Carnal Innocence by Nora Roberts

Melting in a good Nora Roberts book is a guilty pleasure of mine. Every single one of her books feels like lounging in a cabin house drinking a comforting mug of hot chocolate while it pours outside. 

Synopsis

This book is about a Yankee violinist, Caroline, who moves to the small town of Innocence in her deceased grandparents' house to escape her over-controlled life (in a way). She meets Tucker, hates him (only to eventually fall in love and yes they do live happily ever after), but, plot twist, he's a murder suspect in a series of brutal women killings and Caroline gets caught up in the middle of it all. 

Review

This particular book wasn't a disappointment. In fact, the ending was shocking to me. Embarrassingly so. Because I fell for a classic Nora Roberts trick. About a quarter of the way through the book, I was so entirely convinced I had figured out who the killer was that I almost DNFed the book. I'm glad I didn't. Partly because it was quite satisfying to finish a book after so long and partly because it was a damn good ending. Very unexpected. And of course the signs were there, but no, I would never have figured it out although it all makes so much sense in the end. 

It wasn't Tucker. It wasn't Dwayne, his drunk older brother who has occasional (frequent, actually) lapses in memory and like Nora Roberts led us to think. It wasn't any of the other psychos living in Innocence. It was the sister. I mean who would've guessed??? JOSIE??? Sweet, frivolous little Josie? But when secrets unravel, it makes so much sense. From the beginning we're told that she had mummy issues. And her mother suddenly dies. Her mother was raped and conceived a child from the horror, and it was Josie. Although we're never told who it was. Roberts throws so much shade at poor Dwayne. I guess somehow it ties up neatly at the end. I suppose one way it makes sense is how riled up (sexually, yes) she got when she saw the dead body at the morgue. Her work, she says at the end. The way she wanted the pathologist to show her the body and how they had sex right then and there. And the way she wanted the FBI agent to recount details of the murder scene before doing him too. I mean, the signs were there. 

It was a nice little book overall. Thrilling enough. Some scenes were too clearly fillers, like the carnivals or the Fourth of July fest, but I guess if you don't flesh out a story, it loses character. And Nora Roberts never fails to bring her worlds so tangibly to life. 

I would give this a 3.5 out of 5. I'm getting stingy.

Favourite Quotes

I actually didn't write down any.

Toodles babes xx