Review: Irish Rebel by Nora Roberts

Title: Irish Rebel
Series: Irish Legacy
Author: Nora Roberts
Read copy: eBook (Kindle)
Published: July 10, 2012
Publisher: InterMix
ASIN: B007K3D6S8

Growing up on her parents’ Royal Meadows farm in Maryland instilled in Keeley Grant a passion for horses—and a desire to teach children the joys of riding. When horse trainer Brian Donnelly arrives from Ireland to work at the stable, he only sees Keeley as the boss’s daughter—a spoiled princess who never had to work hard for anything. But the more Brian learns about Keeley, the more he wants what he’s never had before: a place to call home—and a woman to cherish...

My rating:

Brian Donnelly transfers from Ireland to America in order to take the lead trainer position on the Royal Meadows horse farm. There he, nomad his entire life, will discover the beauty of permanency and true love. Both in the form of two special horses, and the woman that's been meant for him.


For some this story is the worst in the bunch, while for me it's the best. Most reviewers complain about Brian and his prickly disposition, disregarding the fact that the previous heroes in this series were much much worse cavemen, children of 80's romance fiction, I guess.

For me, this was a true Nora Roberts book, along the lines of those I came to know and cherish in my reading history. Yes, the hero was a bit prickly and a reverse-snob, but the heroine was more than capable of going head to head with him in her stubbornness and pride.
I found these two much more evenly matched than their predecessors where the heroine was, granted Irish, but still pretty much a doormat when it came to her hero.
I liked Keeley in all her prideful, cold-princess, stubbornly independent glory, and I liked Brian with his complexes and prejudice that easily crumbled into dust the more he got to know his woman. I loved the fact he was the one to fall first, and even though he was too stupidly blind to confess his feelings first, Keeley was there, hounding him along the way, chipping away at his reservations and male pride.
Theirs was a slowly-building romance that started in animosity, moved through mutual respect and friendship only to blossom into love.

I absolutely loved it from page one, and would not have changed a thing, even if I could.

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5 stars, contemporary, contemporary romance, cowboys/ranchers/western, favorites, harlequin/silhouette, Nora Roberts/J.D. Robb

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