The Obsession by Nora Roberts

Author: Nora Roberts
Publisher: Berkeley
Date of publication: April 2016

Naomi Bowes lost her innocence the night she followed her father into the woods. In freeing the girl trapped in the root cellar, Naomi revealed the horrible extent of her father’s crimes and made him infamous.

Now a successful photographer living under the name Naomi Carson, she has found a place that calls to her, thousands of miles away from everything she’s ever known. Naomi wants to embrace the solitude, but the residents of Sunrise Cove keep forcing her to open up—especially the determined Xander Keaton.

Naomi can feel her defenses failing, and knows that the connection her new life offers is something she’s always secretly craved. But as she’s learned time and again, her past is never more than a nightmare away.

After loving last couple of stand-alones by this author, I was looking forward to The Obsession.  For the most part, I enjoyed it.  It involves Naomi who years before discovered her father was a serial killer and saved a life in the process.  She misdoes to the small town of Sunset Cove and buys a house.  There she meets Xander who makes her want to settle down maybe.  Soon local murders are discovered to be tied to her past.

While I didn't love this one as much as I wanted to, I still enjoyed it.  The biggest problem for me was that I felt like the book wasn't sure what it wanted to be. Normally, Ms. Roberts books have a great balance of romance and suspense, but not in this one.  It felt unbalanced.  There was too much background that could have been done in flash backs or could have been summed up in a couple of paragraphs.  For me, it took away from the amount of suspense that could have been built up for the mystery.  In that regard, it was kind of lacking and the ending was pretty rushed.  I also figured out the killer early on.


What I did like was the romance part.  I love Xander.  He now has a place on my book boyfriend list.  Who doesn't love a hot alpha who loves to read?  His library probably rivals mine.  That alone would make me fall for him.  I like how he pushed through Naomi's defenses and made her realize she should stick and not run as usual.

I think fans of this author will enjoy this one, so I do recommend picking it up.  I look forward to her next one.