River Road

This story was Jayne Ann Krentz at her romantic suspense best. The characters were amazingly life-like. Well, except for the fact that, if men life Mason Fletcher exist, they are staying well away from me.

The story begins with a prequel. Lucy Sheridan, age 16, is being hauled away from a wild party by her crush, the responsible and mature 19-year-old Mason Fletcher. She leaves town the next day and doesn't return to Summer River for thirteen years. What Lucy doesn't know is that she has been targeted by Tristan Brinker who wants her to star in his latest rape video and Mason saves her from that fate.

Now, Lucy is grown up and working as a forensic genealogist. She works for a private investigation firm and finds lost heirs. She is a show more successful woman in all areas of her life except her romantic life. She has dumped her fiance after finding him in bed with another woman. Her therapist tells her she has commitment issues. She is currently trying to find Mr. Right by using an online matchmaking service.

She has returned to Summer River to settle her aunt's estate. Her beloved Aunt Sara and her partner Mary Colfax recently died in an automobile accident. Lucy has inherited her aunt's estate and some shares in Colfax Inc. from Mary. She is being urged to sell Sara's house and land to turn it into a vineyard and she is being wooed by various Colfax family members who want those share back, too.

Mason Fletcher has returned to Summer River too. He has established a successful private investigation business specializing in cold crimes with his younger brother Aaron. But when a case goes wrong, he heads for home to rethink his life. He is working in his uncle's hardware store when Lucy comes in for light bulbs. An offer to help her with some home improvements lead to the discovery of Tristan Brinker's body bricked up in her aunt's fireplace which starts a chain of events that combine the past and the present.

I loved that both characters were strong people and that, in the course of their falling in love, they didn't have misunderstandings that hurt each other. I also liked the way Krentz wove events and characters from the past into the mystery. She also managed to surprise me when she revealed the villains of the story. I really enjoyed this story and couldn't put it down. For me, it was a compelling page-turner. show less

Thin plot, thin characters.

The characters have almost comical under-reactions to horrific events: body in a fireplace? Ho-hum. Bad guy kidnap you? No biggie.

It's like every character has taken one too many Valium.

Okay, I’ll be the first to admit I’m spoiled when it comes to reading books by Jayne Ann Krentz. Who spoiled me? Jayne Ann Krentz. With each new book that comes out, my brain remembers old plots, fascinating, quirky characters, interesting, zany and scary situations, and clever, clever dialogue - huge smile-memories as I anticipate a new book by a favorite author.
And for a number of years now, I’ve been disappointed. Flat characters -the same flat characters - simple plots, flat secondary characters, and not many of those. I know some readers have a magic “dump ‘em” number. “Three disappointing books and I won’t buy that author!” “Two!” “One!” Well, my family invented stubborn, so I don’t really give up on show more an author. “Anyone can have a bad decade,” is a needlepoint on the wall in my office. But I admit to less anticipation and more hesitation as I opened River Road. And I was surprised. Pleasantly surprised.
This is a straight-forward mystery. And that’s good. I’ve missed the cleanness of a Krentz who-done-it. Paranormal is nice as a seasoning, but too much of a good thing is Lady Gaga.
Lucy Sheridan’s aunt has died and left her a house, a large parcel of land, and some shares of stock as an inheritance. The house and land are in Summer River, a small farming town that has been turned into another California Wineville by the area’s heavy investment in grapes in the thirteen years since Lucy last spent a summer with her aunt Sara. But Lucy isn’t your run-of-the-mill inheritor: she’s a forensic genealogist, a researcher, a family detective – and she will need her own services before she figures out the various mysteries in Summer River.
She also needs the help of Mason Fletcher, her long-ago crush, the boy-man who once rescued her from Tristan Brinker’s party before it got too wild. Mason is a detective now, too. A cold case detective. And that’s a good thing because the new mysteries in Summer River have their roots in old, cold mysteries.
River Road is a good story. Good primary characters - with interesting tension between the two. Both Lucy and Mason have good, solid interactions with good secondary characters, like Mason’s uncle Deke Fletcher, and Teresa and Nolan – kids thirteen years ago, pillars of the community now. And there are enough secondary characters to give me the flavor of the town - the winery owners, the wannabes, and lesser mortals.
There’s a hint of a secondary plot – but really just a hint, and this is where I feel let down. I love vintage JAK for her complex plots carried out by complex characters. And although the River Road mysteries are complex, that’s where the complexity ends. The characters’ lives aren’t complex and neither is the plot.
Krentz’s books are always about family – I trust I’m not giving something away when I say that. And families are complex. Krentz’s families are often patchwork families – wonderfully interesting characters for whom the heroine is the center-post, the boss key - the one who holds the family together and fearlessly helps out when a brother or a sister gets in trouble.
And secondary characters are always in trouble in vintage JAK books. Remember Trust Me? Desdemona Wainwright is the changeling in her family of actors, the caterer who hires all her relatives when they are between engagements. Hero Sam Stark is saddled with his two, young half-brothers who run away to Sam when they are ignored by their mother and the father they share with Sam. (JAK books are also always about loyalty. You see why I won’t give up on her - mystery, romance, family, loyalty – all the makings of superb stories!)
In River Road, Mason has a younger brother Aaron. As kids they were orphaned, taken in by their uncle Deke, a soldier. But Aaron is doing just fine, no problems. Deke is fine, no problems. Lucy has no siblings. Here mother and father are just fine. And in this, Lucy and Mason’s lives simply don’t have the scope, the range of opportunity for family drama and danger that vintage JAK used so well – where plot was driven by the characters, where the family drama functioned as the framework upon which Krentz spun the romance, and through which she threaded the mystery.
I said I thought Lucy and Mason were good characters. The introduction of more family members with their own problems would have made Lucy and Mason great characters. Richer. More complex. In River Road, the mystery drives the plot. It’s not enough. Not for a great Jayne Ann Krentz.
I can wait. show less

