Hideaway

I do not hide my obsession passion for Nora Roberts' novels. I find them akin to that great feeling of coming home and sinking into your own bed after a trip. They are comforting, welcoming, and entertaining. They never fail to improve my mood and put everything to rights in my messy mind.

Her newest novel, Hideaway does just that. It is a story I loved from the opening page, as we meet the Sullivan family and follow Cate's ordeal as it unfolds. The Big Sur setting is the perfect anecdote to sheltering in place. As always, Ms. Roberts' descriptions are so vivid that it makes you want to move there. All of the characters have a work ethic that is admirable, dedicated to doing their jobs to the best of their abilities no matter their fame show more and wealth. Plus, Ms. Roberts reiterates her oft-used theme that the best types of families are those you make, whether they include biological family members or not. The romance element of the novel is fluid and believable and enhances the full story. To me, Hideaway is another fabulous offering by what I consider to be a queen of entertaining storytelling. show less

I love getting lost in a good Nora Roberts book. This one was a delicious romantic suspense. Cate has grown up in a huge epic Hollywood family with generations of success in filmmaking. They’re rich, privileged, kind and loving, and when she goes to her great grandparents’ property in Big Sur for her great grandfather’s funeral, she isn’t expecting the worse to happen.

Since it’s revealed in the blurb, it isn’t really a spoiler, but Cate is kidnapped and someone close to her is involved. This was deliciously dramatic, poignant and hard to read in places, and also had all the soft, romantic spots I love in a good NR novel. Dogs. Horses. Time on a ranch. Movie stuff. All sorts of wonderful tidbits.

Please excuse typos/name show more misspellings. Entered on screen reader. show less

This isn't either romance or suspense, so if you are looking for that you will be disappointed (like a lot of reviews). What it is is a sprawling family drama with a young woman's journey at the center, a style that was all the rage in the 70s and 80s. It reminded me of Judith Krantz 's work, especially Princess Daisy. And when thinking of it in that structure, I really enjoyed it. I loved the two families at the center, supportive and loving. Cate's journey was one I enjoyed going on. It's a big book that was worth my time.

It follows some well worn tropes used by Nora Roberts and you can almost see the beats she hits but, as usual, she hits them well and makes it an engaging read.

Caitlyn Sullivan is betrayed at nine-years-old when she's kidnapped and when the dust falls from the event she finds herself facing the issues that raised. She is part of an acting dynasty and finds a role in her world later. When she returns to her family home to face her past the past is starting to catch up with several of the people involved.

I enjoyed this, the characters sparked for me and they were well written. It was a bad decision book club book and deprived me of sleep while I was engaged by reading it.

This was an enjoyable and compelling coming-of-age/romantic suspense; I haven’t read a “classic” (type—it’s a new book) Nora Roberts in decades, and this was a great one. FYI reverse trigger warning for anyone wondering (as it would have helped me): no animals were harmed, and there was no sexual abuse in the heroine’s abduction as a child (the copy kind of worried me).

Did Not Finish-25 percent.

I got to 25 percent and had to quit this one. Nothing is happening. Reading about one family and how they became "Hollywood royalty" was too much. This book read like a mish-mash of older Nora Roberts books and trying to tie into her new style of writing romantic suspense. It did not work and I was not in the mood to keep trying to plod through this. This is such a disappointment to me because I absolutely loved [b:Under Currents|42289976|Under Currents|Nora Roberts|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1539784152l/42289976._SY75_.jpg|63286307]. I was hoping for more of the same here.

"Hideaway" follows 10 year old Caitlyn Sullivan (have fun reading the whole family history and show more who begat who) who during a memorial service for her grandfather is kidnapped. Caitlyn's family is the Sullivan family of Hollywood fame. The kidnappers demand $10 million dollars and the whole family is left in turmoil. Especially when they realize that an insider must have been behind the kidnapping. FYI, it's pretty obvious who did it by the way (at least it was to me) and I skipped forward to make sure I was right and to the end too. Caitlyn meets the Cooper family who end up helping her when she manages to get away from the kidnappers. The book jumps forward (think of how Under Currents did it) and then I just gave up reading anymore.

I don't know what to say. No one felt very solid in this one. I think that Roberts wanted to have a book taking place in Ireland and it reminded me a bit of her old books taking place in that country. Maybe that's why I couldn't get a feel for this one. I didn't even get the idea that Caitlyn or her family were really good actors. There's just a lot of tell for the first part of this book. It was so boring reading about the Sullivan family. I think that Roberts took too long to set things up. And based on other reader's reviews, a lot of people felt the romance in this one was boring. Maybe if Roberts had just did a straight romance without the whole kidnapping and betrayal part this would have worked better. show less

I won an ARC as part of a Goodreads giveaway.

This was not my favorite Nora Roberts book, I think she has written many other better books, but it was still entertaining and kept me engaged in the story. One of my issues was that there was so much character build up in the beginning (which was great) but the ending seemed...abrupt. The climax happened about 2 or 3 pages before the end; it was almost as if she came up to a deadline and just had to finish it. There isn't a whole lot of closure with some of the characters either. There is some, but not a lot, of romance. Most of the plot is about the issues stemming from the childhood kidnapping and the romance part is almost an afterthought it felt like.