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A review by shelfleigh
Carolina Moon by Nora Roberts
4.0
Psychic Tory Bodine returns to her hometown to begin a new life and solve the murder of her childhood best friend.
This is probably my fourth time reading Carolina Moon. I consider it one of my favorite NR books and always recall it with fond memories every time I pick it up. But, in all honesty, I think my love for this book is skewed by my first memory of it. When I read it now, it just doesn’t hold up to the light. That’s not to say its not enjoyable or interesting, it’s just always surprising to me that I loved it as much as I did when I was young. It would have been a five star read for me as a teenager, whereas now it’s at the four star range. Nostalgia is strong with this one.
Take the characters. On their own, I don’t particularly find them memorable or interesting. Tory is too self-contained, almost unapproachable, both in the story and to the reader. There are a number of valid reasons for her behavior, but it still makes it hard to connect to her. Faith is too wild and selfish. Even when I root for her, I didn’t always like her as a person. Cade and Wade are, well, there. They are by no means the star of this book and seem pretty interchangeable to me. Hell, even their names rhyme. But put these four in a group and it’s like magic happening. They interact in such interesting and opposite ways, particularly Faith and Tori, to make the book as a whole shine. I was trying to explain it to my husband, and he nailed it. He said it’s just like Parks and Rec. On their own, the characters are too much or not enough. Together, they balance each other out and create something truly unique and memorable.
Two aspects that are done so well here are the setting and the surprising twist at the end. NR excels at writing such lush and descriptive scenes. I felt like I was in the marsh or in the small town epicenter. I felt the newness and the oldness of each of the locations. This is NR at her best. The twist at the end was also surprising and, quite frankly, hurt. I think if people have read these types of stories before, the twist would not be so surprising. But back in the day, this was something I never would have guessed.
This is probably my fourth time reading Carolina Moon. I consider it one of my favorite NR books and always recall it with fond memories every time I pick it up. But, in all honesty, I think my love for this book is skewed by my first memory of it. When I read it now, it just doesn’t hold up to the light. That’s not to say its not enjoyable or interesting, it’s just always surprising to me that I loved it as much as I did when I was young. It would have been a five star read for me as a teenager, whereas now it’s at the four star range. Nostalgia is strong with this one.
Take the characters. On their own, I don’t particularly find them memorable or interesting. Tory is too self-contained, almost unapproachable, both in the story and to the reader. There are a number of valid reasons for her behavior, but it still makes it hard to connect to her. Faith is too wild and selfish. Even when I root for her, I didn’t always like her as a person. Cade and Wade are, well, there. They are by no means the star of this book and seem pretty interchangeable to me. Hell, even their names rhyme. But put these four in a group and it’s like magic happening. They interact in such interesting and opposite ways, particularly Faith and Tori, to make the book as a whole shine. I was trying to explain it to my husband, and he nailed it. He said it’s just like Parks and Rec. On their own, the characters are too much or not enough. Together, they balance each other out and create something truly unique and memorable.
Two aspects that are done so well here are the setting and the surprising twist at the end. NR excels at writing such lush and descriptive scenes. I felt like I was in the marsh or in the small town epicenter. I felt the newness and the oldness of each of the locations. This is NR at her best. The twist at the end was also surprising and, quite frankly, hurt. I think if people have read these types of stories before, the twist would not be so surprising. But back in the day, this was something I never would have guessed.