The Collector by Nora Roberts
Released: April 15, 2014
Contemporary Romance
Putnam
Reviewed by May
Lila is a professional house sitter and writer. She enjoys taking care of people’s homes while enjoying their upscale lifestyles and peeking at the neighbors. Oh she doesn’t think of it as spying – she’s just checking out what is going on in the world around her since there isn’t much happening in her transient life. Sadly for her – her binocular peeking across the street means that she has a front row seat for witnessing a gruesome double murder.
Now famous artist Ash (brother of one of the victims) has found her and is asking questions, and it would seem that there is someone sinister poking around and trying to see what Lila really knows, and if she has a connection to the reason Ash’s brother and girlfriend were murdered.
I never warmed up to either of these characters, nor did I buy into the romance angle of this story. Right away Ash is taken with Lila and wants to paint her – but we never really get into the how or why they are so very right for one another. I wish I could tell you this was because we were so busy diving deep into a world of intrigue, mystery, and suspense that there just wasn’t time.
The plot of this story and the villains creeping around were ok, but nothing especially interesting or spectacular. Everything just kind of clunks into place in a rather uninspired way that did not do justice to this writer’s talent nor the potential that was here. “The Collector” could have been such an interesting character instead of someone we only really see for a moment at the end. There could have been so much more action, adventure, or romantic development and instead this book remained simply OK throughout.
My biggest annoyance was that this book is packed with sentences that are full of description and yet add absolutely nothing to the story or character development like this one.
She plucked a perfect peach from a fruit bowl, sniffed it as she wandered into the bath with its generous glass shower, deep, deep jet tub and acres of black-veined white marble.
The only thing this adds is page count- which is incredibly long to begin with. That is really a problem because instead of a story packed with plot twists, deep character development, and tremendous satisfaction I had to fight the urge not to skim over the endless descriptions and fluffy meaningless filler.
When Nora Roberts writes a great book, there truly is nobody better. She is supremely talented in writing stories that paint beautiful descriptive worlds and characters that come to life on the pages of her books. Unfortunately The Collector missed the mark on all fronts and instead was a mediocre read that was not especially satisfying from a romantic or suspense standpoint.
Grade: C-
I wonder if she’s run out of ideas. I’m reviewing Shadow Spell tomorrow and it has the same problems you had with this book. The dialogue is awful.
I count several of her books as all time favorites but this one was awful.
I’ve been thinking for a while now that she’s producing too many books per year and just isn’t taking the time she needs to make any of them sing. I’ve basically given up on her because the last several books all needed at least one more major rewrite/edit and I felt like they just weren’t worth the time they took to read.
I didn’t like The Witness all that much and I actively disliked both Chasing Fire & Whiskey Beach. I think the last Nora I really liked was The Search and I freely admit that my fondness for that one had as much to do with being a major dog person as it did with the story itself.
I’ve been wanting to read something from Nora Roberts for a while now. Which book would you suggest?
The Witness was her last great read… off the top of my head can’t think of names of ye olde Nora favorites – there are sooo many…
I agree with your review–I was disappointed in The Collector.
Disappointing. I swear, the last Roberts book I really enjoyed was The Witness.
THIS. 100%. Honestly The Witness is the reason I keep reading Nora – I keep thinking “well she did do that one amazing read recently…”.
Le sigh.
With Nora Roberts, I sometimes love her books and then I don’t love her so much. Sorry to hear this one was so disappointing though.
Thanks for the review. I started listening to this on an MP-3 the other day and have been enjoying it, but not loving it. I guess this one isn’t going to be one of my top picks. However, even a mediocre Nora book is better than most of what is out there. :)
It’s sad to say, but I don’t think Nora Roberts has been on her game for about 10 years now. I did enjoy The Witness like many others, which had something of her old spark. Still, it “sounded” like all her other books, which makes them all kind of run into each other. Her In Death books, oddly, haven’t really suffered in writing quality, so many she prefers them now. I understand that every author has their own unique “voice” and style, but jeez, it’s getting unbearable.
That was how I felt about The Witness. It wasn’t bad, but it was so much like so many of her other books. Her heroes were always her strength and now I can’t tell one from another. Like you said, they just blur together and that’s such a disappointment. I agree that her In Death books haven’t suffered the way her straight romance and romantic suspense have. I think I’ll be sticking strictly to them unless I see very good reviews for some future book.
I am reading her Shadow Spell series – – book one was pretty good but I am now on book two and it is really awful I have to force myself to read it, don’t know if I will read the third.
I did not care for the Collector. Her main characters are so similar to Roark and Dallas including what they say and this drives me nuts. It’s like she’s only changing the names of the characters but everything else is the same as characters she’s already written about. Just like Iris Johanssen who I’ve stopped reading. Like someone’s comment, I think she’s writing too many books and it’s become a formula thing. I think I will stop reading her books as well.
@Op, I feel just the same.
It looks like she has written too much novels, she’s run out of fresh ideas. Lila witnessing the murder was almost the same as Angels fall. The heroine there too (forgotten her name) witnessed a murder by looking through a binoculars.
No more fresh angles. Same words.
I love Nora, she’s actually my favorite author but I feel she ought to just give it a rest. For a few more years.