too sappy ( )

Dru spent too much time as "the senator's granddaughter", and as a tool in her parents passive-aggressive battle. Seth has continued paying Gloria to leave the Quinns alone since he was 14. ( )

I'm glad I re-read this sequel to the Quinn trilogy. When looking back on it, I had focused on only the negatives: that the trilogy really didn't need a sequel, and that Seth's dilemma was a little too much like Luke Callahan's in Honest Illusions.

What I'd forgotten was the characters. To catch you up: Ray and Stella Quinn had adopted three adolescent boys--boys with horrible childhoods. Years later, with the three brothers grown, and Stella dead, Ray ends up with another boy, and his death in a car accidents puts the responsibility for Seth on the shoulders of his three new brothers. How they cope with it and form a family, and find love is the subject of the trilogy. Chesapeake Blue opens 20 years after that, Seth returning home as a successful artist with a troubling secret--his junkie/prostitute mother has been extorting money from him since he was 14, threatening his new family.

The heroine of the story is flower shop owner Drusilla Whitcomb Banks, "poor little rich girl" trying to break out of the mold she's been forced into all her life.

The story itself is pretty predictable, but it's the way it's told, and the way the characters are themselves rather than two-dimensional stock characters that make it shine. The reactions go beyond the standard and become individual.

And it's occurring to me that I can't think of a good example. Drusilla, maybe, as I've already described her as the "poor little rich girl." She does have the standard cold-hearted upbringing, the parents disapproving because she broke up with the philanderer who was, nonetheless, a "good match." But she doesn't wallow in it. She sees herself clearly, and knows there's a middle ground between cutting herself off from her family completely and caving in to their expectations. Her parents, likewise, aren't evil--they're just a tad clueless and self-absorbed. The rest of the characters are similarly well-developed.

There's just something about this book that really showcases Nora's talent. The atmosphere, maybe, the characters, certainly the way the words flow... whatever it is, it sucked me in and made me believe. It's not a big story, but it's a complete and satisfying one. ( )

This is the final book in the Chesapeake Bay/Quinn Brothers series. This is the story of Seth; the last of Ray Quinn's lost boys. He was raised by his older adopted brothers Cam, Ethan and Phillip and recently spent years in Europe studying art. He finally returns to be with the only real family knows; and face the demon that has been haunting him his entire life.

Chesapeake Blue by Nora Roberts (10/10)
Romance. This was my favourite of the whole series. I just wish I had a more visual imagination so I could picture Seth's paintings. ( )