Back in 2006, I fielded a question for Lovely Salome, better known as Carrie Lofty, asking which Nora Roberts novel she should read first. A sort of precursor to the “Which One First?” feature, done six years ago.
Now that Nora Roberts has written approximately 14,576,469,354.7 books since then, I think it's time to update that list. Another reader is asking for help. Meet Jordan:
I've really loved all the the “What Should I Read Next” of old school romance posts you have done! As a recent convert to the romance genre (Hi, my name is Jordan and I've been a Romance reader for 5 years now. *Hi Jordan*), those have been really helpful since digging through authors who've been publishing for a while is pretty intimidating.
I would love to see more of those, and personally I'd love one for Nora Roberts. I'm a hardcore J.D. Robb fangirl, probably because I slowly migrated from scifi/fantasy and mystery over to romance, but Roberts' more mainstream stuff (contemporary and historical) is just so plentiful – I don't know where to start!
That thread from 2006 still contains some of my favorite Nora Roberts' novels, but there are so many more (SO MANY MORE).
So, which is your favorite? I'm going to make this really hard. REALLY.
You can only name two at the most. TWO. That's it.
Which are your two favorite Nora Roberts novels that you'd recommend to Jordan?
—> Oh, the McKade brothers. They’re short, so they should surely only count as two.
Ah. Nora Math! What’s the category romance-to-single title conversion factor again? 3 categories=1 single title? Not that using Nora Math makes answering this question any easier…
Enchanted (Donovan Legacy #4) was the first romance novel I ever read, and it’s still a favorite.
Tears of the Moon (Gallaghers of Ardmore #2) is another absolute favorite.
It is not possible to limit to 2 NR books. But I’ll try and go with Irish Jewels trilogy (cheaties!) and The Witness. For categories, I like the Stanislaskis, especially Waiting For Nick.
OK, I fail.
I love all of Nora’s books, but Montana Sky and Honest Illusions are two of the best books (by any author) I have ever read, and blow all the rest out of the water. The characters are incredibly well-written with depth and heart, and the stories are beautiful with tons of detail. LOVE LOVE LOVE!!!!
This is highly unfair. There are too many good books to chose from, so I’m going with 2 favorite series and 2 favorite stand-alones.
Series: The Quinn Brothers (Seaswept, Rising Tides, and Inner Harbor) (My all-time favorite NR books EVER, I’ve read them IDK how many times now.) and The Three Sisters trilogy (Dance Upon on Air, Heaven and Earth, and Face the Fire)
Stand-alones: Northern Lights and Blue Smoke (so good!)
Hm, well the title of this thread seems to suggest I should look far far into the backlist (e.g. books written before 1990). Those two would be SWEET REVENGE (love a great jewel thief caper!) and DANCE TO THE PIPER (I also love a great Broadway hoofer tale).
Now IF I WERE to pick more recent ones, I’d pick a couple that have already been mentioned, NORTHERN LIGHTS and TRIBUTE (which I end up re-reading at least once a year… TRIBUTE is my “go to” airplane book, and NORTHERN LIGHTS is my “go to” comfort read).
That’s officially two picks. 😉
Carnal Innocence and Honest Illusions. Two oldies that I read ages ago but they are still my favorites!
Today, my recommendations would be:
Hidden Riches, featuring charming antique shop owner, Isadora Conroy (“Hey, Conroy, I like your pig.”) and the brooding, ex-cop handyman, Jedediah T. Skimmerhorn (“T for testosterone?”) and Sea Swept, featuring tough but sexy social worker, Anna Spinelli and playboy, bad boy, smokin’ hot boatbuilder, Cameron Quinn.
Tomorrow, my choices would likely include The Villa, Inner Harbor, Montana Sky, Public Secrets, Carnal Innocence, or Born In Fire… And that doesn’t consider any of Nora’s category-length stories featuring The MacGregors, The Stanislaskis, The Cordinas, The O’Hurleys, The Calhouns, or the MacKades.
Choose only two? Inconceivable!
