Wednesday, September 18, 2013

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All opinions still remain my own.

Review: Rising Tides by Nora Roberts

Title: Rising Tides
Series: Chesapeake Bay Saga
Author: Nora Roberts
Read copy: Paperback
Published: February 4, 2010
Publisher: Piatkus Books
ISBN: 0749952628
ISBN-13: 9780749952624

Ethan Quinn shares his late father's passion for the ocean, and he's determined to make the family boat-building business a success. But as well as looking out for his young brother Seth, the strong but guarded Quinn is also battling some difficult home truths.

Grace Monroe, the woman Ethan has always loves but never believed he could have, is learning that appearances can be deceptive. For beneath Ethan's still, dark waters lies a shocking past. With Grace's help, can he overcome the shadows that haunt him and finally accept who he is?


My rating:

Ethan Quinn. The quiet one. The steady one. Always staying close to home, living on and for the water. Because of his past and dark secrets buried in that past, he's decided long ago never to marry, never to have a family. And because of that he thinks he can never have the one woman he loves, the one he's loved forever—Grace Monroe.

Unfortunately he didn't consider his sister-in-law's stubbornness. Or Grace's determination.


While the first book in this quartet, Sea Swept, delivered on the promise in the blurb and made me giddy to read the next book, Ethan's story turned out to be quite a let-down.

It sure was Ethan's story, slow just like its hero. "Slow as a lame turtle with bifocals" Cam described him to his wife. And while I love me some slow moving stories, the slowness sometimes helps in keeping things real, this one was just too slow. Any slower and it would've been going backwards.

Nothing happened. Sure, things happened between Ethan and Grace, but I simply didn't care. Because I didn't care about them. While Cam and Anna were exciting, funny, and sexy, these two were just meh. I really could not have cared less whether they actually ended up together.
Beside Ethan and his slowness that had mostly to do with Grace. Proud, stubborn, annoying...stupid. Yes, I hate that word, but that's what came to mind with Grace and her 'fantasies'. Sheesh.

Also there was no camaraderie between brothers, the interactions I came to love in the Cam's book. They barely spent any time together. And two big problems I had with this book were Seth (though he was a bit tiresome in the first book, he's escalated in this one—shouldn't be the other way around?—I kept waiting for someone to kick the crap out of him, because he deserved it) and Anna (I loved her in the first book, in this one she was just too annoying to bear).

And the biggest problem of them all? It arises quite often, but I manage to swallow my complaints because usually the story keep me interested, here...Not so much. I'm talking about the whole marriage thing. What's with that?! So Ethan didn't want to get married. So what?! I mean, who's to prevent the two of them from shaking up together? Is living together without the ring and the paperwork suddenly a sin? And what was with the need to procreate? She wanted to have his babies. What if he couldn't have them (not wouldn't, but couldn't)? Would he still be the big, bad Ethan? Didn't the idiot woman ever hear of adoption?

Argh. Frustrating. That's what this book was. Frustrating. And disappointing.



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