I like Krentz and the book started out well with good characterization, interesting story, and solid writing. But about half-way through it petered out. The heroine and hero became more cardboard and I felt less emotionally attached. There were too many stories, too many plot lines being told. It became chaotic. Lastly, the ending felt rushed - the resolution and HEA wrapped up in the last two (short) chapters. Krentz writes well so I did mostly enjoy it, but I think it could have been better with more time spent on it on plotting, making the characters richer and tightening up/removing some plot lines.

Not the worst Janye Krentz I've read but just sort of middling. As usual, it's sort of paint by numbers but at least is's contemporary and not paranormal or inauthentic regency or victorian. Krentz used to write excellent contemporaries with strong women and interesting relationship issues. But that's a long time in the past. I no longer buy her books but will take them out of the library if I come across it.

It's not often that I have to say this about a book but this is a straight contemporary romance with no paranormal at all in it, there are hunches, but that's about it. I feel a need to say this because I approached this story with thoughts of paranormal and kept expecting someone to start into that, but no. I think I would have enjoyed the read better if I had known this from the outset, but with Ms Krentz's output being mostly paranormal these days I kinda expected some to creep in.

Lucy Sheridan has been away from Summer River for thirteen years, last time she was here she was dragged bodily from a party by a guy she had a crush on, Mason Fletcher, and ever since she hasn't gone back. Her aunt discouraged it and the kid who had show more invited her, disappeared mysteriously, now her aunt is dead and she has inherited the house and some shares in a company that has a winery. She works as a genealogical researcher for a private investigation firm and Mason runs a security business with his brother. When Lucy discovers a secret inside her aunt's house she feels a need to find out the truth and if her aunt's death is related to this discovery.

I liked it, the end chase scene had me at the edge of my seat. I liked the characters and their reactions and how they had to build a relationship and learn to trust each other.

Overall, an enjoyable read. show less

I like Krentz and read all her novels, which are always well-written. This, like many, is enjoyable romantic suspense but is ultimately forgettable. I never really felt connected to the main characters ~ Lucy and Mason ~ and didn't feel that they had a strong connection to each other. Yes, we are told they had a strong connection and there is a good backstory to back it up, but I just never felt it. The mystery was okay even though I kind of figured out the villain early on, although many of the secondary characters seemed pretty villainous, if sketchily drawn. I'd recommend this lightly suspenseful romance for anyone who wants to relax with an entertaining but easy novel.