Northern Lights

Un bel giallo/rosa, a tratti forse un po’prolisso, ma denso di un’atmosfera peculiare derivante anche dalla particolarità dei luoghi in cui si svolge la vicenda, peraltro descritti in maniera magistrale.
Ben tratteggiati i protagonisti affiancati peraltro da un gran numero di personaggi secondari, alcuni anche molto interessanti.
Una storia che parte forse un po’ lentamente, quasi in sordina, ma che ti cattura un po’ alla volta fino ad avvolgerti nelle sue spire e a trascinarti verso la soluzione finale.

This book is a perfect example of why I love Nora Roberts so much. It takes a lot for me to want to move anywhere in the north where winters are long and harsh. Yet, even long after finishing Northern Lights, there is a part of me that really wants to move to Alaska. Her descriptions of its harshness, quirkiness, and more importantly, its beauty, leaves me breathless every time and makes me want to experience it myself, even though I hate winter and snow.

Meg is the perfect heroine. She's tough but realistic, driven and yet ordinary. I love how Ms. Roberts creates characters that are normal. They worry about mundane, everyday life as much as we do - from paying the bills to work to family issues. One can easily step into the shoes of one show more of her characters and not feel out of place in them. In her earlier novels, Ms. Roberts' heroines were fabulously wealthy, impossibly beautiful and people that are more the exception than the norm. I really like the fact that her heroines, including Meg, are much more believable and relatable.

I also adore Ms. Roberts' portrayal of men. The dialogue she writes them cracks me up because of the fact that I would expect my brother, my husband, or my closest males friends to say something similar. Nate is no exception in that aspect. I do realize that no female can quite conquer the male mind, and that if a man were to read this book, he would probably scoff at Nate as unrealistic. To me, he's just another enjoyable character.

This book definitely kept me turning pages long into the wee hours of the night. The mystery's resolution caught me off-guard, and Meg and Nate's relationship definitely hits all the right notes in the romance category. There is something so believable about these characters that had me caught up in the story line from the very beginning. The Alaskan backdrop is a character on its own. Together, they blend into one fabulous story. show less

I am a person who generally goes for science fiction and historical novels, but I am willing to try other novels. Danielle Steel disgusted me, and I was afraid that I might feel the same if I picked up a Nora Roberts book. My first read was the Jewels in the Sun trilogy (which I didn't enjoy that much) but I decided to give Ms. Roberts another chance.

I wasn't disappointed. While not quite five-star, this book does come close. The storyline is interesting and fun to read, the plot twists keep you on your feet, the dialog and actions are believable. Ms. Roberts has a nice way of describing things at times that make me smile to myself. Overall, her writing was tight and flowing, and this is a book that I genuinely enjoyed. Alaska is show more described nicely, and living in a small Alaskan town was a enjoyable read the way Ms. Roberts wrote it. I especially liked the character of Megan Galloway - what a spitfire! show less

Extremely enjoyable romantic suspense story set in Alaska. Hero Nate Burke who is running from his past in Baltimore takes the job of Chief of Police in the remote town of Lunacy, Alaska. Heroine Meg Galloway, who is a bush pilot, is the girl he falls for. The story focuses more on Nate adjusting to life in Alaska and the years-old murder mystery that is uncovered, than it does on the romance, but that worked out just fine for me. The cast of many characters were really memorable with suspects galore for the crime. The setting of Alaska was a character itself, described in such vivid detail. I could feel the freezing cold and see the snow covered mountains. This book was really long but I never found myself bored, it held my interest show more throughout. show less

Lunacy, Alaska - population 506 - is Nate Burke's last chance. As a Baltimore cop, he had watched his partner die - and the guilt still haunts him. Maybe serving as Chief of Police in this tiny, remote town, where darkness falls by mid-afternoon and temperatures fall to below zero, will bring some kind of solace. It isn't as if he has anywhere else to go. Aside from sorting out a run-in between a couple of motor vehicles and a moose - and pulling apart two brothers fighting over John Wayne's best movie - Nate's first weeks on the job are relatively quiet. But as he wonders whether this was all a big mistake, an unexpected kiss from feisty bush pilot Meg Galloway under the brilliant Northern Lights of the Alaska sky lifts his spirit - show more and convinces him to stay just a little longer... Born and raised in Lunacy, Meg has learned to be independent. But there's something about Nate's sad eyes that gets under her skin, and warms her frozen heart. However, when two climbers find a corpse on the mountain, Nate discovers that Lunacy isn't quite the sleeply little backwater he imagined...

I got the audiobook for this from the library and I've happily been listening to it over the last few weeks. It's been lovely to do a bit of stitching and listen to a book and I hope I can keep up the practice. (Going to finish listening to The Warrior's Apprentice by Lois McMaster Bujold next, I think. I started it ages ago and kept getting sidetracked from finishing listening to it.)

Anyway, what did I think of Northern Lights?

I wasn't sure I was going to like it at first. It all seemed rather bleak and dark to begin with, and the narrator kept doing funny voices for the characters than I didn't really like.

While I loved Nate straight away, I also wasn't sure about Meg, who wasn't really my favourite kind of character. She was just a little too brash and up-front for me, which I'm sure shows up my own introverted nature more than anything else.

