Thursday, September 19, 2013

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All opinions still remain my own.

Review: Inner Harbour by Nora Roberts

Title: Inner Harbour
Series: Chesapeake Bay Saga
Author: Nora Roberts
Read copy: Paperback
Published: March 4, 2010
Publisher: Piatkus Books
ISBN: 0749952679
ISBN-13: 9780749952679

Phillip Quinn had done everything to make his life seem perfect. With his career on the fast track and a condo overlooking the Inner Harbour, his life on the street was firmly in the past. But one look at his adopted brother Seth and the memories come flooding back. In Seth he sees the boy he once was.

Seth's future seems assured—until Dr Sybill Griffin shows up in the sleepy town of St. Christopher's. She claims to be researching the town for her new book, but Phillip is sure she is hiding something. While he is determined to uncover her motives, Sybill cannot deny her own growing feelings for the intense and mysterious Quinn—but the secret she hides has the power to shatter the brothers' lives for ever...


My rating:

Phillip Quinn. The urbane one. Advertising executive, Armani lover, wine connoisseur. The only one of the Quinn brothers who was partly responsible for what happened in his childhood, deciding to make the best of it. The last adult Quinn brother to be brought to St. Christopher.

After months spent juggling his job and his responsibilities toward his youngest brother, Seth, something good has finally happened. Something good wrapped in an aloof, distant package. But he knows there's more to Dr Sybill Griffin that meet the eye. And he cannot wait to discover what lies beneath. The question is, will he be able to handle it when truth finally comes out?


I know there's another book, the final book in the series, still waiting to be read, but this one was sort of an ending to the older Quinn brothers era. And I'm glad it succeeded in improving my opinion of the series (as a whole) after the fiasco of the second book. Still, nothing cannot come close to Sea Swept, the first and best in the series.

Yet again we received a great glimpse into the Quinn family dynamics, this time with two added Quinns by marriage, but it was the interactions between brothers (Seth included this time) that had me riveted once again. As said in the review for the fist book, these guys were a real hoot. And a real pleasure to read.

Thankfully the pacing also got a nice boost in this one, and the story flowed almost hiccup-free, letting the characters (all of them!) guide the plot forward.

Unfortunately, the heroine ruined the experience for me. The secrets, the hiding, the half-thruths really bugged me. I'm all for keeping secrets when need arises, but in this one, I simply didn't care for it. Maybe it was because I 'couldn't relate' knowing the entire sordid story, but the bottom line is, I didn't like it. And the fact she did feel guilty about lying didn't compensate one bit. I simply didn't get her reasoning. Knowing her sister the way she did, she still had reservations about calling her a liar from the get-go. Nope, I don't get it.
I was prepared to let the emotional 'handicap' would bug me, but it didn't. Go figure.

All in all, it was a good story, a vast improvement from its predecessor yet failing to reach its potential or come even close at achieving what the first book in the series did.



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