The Next Always

I love Nora Roberts!!!  I can't even call her my guilty pleasure, cuz I don't feel guilty about it at all.  :)  My friend Marcy got me stuck on her when she introduced me to the "In Death" mystery series (she writes those under another name - J.D. Robb).  Her books are not complicated and after reading over fifty of them, they're pretty predictable, but I still love them.  Her characters talk the way I imagine real conversations happening.  Usually the protagonists have some hobby or career that I find fascinating (archaeologist, arson investigator, glass sculptor, etc) and Roberts really sounds like an expert in the topic when she describes it.

Her latest series is the Boonsboro Inn trilogy and "The Next Always" is the first in the series.  Since I just finished remodeling my house, I really connected with the construction aspect of the story.  There's a ghost involved (a trend with Roberts trilogies) and minor conflict in the plot (stalker bad guy in this book), but it's really just standard Nora Roberts fare.  I wouldn't consider this her best book, but it's comfortable reading! 

What's even cooler about Roberts and this book is that she actually owns an inn in Boonsboro, MD (about an hour from my house) that this book is based on.  I'm going to go visit this summer.  Or sooner.  :)  Roberts graduated from the school I teach at and I am just waiting for the day our senior class asks her to speak at our graduation!  I would freak!

This book is currently #11 on the New York Times Paperback Trade Fiction Bestseller List.