But she grew on me a lot as the book progressed, and by the end I was delighted with her and I'm very happy with her happy ending. I just hope she doesn't mess it up. She could, and I think will have to pay attention to keep it.

As the book continued, I began to see that the dark feeling was intentional on the part of the author and very brilliantly done. Nate arrives at the end of the world in the middle of winter and a dark depression. What else should the mood of the book been? As the story progresses, Nate begins to climb out of depression and Lunacy begins to climb out of winter. As both these things happens, the tone of the book changes with them until the end, in spring and good health, the tone sparkles like the sun on the snow. Congratulations, Ms Roberts, on an expert piece of writing.

I found the spats between Nate and Meg to be kind of fun and a little strange at the same time. Again, this stems from me bringing my own experiences to the story, as we don't have arguments in my own marriage and I would find it very uncomfortable to do so. I can totally see how these work for the book characters and allow them to blow off steam safely and move forward, and once I recognised that, I was okay with them, just aware how different that is to my own experiences. I think they may have resonanted more because I was listening to them rather than reading them as well. Listening to a book can certainly emphasise different aspects of the book than reading it does.

I thought the mystery was well done too. Certainly, I was never 100% convinced I had the murderer pegged until right at the end, although it turned out that I was right in my choice.

So after an uncertain start, on the part of the reader rather than the author, I thoroughly enjoyed listening to Northern Lights. The library has a couple of other Nora Roberts books on audio, and I suspect I'll have to find the time to listen to them too.

Northern Lights
Nora Roberts
(audiobook)
8/10 show less

I was at dinner with some friends and of course the conversation turned to books. There was an audible *gasp* when they found out I'd never read a Nora Roberts novel. So... the next time we got together, one of these lovely ladies brought me this one knowing that I typically like mysteries and thrillers. I admit I was very skeptical; I thought most of hers were purely romance and that isn't a genre I enjoy (no shade, just not my jam). It started a little slow for me and I'll admit I was a little confused, not sure who was talking or what was going on, a lot of jumping around which wasn't clear if it was a different time or happening simultaneously etc... I quickly got myself sorted and was able to start enjoying the book. It was a show more little slow, I knew there was going to be a mystery element but it took its time getting there. One thing I absolutely loved about this is the setting...Northern Exposure (I'm showing my age LOL) was one of my favorite shows and this town was almost exactly like the setting of that show, including some of the characters, so I was very charmed by that. The mystery itself wasn't as big a deal as I was hoping it was, but it was still a mystery, there was quite a bit of murder actually, and I was wrong about who the killer was so that was interesting. I will caution there is violence against animals in this, so if that's a trigger for you, I would skip it. All in all I really enjoyed this, the spicy scenes weren't that much so it was tolerable LOL. I would recommend this book to anyone looking for a nice, easy, smooth read that ends satisfactorily and has a bit of everything. I might even read more from this author. show less

This is an oldie but goodie if you are a Nora Robert's old school fan. I haven't read this one in forever, but was glad to see it when I was at Powell's book store. I am happy to say I didn't remember who was the bad guy in this one so I went in legitimately surprised. It's a slow burn romance novel taking place in Alaska. Roberts adds in tons of details about Alaska and the population of Lunacy, Alaska that makes this book really come alive. The only reason why I gave it 4 stars is that the flow of the book was up and down in a few places. Also it took a while for things to get going. Nate wasn't the most interesting character to me, Meg was, I wish that we had spent more time in her head than Nate's honestly.

"Northern Lights" follows show more former Baltimore police officer Nate Burke to Lunacy, Alaska. Nate is trying to get past watching his former partner die and agrees to become chief of police in Lunacy. Nate slowly starts coming back to life while in Lunacy.

Meg Galloway is a bush pilot who loves her life in Lunacy. She finds herself intrigued by the chief of police since she sees something sad in his eyes that she wants to see disappear. She has a somewhat disastrous relationship with her mother Charlene, but has a great stand in father who has been there for her since her real father left her and her mother when was she was a teen.

Past and present come together though when a dead body is discovered in a cave that leaves Nate to figure out who in Lunacy is a murderer.

I liked Meg more than Nate. Probably because she's honest to a fault. And I liked that she was upfront about wanting sex with Nate and nothing else. Nate started to bug me since Roberts had him doing the alpha male thing (romance novel trope) where he is the big bad man who will protect his woman. Meg shows Nate repeatedly she can take care of herself, but he ignores it. I am glad though that Roberts doesn't have Meg changing herself to suit Nate. I hate that in romance novels.

I do think that Nate and Meg have great romantic chemistry though.

The secondary characters in this one are great too. We have the mayor (Hop), the journalists, Meg's mother, the professor, the cook at the lodge, the brothers who keep getting into trouble, Nate's deputies, etc.

Roberts really did take her time making everyone come alive in this one. I honestly even questioned whether a murder needed to happen in this one. Just reading about the hi-jinks in Lunacy was enough for me.

The writing was good, though be warned this book is very long. It's over 600 pages so it took me a bit more than a day to finish. The flow wasn't consistent throughout and I can't lie and say that every part of the book sang to me. I was slightly bored towards the end until things picked up and the murderer was revealed.

The setting of Lunacy, Alaska fascinated me. Roberts must have done some research into things such as how cars/engines are kept heated. I liked reading about the Northern Lights and how much the town changes when it becomes summer and the sun doesn't quite set for months on end. show less