I’m surprised that no one has mentioned The Bride Quartet. Bed of Roses (#2) is my favorite of that series. I also love the O’Hurley series…
Years ago my best friend and I were tasked with recommending one romance novel to give to a friend who had never read them – one book to represent the entire genre. After much debate we chose Montana Sky.
My favorites by NR are the Born In trilogy and the Chesapeake Bay trilogy (I don’t count that fourth one) because I’m counting the trilogies as one book. My favorite stand alones are Birthright, The Villa, and Public Secrets. I haven’t liked her newer books as much – I still read them, but maybe don’t buy and re-read them. I think the last I bought was the In the Garden trilogy. I liked the bride quartet in part because it was a nice break from either her ghosts/witches and suspense. I love good straight contemporary romance.
The Boonsboro series was ok, but I live not to far from there and have visited several times, and though it’s probably great advertising for the town, it’s also a lot of self advertising for herself and her family’s businesses. Maybe if she had focused on a business that wasn’t owned by someone in her family.
Carnal Innocence for the story and the strong sense of place. And Sea Swept because it leads to the other three great Quinn books.
I hate this thread (HATE!), because now all I want to do is read all the Nora Roberts books ever.
My favorites are Tears of the Moon and Born in Fire.
Carnal Innocence and The Search. Gah! So…many….more! So excited about Whiskey Beach!
I can anti-recommend one? I read The Search because it was available on kindle at my library and I’d never read any Nora Roberts, but the name sounded familiar. &*#@!ing hated that book. So it was also the last Roberts I ever read.
I’d like to clarify this a bit… I was coming from the lesbian romance world, so the asshat alpha male was not a trope I was familiar with when I read The Search. That guy is a dick. But she likes it, because he’s so hot. WTF? Also, the obsession with dogs in this book is just insane. I’m not fond of dogs, but I don’t mind dogs in my books (Crusie always has them, and I even liked Dogs and Goddesses). Except in The Search every single goddam good guy loves dogs, and the bad guys hate dogs. Basic message: if you dislike dogs, you’re a serial killer. Literally.
What?? Only two? Sheesh, that’s just mean. I guess I’d have to go with Honest Illusions (which I reread at least once a year) and the Quinn quartet—those guys are just so amazing! Man, part of me wishes that *I* was just starting on Nora Roberts’ list—how fun!
I am not really a great fan of those books that have ‘Nora Roberts’ on their cover, although I have read several of them. I would suggest ‘Born in Fire’ or ‘Montana sky’.
My favorite was the first, with the photographer and the teacher. He was so geekily cute.
What are “triggers”?
Daring to Dream has always been my favorite. I just love that combination of characters. I also really like the Three Sisters books but don’t know which is my favorite…
My two favorite are also the first two I read, both standalone suspense. Carolina Moon which also has just a touch of paranormal, and Sanctuary,. I especially enjoyed that both include 2 strongly written secondary romances, it’s like getting three for one. Definitely the novels that started my foray into romance. I was so disappointed to learn that most titles only feature one heroine/hero pairing after that.
And a quick shoutout for The Reef.
Breaking the rulz, I does it.
Absolute favorite is Montana Sky. Hands down. No questions asked. My first novel by La Nora was Honest Illusions, so those would be my two.
My favorites are:
Tribute – you’ve gotta love a book with a geeky hero who writes comic books. I really wanted them to publish the comic book as a companion to the novel!
Dance Upon the Air – it’s book one in the Three Sister’s Island Trilogy but once you’ve read it you’re going to want to read the other two. 🙂
Rising Tides – I love Ethan. He is the perfect tortured, strong hero. I get the shivers just thinking about him.
Heaven and Earth – A heroine who is a police officer and a hero who is super intelligent and a little bumbling. They were great compliments to each other.
I really liked ‘Angels Fall’ and ‘The Search’, but I haven’t read ‘Witness’ yet :-).
The Villa & all the Quinns (can’t just read one).
