Nora Roberts/JD Robb
Sep. 12th, 2021 12:33 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lightreadsForgotten in Death
3/5. The new In Death book. A nice pair of mysteries which managed to be interesting even when the solutions were apparent early on. I do wonder how much editing she really gets these days. These books combine an excellent attention to detail on the scene-by-scene basis, which makes sense as their chief pleasure is watching the protagonist interact with a vast colorful river of people. But there are also slip-ups that editorial really should catch, like changing someone from mixed race to white. Anyway, a solid entry, though I will keep saying it and keep saying it and keep saying it: introducing diversity into your books counts for exactly zero when that diversity is in the form of the victims of murder.
Content notes: Racism, murder, including of a pregnant woman.
Legacy
4/5. A standalone new release from earlier this year about the daughter of a fitness guru growing up and surviving the violence of her father the one time she meets him, and the legacy of that in her family and his. I liked this one. It has a deep well of coziness and homemaking and community creating, like a lot of her books do (and yes, of course there is interior decorating). Our heroine comes home to a tiny town where she has deep roots, and sets those roots even deeper. And yeah there's a suspense plot about a threat to her, but honestly whatever, those passages are just misogynist villain POV, not worth the time.
This book did make me realize that a core part of the Nora Roberts fantasy is a conviction that passion for a thing = success at a thing = great monetary reward, QED. I mean, I guess this is a thing you would believe in your bones if you are Nora Roberts. But most of these people are remarkably successful at the sorts of niche and creative careers where a teeny tiny fraction of people do extraordinarily well and a slightly bigger fraction make a living, and pretty much everyone else has to do something else. E.g., in this book, owning an indie comics company or writing musical hits. It's a nice fantasy, I suppose, if you believe that capitalism is here to reward the virtuous, but I can't really take it seriously.
Content notes: Death of a spouse and of parents/grandparents, violence, misogyny, fatphobia really in the water in this one.
Shelter in Place
3/5. The survivors of a mass shooting carry on with their intersecting lives. Years later, one is a cop and another an artist (successful and well-paid, naturally!) and they find each other as another threat approaches. Less cozy than Legacy, but with another take on finding community, this time on a tiny island off the coast of Maine. Plus there's a stray dog. Classic.
Content notes: Villain POV complete with homophobia and antisemitism and lots of violence. Mass shooting.
3/5. The new In Death book. A nice pair of mysteries which managed to be interesting even when the solutions were apparent early on. I do wonder how much editing she really gets these days. These books combine an excellent attention to detail on the scene-by-scene basis, which makes sense as their chief pleasure is watching the protagonist interact with a vast colorful river of people. But there are also slip-ups that editorial really should catch, like changing someone from mixed race to white. Anyway, a solid entry, though I will keep saying it and keep saying it and keep saying it: introducing diversity into your books counts for exactly zero when that diversity is in the form of the victims of murder.
Content notes: Racism, murder, including of a pregnant woman.
Legacy
4/5. A standalone new release from earlier this year about the daughter of a fitness guru growing up and surviving the violence of her father the one time she meets him, and the legacy of that in her family and his. I liked this one. It has a deep well of coziness and homemaking and community creating, like a lot of her books do (and yes, of course there is interior decorating). Our heroine comes home to a tiny town where she has deep roots, and sets those roots even deeper. And yeah there's a suspense plot about a threat to her, but honestly whatever, those passages are just misogynist villain POV, not worth the time.
This book did make me realize that a core part of the Nora Roberts fantasy is a conviction that passion for a thing = success at a thing = great monetary reward, QED. I mean, I guess this is a thing you would believe in your bones if you are Nora Roberts. But most of these people are remarkably successful at the sorts of niche and creative careers where a teeny tiny fraction of people do extraordinarily well and a slightly bigger fraction make a living, and pretty much everyone else has to do something else. E.g., in this book, owning an indie comics company or writing musical hits. It's a nice fantasy, I suppose, if you believe that capitalism is here to reward the virtuous, but I can't really take it seriously.
Content notes: Death of a spouse and of parents/grandparents, violence, misogyny, fatphobia really in the water in this one.
Shelter in Place
3/5. The survivors of a mass shooting carry on with their intersecting lives. Years later, one is a cop and another an artist (successful and well-paid, naturally!) and they find each other as another threat approaches. Less cozy than Legacy, but with another take on finding community, this time on a tiny island off the coast of Maine. Plus there's a stray dog. Classic.
Content notes: Villain POV complete with homophobia and antisemitism and lots of violence. Mass shooting.