Nora Roberts Land (Dare Valley Series, Book 1)

Nora Robert’s Land is where every woman should live first by being strong in her self and then find the man to compliment the woman she is but when you have ended up a divorced woman at 30 with an ex who cheated on you with a prostitute it’s hard finding the inner hero but you gird on your LaPerla and you fake it till you make it. Devious and dangerous like the best Nora Robert’s books. Loved it! Makes me want to live in Nora Robert’s Land too

It’s F I C T I O N. The premise is a tad unbelievable (to me), but it was a nice evening time read. It was better than I expected after reading some of the negative reviews and it wasn’t as great as some of the GLOWING reviews. But… I enjoyed it and will try some more from this author. I’m not a HUGE fan of romantic fiction, but I have always enjoyed a Nora Roberts novel now and then. I read this type book IN BETWEEN some more serious reading material. I give it a 3-4 star rating.

I very much enjoyed this story. The only thing missing for me was a mystery. I like to be kept guessing. But , the story never claimed to be a mystery. I think just about anyone would enjoy this story .

Nora Roberts Land is by Ava Miles. It is one of the Dare Valley series books. It rates up there by Nora Robert’s books. I found it hard to get into the first time; but the second time, I was hooked from the very beginning. I simply could not put it down.Meredith Hale thought she had her life mapped out for her. She worked for The Daily Herald in New York City. She loved her job there. She was married to Richard Sommerville, another journalist, and was happy with him. Then the bottom falls out of her dream life- Richard decides to divorce her. It was a painful divorce for Meredith but she and Richard agreed not to talk about their divorce. They had shaken hands to seal the deal. What Meredith didn’t realize at the time was how little regard Richard had for a handshake deal or another deal’s rules. When he declared his bid for Senate, he gave details about his divorce, of course only the ones that made him look good. Meredith is furious and lets him know it when he calls to tell her about the interview he did where he talked about their divorce. She let him know that she would not stand for it and she had information which could shelve his political career if he didn’t leave her out of his campaign and his life. She then left town to return to her hometown of Dare Valley, California. Here she went to work for her family newspaper, The Western Independent. She was filling in for her father who had a heart attack. He told her it was just temporary but her grandfather would be working on her to stay in Dare. He also wanted her to work on a story concerning the increase in young people being admitted to the hospital with symptoms of alcohol illness; but he suspected something else was going on. Also, with the help of her sister, Jill, Meredith set out to find true love in Dare so she could write an article for her newspaper back in New York City. This meant a marathon of dates.Tanner McBride was a highly recognized war correspondent. He wanted to change his career and not travel into war zones for a while. He was delighted to receive a job offer from The Standard in New York City. Richard Sommerville hired him and asked him to a meeting. This meeting took place in a closed restaurant away from the paper. Here Richard told him his assignment had changed. He was to go to Dare and teach a semester course in journalism at the local college. This was his cover. He was to seduce Meredith, make her fall in love with him, convince her not to do the article for her paper (he was afraid she would put something in it about him), and then dump her. When Tanner refused, Sommerville played his trump card. He had photos of his brother with a prostitute. David was running to keep his seat as a councilman in New York City. Tanner had promised his mother to take care of David and Tanner was not one to go back on a promise. So, with this blackmail hanging over him, he went to Dare. Somehow, he would get Richard without endangering David and Meredith.Will Tanner find a way to circumvent Richard’s plans without hurting David and Meredith? Could he keep from falling in love with Meredith?

In a few pages I was captivated and this book was worth the read. Held my interest throughout and everybody would like to find that kind of love.

I absolutely love and adore Nora Roberts’ novels. I have for many, many years. So picking up this title was a true no-brainer for me. I completely “got” the concept of the novel and I loved the thought of Nora Roberts Land, because I’ve escaped there so often myself.I believe you really get the basic story outline from the story/cover description. There is really no need for elaborate teases from me – you’ll either love the idea of the book or you won’t get it, and that’s okay. ;)This is not a novel written by Nora Roberts! This is an interesting take on the mindset of those of us who do read Nora Roberts (and other contemporary romance novelists looking for that happy ever after read) – we take an hour or so and go off to Nora Roberts Land to read for a while, an escape term… why reviews over on Amazon call this a great Nora Roberts book is beyond me… did they not read the actual book??As women (and some men) the world over will tell you – we know our Nora Roberts novels, heroes and heroines and every detail in between. So when the main character Meredith began to put her thoughts about the men she encountered as descriptions of different heroes from various Nora Roberts or J. D. Robb novels – I totally got it.If there was ever a villain who deserved every vile, nasty, evil thing we readers thought of him, it is certainly Rick-the-Dick an extremely effective and correct name given to Meredith’s ex-husband. Richard is a slime running for office and is afraid of some evidence about his infidelities while married to Meredith to come out during his campaign for Senate. He expects his ex-wife to act as he does and leak those photos to the press. She had no intention of doing so but that didn’t stop Rick-the Dick from moving forward with his plans to further hurt and ruin his ex-wife. Scum is too polite a word.The story itself starts off as a light romance with a main character who has been wronged by love and doesn’t believe in herself or love any longer. She even goes to the extreme of giving up reading her beloved Nora Roberts novels since her ex blamed her unrealistic desire for a happy ever after marriage on the types of books she read. (Jerk) Meredith has a moment when walking past a bookstore displaying Nora’s recent release and finally effectively says “Screw him” – and it begins.Tanner and Meredith make a really good couple – somehow Tanner has to change what was going to be a disaster for them both into an everlasting love story.I really enjoyed Nora Roberts Land. This one moved from lighthearted to intense, from a revenge story to a crime mystery. I think it’s worth your time.Originally reviewed at KeeperBookshelf.com