The rape scene in Rebellion happens so early in the book that it took me (a non-sexual violence crime survivor) by surprise and was a little disturbing. I can’t imagine how someone who survived either of those situations would feel reading the scenes. I have been somewhat desensitized by the graphic descriptions of disturbing sexual violence through reading all the …In Death books. The plot point of the child in danger/killed affects me more now as a mom of two than when it did when I first read Public Secrets.
The MacGregor book you are refering to is MacGregor Grooms, which is the last book in the series. And I agree, the story is hot!
Triggers are scenes, plot points, or characterizations of a sensitive nature that can “trigger” emotional or mental anguish. Readers who have experienced or know someone who did experience in real life situations that involve/are similar to what is described in the book may be more likely to have the trigger in the book affect them in a bad way. I prefer to include any possible triggers in my recommendations so that the person I am recommending the book to knows what the book entails and can judge for herself whether to read the book or not. Trigger warnings are not spoilers, so you don’t have to worry about giving away all the plot. Hope this helps 🙂
Three Sisters trilogy. Or the Born In trilogy. Those are the favorites I turn to often. Irish Jewels is next, then the Chesapeake Bay grouping.
Hands down my favorite one to this day is her Irish Born trilogy, Born in Fire, Born in Ice, and Born in Shame. And since you can buy the 3-in-1 book like I have, it’s not cheating on the number. 🙂 LOL. Love this series, it was my first NR years ago, and I still ahve my original, though much battered and loved, copy to this day. Must get a new one soon. I reread it at least once a year.
Enjoy!
TBQ
OMG how does anyone pick just two Nora’s!! Anyway, I am going to include two of her trilogies as my selections, as it is wouldn’t make sense to just read one or two from each. They are: “The Three Sisters Island”, followed by “The Gallaghers of Ardmore”. But like many others have said, all of hers are great. I love to read her earlier stuff for fun, because as good as they are, it’s wonderful to see how she has evolved as a writer over the years. It is just amazing.
Just reading the descriptions, I probably never would have read Public Secrets. But the MacGregor books are on my list. Thanks for the heads up! Sometimes I can read them just fine, it really depends on my head space at the time. So, just knowing ahead of time allows me to time a book properly.
Triggers are things that can send a violent crime (especially sexual assault) survivor into a mental tailspin. As a sexual assault survivor, there are times when I’m in a borderline bad mental place and reading a book that involves rape can push me over the edge back into nightmares, OCD behaviors, and even temporary sexual dysfunction.
It’s good to know ahead of time so you can decide whether the book is worth it. Since I use romance books to escape the dark places of my mind when I start obsessing (which is fairly common), having a book contain a trigger is counter-productive.obviously. 🙂
@GhengisMom – I’m so sorry you’ve had those painful experiences. Kudos to you for finding coping skills for the bad days. The only Nora Roberts I read was Montana Sky. It seemed like a straightforward contemporary so I was totally taken aback by the appearance of a violent rapist/psychopath. It’s clear from the Nora love that I need to give her another chance, but that book totally turned me away from the author. It was well written, but uuuuurgh the violence was so, so upsetting. So I guess my point is – avoid Montana Sky!
This is why I don’t much care for Nora’s (or anyone else’s for that matter) romantic suspense. I’m not a big fan of villains in my romance, especially the kind that don’t have backstory so we can understand how they went bad. Most of Nora’s don’t.
I love how many people simply can’t pick just two. It is so cool to see how many others love Nora as much as I do. I could have picked all the the above, but I pick True Betrayals ( with an early Roarke-type as the hero) and The Winning Hand with one of the very best heroines in the canon.
Ack! LOL! I almost just bought that one for my Nook, but decided to wait for the Used bookstore. Thanks for the tip!
Wow! I knew Nora Jones was a huge name, but I am still left speechless by the evidence of her popularity. Now I need to giver her a go. I’ve only read her IN THE GARDEN, but I really loved that series so I am not sure why I haven’t read more of her. *Happy Sigh* And so my TBR pile continues to grow.
Wow, completely envious of anyone getting to read all Nora Roberts now for the first time! Love them all, but Quinn series and Three Sisters Island series for me… seven books, I know!