Review: The Obsession by Nora Roberts (audio)

Title:The Obsession

Author:Nora Roberts

Narrator:Shannon McManus

Published:April 2016, Brilliance Audio

Length:14 hours 19 minutes

Source:Publisher

The riveting new novel from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Liar.

Naomi
Bowes lost her innocence the night she followed her father into the
woods. In freeing the girl trapped in the root cellar, Naomi revealed
the horrible extent of her father’s crimes and made him infamous.

Now
a successful photographer living under the name Naomi Carson, she has
found a place that calls to her, thousands of miles away from everything
she’s ever known. Naomi wants to embrace the solitude, but the
residents of Sunrise Cove keep forcing her to open up—especially the
determined Xander Keaton.

Naomi can feel her defenses failing,
and knows that the connection her new life offers is something she’s
always secretly craved. But as she’s learned time and again, her past is
never more than a nightmare away.

My thoughts:I’m a big fan of Nora Roberts’ books and especially love her stand-alone stories, particularly when they fall into the romantic suspense catergory which this newest one does! And I’ve found that they are really good on audio – bonus for me, a huge audiobook listener!!!

I really enjoyed this book, but I have to say, I found it a little different from previous books in that Nora Roberts really devoted a lot of time to Naomi’s younger years in the beginning of the book…more so than she has ever done in the past. At first I was a bit thrown off from this…but as the story moves to the present and then continues on, it does make sense. And it allows for Naomi to really become a flushed out, dynamic character. We fully understand her motivations for what she does and who she is.

Another big part of this story that I just loved is all the descriptions of the house renovation…while it might sound tedious and unnecessary – it just fits and adds to the overall depth of the story. The same goes with all the other characters as well – the characterizations that we get are so deep at times, you just can’t help but feel as if you end up knowing these people by the end of the story.

I loved the romance between Naomi and Xander…it was slow and sweet, yet hot and sexy all at the same time. And when you add in all the scenes with Tag the dog, who just about stole my heart – how can you go wrong. 

While I did end up guessing who the suspect was before the end of the book, it in no way detracted from my enjoyment…in fact, I think it added to it as I tried to figure out how this person, if I was indeed right, would be caught and how they were pulling off what they were doing. I have listened to all of Nora Roberts’ recent romantic suspense novels and I think this might be her best in a long time…I was completely engaged and had to know how it was going to end…yet at the same time, I didn’t want it to end. That’s the only problem with these stand-alones…I want more of these characters!  


Audio thoughts:This is the first time I’ve listened to Shannon McManus and I enjoyed her narration of this book. I thought she did a good job with this book – the pacing was good, the voices were distinct – though could have been a little more clear at times – and overall it was a clear, well-produced audio book…it was a very enjoyable listening experience!!!