Engaging the Enemy: A Will and a Way • Boundary Lines

Another Silhouette two-in-one novel by Roberts.
I have to confess that these books may well not be high literature, but they are a feast for the soul and the heart of an audience.
I will not be giving the world news by saying that Nora Roberts has certainly a very unique way with words, just as she seems to have an exceptional understanding with people, both how to describe them, and how to write for them, and therefore she's always aware of how to hold the reader to her plots. In Engaging The Enemy she does precisely that using four characters, two couples, whose respective shares fell a specific kind of hatred for each other, that kind of hatred which limits quickly merge with the limits of crazy passion, and after some hurdles, sayings show more and a whole bunch of stuff that tend to cast more dark clouds over the hard heads of the lovebirds, spreads, finally, inevitably, to the greatest of loves.

In the first story of this volume, A Will And A Way, the couple consists of Pandora McVie, an artist dedicated to jewelry making, and of Michael Donohue, a screenwriter for a television series. The two are almost cousins, who despise each other since forever. A despise that is accompanied by a share of mutual desire. When these two lost souls, accustomed to the isolation of their lives, inherit, in equal parts, the whole legacy of their beloved recently deceased uncle, with the condition that they live together in a house that is also part of the estate, and says a lot to both, their first reaction is that this is the worst that could have happened, however, over time we'll see the development of an intimacy both tender and vibrant, which will become a habit and dependency for them.
I really liked this story, the predominant theme can even be a love-hate relationship between the protagonists, but since the topic appeals to me and I always come back to it to relax from other readings that require more of my sanity, I dare say that reading Nora Roberts is good for health. If nothing else, it makes one's heart to beat faster, and therefore the entire body gets a extra irrigation!

Still, my favorite was the second part, Boundary Lines.
Jillian Baron and Aaron Murdock, owner of two farms joined together by a very special lake, and separated by a fence that appears to get ruined a lot, can be neighbors but had never laid eyes on each other until the hot summer day when Jillian decides to take a swim in the lake I mencioned before, and Aaron goes through there also. The spark is immediate but Aaron will have a lot to ride to get to the broken heart Jillian carries in her chest, guarded by thick and successive layers of pride and self-preservation.
The magnitude of the fiery love-hate, of the tender and unbridled desire, of the crazy-mad passion, of the hopeless dependance and love between these two, is several times higher in exponent compared with the couple from A Will And A Way, or perhaps it's just because of the wilder scenery around them (which made me remember Irish Thoroughbred so much!). show less

Very good

Two novels:

A will and a Way: It wasn't easy living with her infuriating co-beneficiary, Michael Donohue - even to fulfill her uncle's last wishes - but headstrong Pandora McVie found it still harder not falling in love with her nemesis.

Boundary Lines: Feisty Jillian Baron and irresistibly arrogant Aaron Murdock seemed determined to carry their families' feud into another generation. But the battle waged within their own hearts pitted their mistrust against overwhelming desire.