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3.89 AVERAGE
3.89 AVERAGE
“Men didn't respect beauty...they used it.”
A disliked bastard of a man is a successful ranch owner who owns millions in property. Cursed with the inability to bear son offspring rather than those silly women seeds, he kicks out two ex-wives who curse him with daughters, never having anything to do with his children until Willa, who sticks by his side devotedly until he keels over. Once dead, his frustrating will dictates that his three daughters must live together on the ranch for a year to evenly inherit.
Overly long and by-the-books predictable, the three women are severe stereotypes. Willa is the tomboy who is loyal to the ranch, always griping about having too much to do to relax or have fun. Tess it the cityslicker from LA who turns her nose up at the farming life. Lily is the abused, fragile flower of a woman who is so breakable she's unreal.
I could tell within the first two chapters which men each woman would end up with, that they all would come to bond together, they would end up living happily ever after at the ranch, etc. This isn't spoilers, it's the formula you can guess from this story trope.
The three men blended together into the same personality types.
Can't say I enjoyed the romances since they were simply sweet and nothing much else. No real tension that couldn't easily be brushed aside. I think the author put her sympathy more toward Willa since she had more characters get on to Tess for not having enough sympathy or seeing things from her point of view, but really I was team Tess all the way. Willa started most of the crap and acted snobby and superior from the get-go. Tess definitely didn't fit in right away but at least she wasn't uptight. Willa mentally thinks Tess's career is one of the most worthless ones possible from the start, and the two only start eventually bonding because Tess - as the bigger woman - makes more of an effort. Bess the housekeeper is also disdainful toward Tess. Trust me, put me in that position and I would have been an even bigger bitch to deal with than Tess was.
There was tension of a serial slayer who mauled animals and women and left them for dead on the ranch, but I really didn't care much about that side-mystery. All was alright at the end, of course.
As far as Nora Robert's novels go, this one is rather flimsy, formulaic, and downright dull - especially for a length of almost 500 pages.
A disliked bastard of a man is a successful ranch owner who owns millions in property. Cursed with the inability to bear son offspring rather than those silly women seeds, he kicks out two ex-wives who curse him with daughters, never having anything to do with his children until Willa, who sticks by his side devotedly until he keels over. Once dead, his frustrating will dictates that his three daughters must live together on the ranch for a year to evenly inherit.
Overly long and by-the-books predictable, the three women are severe stereotypes. Willa is the tomboy who is loyal to the ranch, always griping about having too much to do to relax or have fun. Tess it the cityslicker from LA who turns her nose up at the farming life. Lily is the abused, fragile flower of a woman who is so breakable she's unreal.
I could tell within the first two chapters which men each woman would end up with, that they all would come to bond together, they would end up living happily ever after at the ranch, etc. This isn't spoilers, it's the formula you can guess from this story trope.
The three men blended together into the same personality types.
Can't say I enjoyed the romances since they were simply sweet and nothing much else. No real tension that couldn't easily be brushed aside. I think the author put her sympathy more toward Willa since she had more characters get on to Tess for not having enough sympathy or seeing things from her point of view, but really I was team Tess all the way. Willa started most of the crap and acted snobby and superior from the get-go. Tess definitely didn't fit in right away but at least she wasn't uptight. Willa mentally thinks Tess's career is one of the most worthless ones possible from the start, and the two only start eventually bonding because Tess - as the bigger woman - makes more of an effort. Bess the housekeeper is also disdainful toward Tess. Trust me, put me in that position and I would have been an even bigger bitch to deal with than Tess was.
There was tension of a serial slayer who mauled animals and women and left them for dead on the ranch, but I really didn't care much about that side-mystery. All was alright at the end, of course.
As far as Nora Robert's novels go, this one is rather flimsy, formulaic, and downright dull - especially for a length of almost 500 pages.
adventurous
dark
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Nora Roberts is not generally an author I like, but I did appreciate this book. I liked the setting and the descriptions of ranch life, and the contrasts between the characters. At least Roberts doesn't recycle the same two characters endlessly. A fun story.
