Nora Roberts - Legacy

Adrian Rizzo was seven when she met her father for the first time. That was the day he nearly killed her—before her mother, Lina, stepped in.
Soon after, Adrian was dropped off at her grandparents’ house in Maryland, where she spent a long summer drinking lemonade, playing with dogs, making a new best friend—and developing the stirrings of a crush on her friend’s ten-year-old brother. Lina, meanwhile, traveled the country promoting her fitness brand and turning it into a billion-dollar business. There was no point in dwelling on the past.
A decade later, Adrian has created her own line of yoga and workout videos, following in Lina’s footsteps but intent on maintaining creative control. And she’s just as cool-headed and ambitious as her mother. They aren’t close, but they’re cordial—as long as neither crosses the other.
But while Lina dismisses the death threats that Adrian starts getting as a routine part of her daughter’s growing celebrity, Adrian can’t help but find the vicious rhymes unsettling. Year after year, they keep arriving—the postmarks changing, but the menacing tone the same. They continue after she returns to Maryland and becomes reacquainted with Raylan, her childhood crush, all grown up and as gorgeously green-eyed as ever. Sometimes it even seems like the terrifying messages are indeed routine, like nothing will come of them. Until the murders start, and the escalation begins…

Comment: Another one of the single titles written by this prolific author in the recent years. This one was published in 2021.

In this novel, a mix of romance, woman's fiction and light suspense, we meet heroine Adrian Rizzo who as a young child witnessed the death of her father, a man she had just met. Her father and mother had no relationship and when that man suddenly appears and attacks Adrian, wanting to hurt her mother, a freak accident causes his death and it seems his contribution for her life would not go past biology. 

As an adult, with her life focus on the fitness and exercise videos that made her mother, and now her, famous, Adrian has a very stable routine, has her friends and relocates to Maryland so she can live with her grandfather, after her grandmother's death. She even reconnects to a childhood friend and her older brother, who also comes back after tragedy strikes. 

All seems to go well but Adrian has been received anonymous letters for years from a fan... the messages are creepy and now it seems the creepiness is escalating.. is Adrian in much more danger than she ever thought after all?

I don't think it's too much to repeat that this famous author has a formula, has a pattern of writing and this book is no novelty from anything else she has published recently, if one is a fan. At the same time, it fits all the expectations, it's easy to follow the ideas presented and if there isn't as much originality as one might like, that isn't a surprise either. For me, the style and shape are very familiar and I like the comfort it gives me to read something I can predict how it might go.

In fact, I must say that predictability is something the author's books always have... perhaps  - and this is my biggest complaint about Nora Roberts' work since a few years now - the stories feature very predictable behaviors and developments and the characters always seem to have a grasp or a control over their lives, as if so many steps are "staged". I still remember the older romances, or the sagas where often things were very alike from book to book but the characters were, somehow, more charismatic and spontaneous. This doesn't mean surprising delight never happens, for instance I've read The Liar in 2020 and it fit all the boxes for me to like it more than others by the author.

Adrian and her mother excel at fitness programs and how to sell that idea to others. It makes the life of everyone easier but Adrian did act with certainty a lot of the time and her only doubts were easily vanquished. Sometimes this can seem a bit annoying, I confess.Despite that, I liked her and the fact she wasn't conceited or spoiled as she could but of course I could trust Nora Roberts to create a likable heroine. I can't say if the fact we have scenes with Adrian as a child, then as a teenager and then as adult mean we can more easily see her evolution or that said evolution feels even less spontaneous since everything she does at any age is always the obvious behavior.

The hero does go through more challenging issues in life, but he is quite easy to read as well. I wouldn't mind characters who would be more layered, complex...but then, I do appreciate the fact I know they won't be hard to like so this is tricky to explain. I liked Raylan and how he comes to be part of Adrian's life, I liked seeing certain things through his perspective, I especially liked he isn't one of those heroes who has to be convinced his feelings are more intense than what he believes, but he is a bit too perfect sometimes.

There isn't much to say about the plot, to be honest. Every decision, every situation is described and presented perfectly, within the right boundaries, never to be a reflection but to offer the best type of conclusion.. I know this is too reductive to the actual work the author does, but I still like her books, so I can't complain that much. The most debatable element is the suspense one and who might be after Adrian but t be honest again, in this book, that element of surprise is totally lost.

I don't think the author intentionally makes it a really complex job of keeping the identity of the villain hidden, it's just not the focus here, although this is kept a mystery until the last chapters. But as soon as I read a certain passage, quite early on in the story, I immediately thought of someone and I was proved right. I only had a second of doubt in the middle of the book because of yet another specific passage but my initial idea was correct, which means this doesn't have a true psychological or suspense content, but it's something to add conflict and delay to the HEA.

I like it how the author always includes a lot of what she certainly researches to enrich her novels, even when some elements are recurrent (like the author herself, often some character really enjoys gardening for instance) and here we learn some things about what it means to launch an online business related to fitness and such. I also liked the more rural Maryland setting and the image that it evokes in me, regarding a childhood spent in a quiet, cozier area. I liked the book as a whole and some details but I have to be truthful and say it won't be in my favorites list by the author either.

Grade: 7/10