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A review by amym84
Montana Sky by Nora Roberts

5.0

My grandmother handed me my first Nora Roberts book about seven years ago. She loved romances so much. I remember when I was little not understanding why exactly. I do read PNR, but other than romances dealing with the paranormal I don't rea them much if at all. Nora Roberts is another matter altogether. I hold a special place for her because my grandma introduced me to her. I haven't read a lot of her books. Montana Sky is only the 4th Nora Roberts book that I've read (no, I'm not including the In Death series right now as Nora Roberts). I think I'm a little hesitant to read them more often because I think they will start to get repetative and then they'll lose that magic for me.

I thought that Montana Sky was really good. True, it followed a lot of cliches, but when I opened the book and started reading I was immediately engrossed in the settinga and the characters. I mean I really wanted to be on a ranch in Montana.

I liked the development of the relationships. I mean it was pretty apparent from the start who would be paired with who. That allowed me to focus more on the people forming these relationships and how they would eventually get together rather than guessing who it would be with. I didn't really have a favorite character or couple just because I think that Roberts did a good job having each couple represent a different situation.

Besides the male / female relationships I really liked seeing the sisters grow to accept and love one another. So much changed from the beginning of the book to the end, it really felt like a year had passed. Roberts did well at encompassing the changing of the seasons although I admit to being sad whenever I would turn the page and a new season section would begin because I knew the end was just creeping up.

I've never read any of Nora Roberts' series (again not including the In Death series here), and I can see where this story could have benefitted from being split into three novels each one focusing on one sister, but I like that we were given this whole story in one sitting as the case may be. It wasn't an overly long novel by comparison to some I've read, but it was a more lengthy novel than most and I think that was a good thing. It kind of solidified the whole year stipulation. I think if this was split into three books (or however many) unless they were all released at the same time it wouldn't have felt so confined to that year. Even if the books were released within months of each other, this is a story that needed to be kept together.

Really, the story followed a basic formula and there was a lot that was predictable about it, but that doesn't mean that it wasn't a good book. But it made the other situations in the book (like the killer and Lily's ex-husband) seem more crazy because they were not as predictable. I went back and forth between theories on who was the villain. In the end one could only narrow it down so much. Roberts did a pretty good job of writing from the villain's perspective and nt giving any hints, towards the end there was one hint the eliminated quite a few people so it could only really be one person.

This is a book that I can see myself going back and re-reading. To me, that's one of the indications that a book is a success.