By: Nora Roberts
Publisher: Berkley
Published: April 16, 2013
Genre: Contemporary, Action/Adventure, Mystery, Romance, Suspense, Thriller
Length: Novel
Heat Level: Spicy
Reviewer: Suki
Date: January 24, 2015
For more than three hundred years, Bluff House has sat above Whiskey Beach, guarding its shore - and its secrets.
To summer tourists, it's the crown jewel of the town's stunning scenery. To the residents of Whiskey Beach, it's landmark and legend. To Eli Landon, it's home...
A Boston lawyer, Eli has weathered an intense year of public scrutiny and police investigation after being accused of murdering his soon-to-be ex-wife. And though there was never enough evidence to have him arrested, his reputation is in tatters as well as his soul. He need sanctuary. He needs Bluff House.
While Eli's beloved grandmother is in Boston, recuperating from a nasty fall, Abra Walsh has card for Bluff House, among her other jobs as yoga instructor, jewelry maker, and massage therapist. She is a woman with an open heart and a wide embrace, and no one is safe from her special, some would say over-bearing, brand of nurturing - including Eli.
He begins to count on Abra for far more than her cooking, cleaning, and massage skills, and starts to feel less like a victim - and more like the kind of man who can finally solve the murder of his wife and clear his name. But Bluff House's many mysteries are a siren song to someone intent on destroying Eli and reaping the rewards. He and Abra will become entangled in a centuries-old net of rumors and half-truths that could pull them under the thunderous waters of Whiskey Beach...
Passion and obsession, humor and heart flow together in a novel about two people opening themselves up to the truth - and to each other.
To summer tourists, it's the crown jewel of the town's stunning scenery. To the residents of Whiskey Beach, it's landmark and legend. To Eli Landon, it's home...
A Boston lawyer, Eli has weathered an intense year of public scrutiny and police investigation after being accused of murdering his soon-to-be ex-wife. And though there was never enough evidence to have him arrested, his reputation is in tatters as well as his soul. He need sanctuary. He needs Bluff House.
While Eli's beloved grandmother is in Boston, recuperating from a nasty fall, Abra Walsh has card for Bluff House, among her other jobs as yoga instructor, jewelry maker, and massage therapist. She is a woman with an open heart and a wide embrace, and no one is safe from her special, some would say over-bearing, brand of nurturing - including Eli.
He begins to count on Abra for far more than her cooking, cleaning, and massage skills, and starts to feel less like a victim - and more like the kind of man who can finally solve the murder of his wife and clear his name. But Bluff House's many mysteries are a siren song to someone intent on destroying Eli and reaping the rewards. He and Abra will become entangled in a centuries-old net of rumors and half-truths that could pull them under the thunderous waters of Whiskey Beach...
Passion and obsession, humor and heart flow together in a novel about two people opening themselves up to the truth - and to each other.
Whiskey beach starts in a way that had me checking that I didn’t miss a book before, perhaps a sister or family member of the Hero because when we start the story so much has already happened. Eli, who not an Alpha male I adored, has spent the last year in a state of depression because he is the main suspect in his wife's murder. So I think we were supposed to feel invested in him in the beginning. He has returned to the family estate after a long absence to feel and take care of the place for his Gran, Hester who I also adore.
In walked our heroine, Abra. Note I did not state I adore her. Because to be honest I had a hard time liking Abra. Abra who does a little bit of everything to perfection, who (Spoiler alert) seems to only carry around a ‘small carryon bag” of baggage from a past of tragedy. So even healing, she does perfectly. She, as Eli also wonders in the book, must own stock in little post it notes, which she posts like a mother all over the house and they drove us both crazy. She came off as meddling, holier than thou, and mothering. Not what I personally want from my heroines. I just couldn’t relate to her.
This is one of NR’s Romantic Suspenses and I pretty much figured out who killed his wife in the first few chapters. Who threw his Gran down the stairs took a bit more. That didn’t change the fact that I enjoyed the mystery part of the story. Though I would have liked to see the reactions to his innocence and some comeuppance from those who hounded Eli… I am speaking to you Officer Wolf.
Let me say that if you are a Nora Roberts fan, this one has all the things you love in a Nora book but I believe you will find much of the story, you have seen before in other books. Perhaps it is a case of kicking out too many books too fast, I don’t know. Overall I enjoyed it and don’t regret picking it up. To me if you are looking for a good NR Romantic Suspense try Carnal Innocence.
