Inner Harbor

I always thought that Sea Swept was my favorite book in this trilogy, but on this re-read, it seems to be Inner Harbor instead.

This is Phillip and Sybill's story. There's also the end of the trilogy arc--we find out Seth's history and resolve things with his guardianship. Phillip is the advertising executive brother--the detail-oriented urbanite. Sybill is a PhD psychologist and author, and Seth's aunt, though she hides that fact at first.

Seth's mother Gloria has contacted her sister Sybill with a sob story about how the Quinns have stolen her son and how she needs money to pay a lawyer to get him back. Sybill wants to help, but she doesn't trust Gloria and wants to check out the situation for herself. Phillip is attracted to her, and show more when he finds out her identity... You might expect the usual romance-novel cliches here: self-righteous accusations and the complaint "why didn't you trust me?" It's much more real and emotionally intense than that.

I was struck by how impressive Nora's characterization was in this whole trilogy. All 3 brothers' personalities were definitely formed in their various childhoods. Even though they all had horrible childhoods, there were slight differences, and differences as well in how they dealt with them, and that's reflected in their adult personalities.

That prologue.... You know, I normally hate prologues--I don't think they're necessary, and they tend to distract from the story. But this one. Damn, it was well-written, and yeah, I think it was necessary. She could have fit in Phillip's past in bits & pieces with the present-day story, but it wouldn't have had the same impact. Everything he says and does and feels in the book relates back to what we learned in that prologue.

Sybill's character is likewise very well-written. I never had trouble warming up to Sybill--I liked her right off the bat. It's a minority opinion, though, I think, from comments I've heard in the past. She's intelligent, but that's the only place where she has any confidence--and that's also well-supported by her past. She lives too much in her own head, and tends to view life from a distance--a consequence of focusing her life on her academic career. She cares, and deeply, but has trained herself to discount emotions because that's not something she can quantify, and because she's "learned" that they're irrelevant.

One thing that really pushed Inner Harbor over the top for me is that the heroine in particular is not perfect. Perfection is something that a lot of romance heroines have in common, and that's why I like Sybill more than her new sisters-in-law, Anna and Grace. Sybill screws up really badly. And she's still redeemable. She's still deserving of an HEA. I love this.

I always like intensely emotional stories, as long as there's a positive payoff at the end. I hate crying, and if an author's going to make me cry without making it up to me later, I'm going to feel angry and betrayed. Inner Harbor had tears literally rolling down my face for several chapters. Part of that is likely because Sybill's character does hit pretty close to home for me. Which also explains why I like & understand her so well. show less

As a re-read it doesn't hold up to the 5 stars I originally gave it. Sybill seemed to naive and gullible to be realistic. I find myself less believing and having less patience with the super-fast, lightening quick love between Sybill and Phillip.

I'm a bit more mature now and my reading tastes have change a lot since this came out. There's a lot of distance between my first reading and now... it's still enjoyable. The characters are more down to earth than Nora's more recent characters; but there's still that feeling of characters being too successful, too good, too... a lot of things to read as sincere.

New rating... 3 stars.

This was my second favorite of the Quinn Brothers novels (Ethan’s being my favorite). Nora Robert’s best skill is creating characters and complex family units that feel real, and this series is no exception. I liked this more in-depth look at Philip, and I also liked his romantic interest, Sybil, even if she is a bit cold and shut down for most of the book. Nora also does a great job pulling us into the setting, giving us a more clinical look at small-town life through the eyes Sybil, an outsider. The one element of this series I could do without is the ghostly Papa Quinn, especially since he is one of the few ghosts who have a solid form capable of giving someone a boost up a wall. But we all know that Nora likes a little bit of show more the supernatural mixed up in her love stories. The book does a good job of bringing resolution to the trilogy and answering some important questions, like Seth’s parentage and Ray Quinn’s connection to Gloria. This is one of her more solid series. show less

Meh. This book paints a romance between two uptight, elitist snobs, who find caviar and champagne proper picnic food, because they're soooooo sophisticated. *rolls eyes*

While I get the reasoning (she was brought up by cold, elitists, and he's trying to live completely opposite of his petty-thief-living-on-the-streets past), it bored me. And their "combustible" sex seems downright magic, considering how much effort is put into emphasizing how uptight they are.

And sooooo tired of the trope of cold, lonely woman meets man who will NEVER marry, yet they're instantly attracted and have the best sex ever together, so of course they'll fall in love, complete with bells ringing and angels singing. My head hurts from so much eye-rolling. Yet I'm show more the idiot who kept expecting it to get better... show less

Nora Roberts is an author I like but her books can tend to be pretty cookie cutter and similar. For me her books are the best when they are part of a series and have an interesting set of characters. This series is one of my favorites that she wrote because the story is engaging and the characters are intriguing.

I enjoyed reading this story which continues that started in Sea Swept, about the lives of young boys adopted and raised by Ray and Stella Quinn. This one focuses on Phillip, but also unravels the intrigue around Seth, the fourth boy taken in, about whom there has been much gossip and speculation. Again, I found the sex scenes unnecessarily over the top, and some of the language is unpalatable, though perhaps realistic for young men with the backgrounds of these characters. Inspiring concept about the power of love and loyalty.

The German translation was not done by the same person as the previous book in the series, and it shows. The language is neither smooth nor do the characters' voices fit.

The original probably deserves a better rating, but the copy in my hands doesn't