I’ve been procrastinating this review for a while now. I think this is the first Nora Roberts book I didn’t wholeheartedly love. This book is not your typical Nora Roberts book. Maybe the cover should have tipped me off that it’s not a Romantic Suspense? Anymore, covers don’t always match the inside of the book, so it could have gone either way. It reads more like Psychological Thriller than a Romantic Suspense, although I was under the impression that it was a Romantic Suspense. There’s a lot of page time dedicated to the heroine and her internal struggles, and the romance feels like a side plot.
Quick summary: The heroine is a cop, she gets shot, and dies. She’s brought back, but for a hot minute there, she’s dead. So the first half of the book really is Sloan recuperating and getting back to herself, both mentally and physically. But sprinkled in between are two side characters who take up a lot of page time. Too much, in my opinion. The villains and their perspective is definitely important, however it’s too much.
During Sloan’s time recovering, she goes home, and there are setbacks along with that progress. But she is making progress. She also meets the new neighbors. Two brothers have left the Big City TM to live in the Small Town in the woods up the way from Sloan’s parents’ house. They’re restoring an old home and learning to enjoy the slow pace of their new lives.
Sloan doesn’t even meet the hero, Nash, until about halfway through the book. More time was spent developing the villains than their relationship. This book was compelling and passionless at the same time. This was the struggle I had with it. Hidden Nature was repetitive and slow. Certain parts were really dragging, and other parts were intense and interesting. I think if you want a psychological thriller/women’s fiction with romance, this book is for you. I found it tedious and interesting at the same time, but I also don’t usually enjoy women’s fiction so maybe that was my problem. Although I do think even the biggest La Nora fans will agree we got way too much of the villains in this book.
***ARC courtesy of the publisher