While I enjoyed the story and characters, I did not enjoy the bad language. The use of vulgar 4 letter words was not necessary and in my opinion did not enhance the story line. I think the story would have been better without them.

I began this book a while ago and stopped reading not far in. Then forgot about it. Understandably it turns out. I was just clearing out my Kindle and decided to give it another chance. A few chapters in I went back to look at the cover because I was trying to remember what on earth made me buy it. This is the writing of a USA TODAY BESTSELLING AUTHOR?! I find that extremely difficult to believe. I thought it was perhaps the offering of a new Indie author with potential but a LOT of work ahead of her. Terrible writing!, Occasionally the characters burst out laughing - for no reason. I had to read back over this so many times to figure out what was supposed to be funny. But nothing! It seemed that the author decided that telling us that they were laughing was enough to make a comment or scene funny. It often stops making any sense. For example:

I'm not really sure where to start with this book. I thought perhaps it was written 40 years ago, which would have made it a bit more credible. The hero is a well reknowned international media correspondent being blackmailed into making a woman fall in love with him. He gets blackmailed in person and has numerouse conversations with the blackmailer on the phone but as no time does he have the intelligence to record or film any of the conversations or even think to do an expose on the blackmailer who is an up and comming senator. This is probably because he can't get his mind off having sex with the heroine. In the last chapeter the heroine SWAPS NEGATIVES of the compromising photographs with the blackmailer. Can you even buy camera film anymore? Some reveiwers have said if you like Nora Roberts you will love this book. I couldn't disagree more, while I am not the NR expert that the writer obviously is, NR knows how to write a good romance story, this authors idea of romance is borderline soft porn, ok if you like that sort of thing, but personally I find it tediously boring.

I'm not really sure where to start with this book. The story line was so bad I was open mouthed in amazement. I thought perhaps it was written 40 years ago, which would have made it a bit more credible. The hero is a well reknowned international media correspondent being blackmailed into making a woman fall in love with him. He gets blackmailed in person and has numerouse conversations with the blackmailer on the phone but as no time does he have the intelligence to record or film any of the conversations or even think to do an expose on the blackmailer who is an up and comming senator. This is probably because he can't get his mind off having sex with the heroine. In the last chapeter the heroine SWAPS NEGATIVES of the compromising photographs with the blackmailer. Can you even buy camera film anymore? Some reveiwers have said if you like Nora Roberts you will love this book. I couldn't disagree more, while I am not the NR expert that the writer obviously is, NR knows how to write a good romance story, this authors idea of romance is borderline soft porn, ok if you like that sort of thing, but personally I find it tediously boring.

Oh my goodness I loved this book. I'm a huge fan of Nora Roberts and have read almost all of her books including the JD Robb series. This book is an enormous and superbly written tribute to one of the world's best loved authors. Ava Miles has done a terrific job.I loved all the little references to some of Nora Roberts best loved leading men, yep I too have a soft touch for the dashing Bradley Vane, what's not to like about him!This book is very similar to in style to Noras work, disheartened women who falls for the super hot guy, falls in love but something happens to split them up, they get back together after some dramatic events and then there's the ubiquitous happy ending. All this sprinkled with intrigue, drama and suspicious deaths which adds up to a perfect read.For me Nora Roberts best books are her trilogies and I'm delighted that this series is heading the same way, as soon as I've posted this review I'm downloading the next novel as I can't wait to read all about jillie and her man.Ava Miles thank you for creating a super series and I'm sure there are many more people like myself who also believe in Nora Roberts Land. Long live the happy ending.

Seriously, don't bother. I haven't read more than a couple of Nora Roberts books so unsure if her very good reputation is deserved. If it is deserved however, why oh why did she allow Ava Miles to use her name for this drivel. The premise of the storyline is so pathetic I can only imagine the author wanted to trade on Nora Roberts' name in order to assure she'd get her own name into print. The only thing she has assured as far as I am concerned is that I will never read any of her other books - if she has been allowed to print anymore that is.