Nora Roberts: Midnight Bayou

Love and betrayal, fear and pain, life and death; the bayou around New Orleans holds it all.  At the turn of the 20th century, a poor swamp beauty and a rich high class businessman fall in love, elope, have a baby and suffer the disapproval, and outright hate, from both their families.  A hundred years later the cycle is set to repeat when Declan Fitzgerald buys Manet Hall, sets himself to restoring the rundown mansion, and meets Angelina Simone – the great, great-granddaughter of the baby born to that swamp beauty and businessman.

Manet Hall is haunted.  The entire estate is dead and waiting, and it seems that it’s been waiting for Declan.  He felt an instant connection to the house, and to the woman, and knows that they are his.  From his first day in Manet Hall Declan has paranormal experiences with the ghosts that linger in the big place, but they connect with him in a way that both terrifies and angers him.  And when he discovers that Lena is affected in much the same way it’s just one more link in the chain that connects them to each other… at least in his mind.

Lena has also always been drawn to the Hall but then she’s always known the history and the tragedy of it.  When she meets Declan she’s somewhat surprised to see that he’s not quite what she expected and when she first goes into the Hall, she’s surprised by the way it makes her feel.  She can’t figure out how to handle Declan and for the first time in her life, she can’t figure out how to keep herself from falling for him and him for her. 

Together, Declan and Lena work through the weirdness of the houses’ affect on them, and through the awkwardness caused by the intensity of their love for one another.  In the end they won’t only have a home to live in; they’ll have a future to look forward to, too.

One of the things that I love most about Nora’s writing, especially in her single title novels like this one, is the little mysterious twists that she adds to keep each and every one of her stories fresh and interesting.  Midnight Bayou was an impulse buy when I saw it at the grocery store one day.  I’d probably seen it a dozen times at the bookstore and had passed it by.  After reading it, then re-reading, re-reading and falling in love with it, I’m immensely happy that I gave in to impulse and finally picked it up.  Nora always manages to make her stories something that I can pick up over and over and this one, Midnight Bayou is no exception.  I promise that if the impulse takes you, you will not be disappointed!

Midnight Bayou, 2001

You can also see the Lifetime Movie, based on the book by Nora Roberts! It is available from iTunes for US users. And you might find them at your video store.

Sci-Fi Friday!!

Tonight was the last episode before the season finale of SGU! Incursion gave us the first close encounter with people from the Milky Way galaxy and the Lucien Alliance gives the crew of Destiny a run for their money.

With Rhona Mitra (Nip/Tuck), Richard Dean Anderson (“Jack O’Neill”), Amanda Tapping (“Samantha Carter”), and Lou Diamond Phillips (“David Telford”) as support cast tonight, this episode was a killer. Now I'm looking forward to next week's season finale and what will happen between the Destiny crew and the Lucien Alliance... Here's a sneak peak of next weeks show!

Happy TV viewing my friends and enjoy the season finale!!!

Nora Roberts: Tribute

Cover of Tribute

Cilla McGowan comes to the Little Farm, in the Shenandoah Valley, with a plan and a dream.  She’s going to restore her famous grandmother’s old farmhouse to its former glory – despite, or perhaps because of the dark history that the house holds for the entire valley.  She knows exactly what she wants to do and she knows exactly how to get what she’s after, through hard work, determination and some good ole elbow grease.  But not everyone in the valley wants the old house restored, or the reminder of the famous woman who had once affected so many lives within it.

When Ford Sawyer first spots Cilla he mistakes her for a trespasser on the neglected property and attempts to run her off.  Once he recognizes her, then he’s struck.  It’s not just her beauty or her resemblance to her dead grandmother that he becomes drawn to, with his artists’ eye he is able to see below the surface that she displays for the world to find the woman that she’s trying so hard to become.  Using his skill with ink and color, his respect for what she’s doing with the Little Farm and the love he comes to feel for her, Ford is able to show her just how extraordinary she really is.

When the life that the two of them are creating is threatened by some unknown force, they must work together not only to figure out where the danger comes from, but to ensure that the lives they hope for don’t unravel right before their very eyes. 

In Tribute, Nora Roberts shows the world that sometimes it truly is possible to have everything you’ve always wanted – love, family, happiness and contentment.  Her story of Cilla and Ford is colored with wonderful supporting characters including ex-husbands/best friends, absentee fathers’, negligent mothers, Hollywood sleaze, and of course the resident crazy man.  As a single title novel, Tribute is one that I would recommend to absolutely anyone looking for a good, solid story but doesn’t want the commitment of a multi-book read.

Tribute, 2008 (ISBN: 978-0-515-14636-3)