Thank you Netgalley / Macmillan Audio, for the ALC and St. Martin’s Press, #partner for the advanced copy of Identity in exchange for my honest review.
Publisher: St. Martin’s Press / Macmillan Audio
Published: May 23, 2023
Summary:
A new thriller about one man’s ice-cold malice, and one woman’s fight to reclaim her life.
Former Army brat Morgan Albright has finally planted roots in a friendly neighborhood near Baltimore. Her friend and roommate Nina helps her make the mortgage payments, as does Morgan’s job as a bartender. But after she and Nina host their first dinner party—attended by Luke, the flirtatious IT guy who’d been chatting her up at the bar—her carefully built world is shattered. The back door glass is broken, cash and jewelry are missing, her car is gone, and Nina lies dead on the floor.
Soon, a horrific truth emerges: It was Morgan who let the monster in. “Luke” is actually a cold-hearted con artist named Gavin who targets a particular type of woman, steals her assets and identity, and then commits his ultimate goal: murder.
What the FBI tells Morgan is beyond chilling. Nina wasn’t his type. Morgan is. Nina was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. And Morgan’s nightmare is just beginning. Soon she has no choice but to flee to her mother’s home in Vermont. While she struggles to build something new, she meets another man, Miles Jameson. He isn’t flashy or flirtatious, and his family business has deep roots in town. But Gavin is still out there hunting new victims, and he hasn’t forgotten the one who got away.
My thoughts:
I have been reading Nora Roberts for a long time. I vividly remember being stuck on the couch after having knee surgery in high school and having a stack of books next to me and there were definitely some Nora Roberts books there…that’s how long I’ve been reading her books! She’s also an author my parents read, my mother-in-law reads and my sisters read – so I love that I can pass her books on to them after I read them. There’s something quite endearing about all of us enjoying this one author!
My favorite of Nora’s books have always been her romantic suspense novels and I feel like they just keep getting better and better. This latest one really kept me on edge – who hasn’t been a target of identity theft in one form or another? It’s so easy to identify (no pun intended) with Morgan in that respect, though of course, things go to the extreme here.
This book has so many things going for it that kept me engaged throughout. There’s the small-town feel that is so perfectly created. The characters are all fleshed-out and it’s easy to become attached to them, especially “the ladies” as they are referred to in the book, Morgan’s mother and grandmother. I just loved them! For the thriller part, there is the serial killer, who was just the perfect kind of diabolical without being too evil, if you know what I mean. This is a romantic suspense as opposed to a crime fiction book so we got shades of evil and you felt that terror, but it doesn’t prevent those who don’t read terribly dark books from wanting to keep reading. And of course there is the romance. I enjoyed this part. It is paired well with the suspense and it doesn’t take over the whole book.
This was a completely immersive, engaging read and I very much enjoyed it. I look forward to Nora Roberts’ romance suspense books each Spring/Summer because I know how entertaining they are and this one definitely delivered!
Audio thoughts:
I just love listening to these books on audio now. They are exactly the type to get lost in and the narrator, January LaVoy, really does a great job bringing this one to life. Her pacing and intonation is spot on and she does such a great job with all the characters.