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Klasická robertsovka...tři sestry, tři muži, jeden vrah, jeden násilnickej manžel a velká láska :)
mysterious
Three stories in one, about three half-sisters who are forced to live together for a year if they want the inheritance their awful late father left them.
Tess, the oldest, is an L.A. screenwriter who wanted to get what little money her father left for her and return home. Lily, the middle sister, had been abused and was moving from place to place, always looking over her shoulder for her ex-husband to find her again. Willa, the youngest one, grew up in the farm, working hard at the ranch to gain her father's approval.
All three of them are beyond surprised by the stipulation for their inheritance. Tess has no idea how she'll survive a year away from civilisation, Lily is relieved to be in such a remote place where she feels safe, and Willa is feeling beyond betrayed by her father, who even after death didn't acknowledge any of her hard work.
The will stated that Willa, who would be running the ranch, would be under supervision by their closest neighbour and competitor, Ben, as well as Nate, another neighbour and the lawyer who is handling the family's legal affairs. Adam, who is in charge of the ranch's horse breeding side and is also Willa's half-brother rounds up the cast.
Adam is drawn to wounded Lily, who learns to trust men again through his gentleness and patience, Tess learns that there's more to life apart from the "civilisation" she's left behind, and finds happiness with Nate, a man whose contradictions surprise her, and Willa eventually succumbs to the attraction between herself and Ben, whom she'd been arguing and competing with all her life.
A mystery helps in bringing them all close as well, since someone is mutilating cattle, before eventually escalating to people, and they seem to have it out for the Mercy sisters, while
Her ex isn't the killer, however, and ends up dead himself, and it takes being caught red-handed for the real killer to be revealed as Jim, one of the Mercy ranch farm hands who claimed to be the girls' half-brother.
The mystery was very well done, since.
A satisfying story with solid, evolving relationships both between the sisters and the couples, and happy endings all around.
Tess, the oldest, is an L.A. screenwriter who wanted to get what little money her father left for her and return home. Lily, the middle sister, had been abused and was moving from place to place, always looking over her shoulder for her ex-husband to find her again. Willa, the youngest one, grew up in the farm, working hard at the ranch to gain her father's approval.
All three of them are beyond surprised by the stipulation for their inheritance. Tess has no idea how she'll survive a year away from civilisation, Lily is relieved to be in such a remote place where she feels safe, and Willa is feeling beyond betrayed by her father, who even after death didn't acknowledge any of her hard work.
The will stated that Willa, who would be running the ranch, would be under supervision by their closest neighbour and competitor, Ben, as well as Nate, another neighbour and the lawyer who is handling the family's legal affairs. Adam, who is in charge of the ranch's horse breeding side and is also Willa's half-brother rounds up the cast.
Adam is drawn to wounded Lily, who learns to trust men again through his gentleness and patience, Tess learns that there's more to life apart from the "civilisation" she's left behind, and finds happiness with Nate, a man whose contradictions surprise her, and Willa eventually succumbs to the attraction between herself and Ben, whom she'd been arguing and competing with all her life.
A mystery helps in bringing them all close as well, since someone is mutilating cattle, before eventually escalating to people, and they seem to have it out for the Mercy sisters, while
Spoiler
Lily's ex is also around, working as a farm hand in Ben's ranch waiting for the year to pass so that he can snatch Lily and her new wealth away. He becomes impatient when Lily starts planning her wedding to Adam and kidnaps her before then, but she's no longer the timid version of herself he'd known, and survives long enough to be rescued.Her ex isn't the killer, however, and ends up dead himself, and it takes being caught red-handed for the real killer to be revealed as Jim, one of the Mercy ranch farm hands who claimed to be the girls' half-brother
The mystery was very well done, since
Spoiler
it was quite confusing as to who the culprit was, and for a big part of the book I'd thought that Lily's ex was the one also killing people, and even when it was revealed that he wasn't, I couldn't figure out who it was before it was revealedA satisfying story with solid, evolving relationships both between the sisters and the couples, and happy endings all around.
I read it back in high school and I loved it back then.