Inheritance by Nora Roberts-Audio

 

I am pretty sure I’ve read most of Nora Roberts’ books, at least since the turn of the millennium (though not the J.D. Robb books!). You could call me a die-hard fan.  However, I’d never listened to one before I was invited to do so through NetGalley for Inheritance.

I’m a skeptic when it comes to media…I want my books as books and my movies as movies. Audio books fall someplace in between for me, and I’ve become addicted to listening to novels when I drive or exercise. 

All those caveats aside, I loved listening to Inheritance.  It was fun to hear voices assigned to characters who would have always been distinct in my mind, but maybe not as vivid as these readers.  Sonya, Cleo, and the residents of Poole’s Bay are easy to distinguish and adore.  And then the ghosts! I won’t add spoilers, other than to say that no one writes mysterious magical beings like Nora Roberts.  I was only sad when I realized Inheritance is the first book in a new trilogy, and I’ll have to wait a year or two to finish the story. 

Thanks to NetGalley and MacMillan Audio for the chance to read this early and write this review. Nora’s fans won’t be disappointed, and newcomers will be delighted. The book is released November 21, 2023

Wellness by Nathan Hill

 

Nathan Hill’s new novel, Wellness, is a smart love story. There are no simple tropes, the obstacles the central couple, Jack, and Elizabeth, must overcome are largely of their own making, and mostly because they simply think too much. The couple is obsessed with the foundations of human behavior and teaching the nuances of it to the reader. While the relationship between Elizabeth and Jack is endearing and fascinating, their analysis, especially in the murky middle of the book, tends toward tedium. They dwell so intensely on the fields of their interest and research them so extensively…both the characters and the author…that the reader has to resist the temptation to treat the novel as a scholarly work and actually skip the long explanations and examples (footnoted!) and get to the parts where they remember that they CARE about Jack and Elizabeth, their heartbreaking childhoods and how they deal with the fallout as they try to raise their own son.

I urge you, if you get so far into the book that you want to put it aside, don’t. You will not be able to forget Jack and Elizabeth and Toby, and if you finish the book, you will find yourself wanting to have discussions with them, and everyone you meet, about the world you’ve left when you close the cover. The pay-off is worth it. Bravo, Nathan Hill.

This book was published September 19, 2023. Thanks to NetGalley and publisher Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage and Anchor for the review copy.