Together Eve and Roarke must find the culprit and avenge the murders. Both parts of this tale are quite good and the doubleheader is well worth the investment in a hardcover edition. I did slightly prefer the first part as it was more original and the characters were new and refreshing, but both parts were truly worth reading.
Rating:
Summary: The same author, two different styles
Review: For the longest time, many readers including myself did not know that Nora Roberts and J.D. Robb were the same the same person. This new book "Remember When" combines these two talents together. The book opens up the stealing of diamonds in 2004 and the love between a P.I. and the suspect daughter's The second takes us to the future where once again the diamonds are up for graps and Roarke and Eve Dallas are on the case.
I have to admitt that I enjoyed the second part of the book with Dallas and Roarke than the first half. The action in the first seem to drag and I couldn't wait to get the second half. This is a great book, but the first section did seem a bit slow.
Rating:
Summary: Longest prologue for an Eve Dallas mystery but...
Review: the story was great! Yes, I wanted to skip part one of the book just to get to Eve, Roarke, Peabody, etc. but I endured just to make part two make sense as far as the mystery goes. Part one was interesting as a romance/mystery but as far as romance goes, I didn't feel like Laine and Max actually fell in love. Lust, yes. But love? (Let me put it like Roarke would say, "Hmm.") And, yes, I do believe that love at first sight can be pulled off but not in this story. While saying all that, I still like the story. It was intense about the diamonds and all. And of course there is a parallel between Laine being the criminal like Roarke and Max being the cop/PI like Eve. If all four had actually sat down and talked, that would have been interesting. Now, part two did not disappoint me! No J.D. Robb mystery has yet disappointed me! Sharp dialogue, kick a** scenes, mystery, and of course love, hey-- you can't go wrong. One thing I was waiting on was for Eve or Roarke to buy a replacement goldfish for Samantha. And another thing I was waiting on was for the deep meaning about how that lunatic was the lunatic's grandson. The lunacy skipped a generation. So... don't you think Eve and Roarke would wonder about their own, as yet to be talked about in great detail, kids? Personally, I can't wait to read about Eve pregnant AND moody with more attitude than what she already has! New York murderers, beware! And wouldn't it just be a kick in the head if she had twins? They do run in the family... I flat out love this series. And if you haven't heard, according to Nora Robert's website, the In Death series is optioned for screenplay. Interesting to see who they will get to play these characters if it does make it to film.
Rating:
Summary: Introducing Robb?
Review: I think that this book was great for introducing Nora Roberts' fans to J.D. Robb. I only recently started reading Roberts but I've read all of her newer romance/mistery books and really liked them. I was a little wary of trying Robb and "Remember When" was a great crash course into the series. The problem with introducing non-Robb fans to the series this way is that they loose so much of the history of the characters and are a little lost at first with the unfamiliar slang for things that we don't have yet. The second half was so good though, and so different from the normal Roberts stuff that it made me want to read the series, which I immediately did. I definately thought that the Robb part was better than the Roberts part. That is probably because I'd burned myself out on Roberts and the plot was a little simple, but I think that was because both stories were shorter than her normal lengths and there wasn't enough area to develop the best plots. I really love Roberts, but I love Robb more and if you have read this book and didn't like Eve or didn't like the characters it is probably because you haven't read more of the series and haven't had time to fall in love with her enough. Eve is a great character, but if you come into the middle of the series, you loose how much heart she has (and she has a lot of heart).
Read Robb's other books before you give up on it all together.
Rating:
Summary: Good story, but could use some character development
Review: This was a good story, but it was wrapped up a little too neatly at the end of each half. The characters in the first half were well-developed, but I wanted to hear more about them in part 2. Nora Roberts'/JD Robb's trashy sex scenes were prominent in both stories. I started scanning these sections when that got old, as it usually does for me with her books. I really wanted to know more about Samantha in part 2. The villain in that half just made me want to slap him. Lots more character development could have been done. Overall, a good story, but predictable ending.
Rating:
Summary: Unique story by "two" authors...
Review: On the way down to Tucson, I finished up Remember When by Nora Roberts "and" J. D. Robb. For those of you who are unfamiliar with those names, they are one and the same person. Nora Roberts writes romance novels, and also pens futuristic crime novels under the pen name of J. D. Robb. I really like the Robb titles (the "In Death" series), so I decided to give this one a try. I liked it a lot... In part 1 of the story (written by Roberts), a woman is trying to forget her father's criminal past and has set up a nice existence running an antique shop in a small town. But a partner of her father shows up at the shop, tries to deliver a message to her, and gets killed running out of the shop when a car hits him. When an investigator shows up, she gets really confused as to why all this attention has come her way. Turns out the investigator is trying to track down a multi-million dollar diamond heist, and she's suspected of being part of the scheme to hide the diamonds. As with most crime novels, she's innocent but is the target of a killer who also thinks she knows where they are. Her and the investigator team up to try and solve the case. Jump forward to part 2 (written by Robb) about 50 years in the future. The granddaughter of the main characters in part 1 is a successful writer who has penned a blockbuster book about the original diamond heist. People close to her start getting murdered, and it appears that it's related to some unresolved questions about the crime and a missing portion of the diamonds. Eve Dallas and her husband Rourke are called in to sort out the murders and to protect the writer before she is murdered herself. A unique approach to writing a book (writing as two different authors), and it worked for me. Both stories can stand on their own, so it's almost as if you're getting two books for the price of one. I've never read any Nora Roberts titles, and was pleasantly surprised that it wasn't as much a mushy romance as I expected. The J. D. Robb portion was good as usual, with all the same players I've come to know and enjoy. While I'm not going to run out and start reading Roberts romances, I'm more likely to at least read the flyleaf to see what the story line might be...
Rating:
Summary: Nora Teams with Nora!
Review: Tongue in cheek, Nora Roberts teams with her alter ego, J.D. Robb, to create a two-books-in-one surprise. This is one of those Nora blockbusters that you simply can't put down, and that you love every step of the way. The first story, which takes place in the present day, follows Laine Tavish, owner of an antiques store in Angels Gap, MD, and sexy hunk Max Gannon, who has been sent to Angels Gap on the trail of missing diamonds worth countless millions. Good at his job, Max has already found out Laine's deep, dark secret: She is the daughter of a well-known thief who has eluded police for years. What Max doesn't know, however, is if Laine knows about the diamond heist--or knows that a major, cold-blooded killer is after her and the booty he thinks she has. Forced to investigate further, Max meets Laine, and in true Nora Roberts fashion, sparks fly. Next thing you know, Max and Laine are embroiled in a hot-hot love affair and a quest that now threatens both their lives. Fast-forward over 50 years. Now J.D. Robb (Nora) takes up the story with our favorite New York cop, Eve Dallas. When a series of brutal murders of innocent young women grips the city, Dallas becomes embroiled in the case--and uncovers a strange connection to a diamond heist that happened many decades before. It seems that Samantha Gannon, granddaughter of the very same Max and Laine, has written a best-seller about her grandparents' one-time involvement with the famous heist. Her book states that a quarter of the booty was never recovered...and with that information, the book sets off a crime spree that can only be solved by delving into the past. Perfect Nora--perfect Robb. Read this book!
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