Maybe it was a stylistic thing but there many phrases were made into sentences without a subject and verb.

As they say, one must know the rules, to break them. Beethoven scandalized many of the musicians of his day with all the rules that he broke. But ;) in breaking them, he not only stamped his music with his voice, but he changed music forever. He’s a master.

If we write everything grammatically correct, our writing will read like a school report and all authors will sound similar. Ick. Some words are better left skipped. Even subjects and verbs, sometimes.

Nora knows the rules. Nora breaks them with intent. I like authors who manipulate and use the English language with purpose, even when they break rules. She writes with command, and I like that.

I was a little disappointed in this book. The question of her past trauma went unanswered so long that I got frustrated and skipped ahead. I then went to Part Three and read to the end. Unfortunately, I didn’t feel like I had missed a thing, so I didn’t go back to read the two thirds of the book that I’d skipped.

Angels Fall is the very first Nora book that I haven’t read cover to cover, and it’s the very first Nora book that I don’t want to re-read. But maybe I don’t like it so much because I didn’t read it cover to cover.

Who knows?

After the Chesapeake Bay series, one of my Roberts’s faves is Carolina Moon. [/quote]

Not that la nora needs a book pimp, but I loved Carnal Innocence. It features one of my favorite all time heroes and the heroine wasn’t half bad. The villian was a surprise to me (which is generally the case, lol).

I liked but did not love the Chesapeak Bay series. I tend to like the non woo woo Roberts’ books but am pretty excited to read the paranormal trilogy from her this fall.

[quote comment="2235"]I’m annoyed with myself for simply assuming a canoe-dummy would sit in the back–a reminder to check everything.[/quote]

I guess it’s time to fess up here. I canoed alot as a kid. My dad was a scout master. I don’t know that everyone would notice this, other than Meljean and I.

After the Chesapeake Bay series, one of my Roberts’s faves is Carolina Moon. I don’t know if that book is commonly a fave or not, but I loved the hero/heroine interaction, and I also loved the secondary heroine (if that’s what you might call her). In a lot of other books, she would have been plain bad, but Roberts did something more interesting with her. Imo.

Devonna: I haven’t read any of those really old Nora Roberts although I do own some of them. I like many of her single title books - Carnal Innocence being my fave. Love Tucker. Sigh. How delicious of a character is he?

I wouldn’t have ever used the commas like that in high school, to be certain. Now I would, if it fit the story.

It’s really good [period] It’s really close [period]. It seemed like the commas were used where the periods should have been and vice versa.

The editing issues: the last is a bit awkward (a clarification of isn’t=crowded might have made it smoother) but in dialogue, I’m a lot less picky as a reader than when it’s not quite clear in the narrative sections. But the others are fine; a stylistic choice, to be certain (Roberts uses comma splices to great effect in many of her books, giving it that staccato effect — but it jarred me the first couple of times until I accepted it as a voice thing) but I don’t think incorrect.

(”He ate, he drank, he watched her” just as an example — the comma splice is accepted because of the short phrases … like, “I came, I saw, I conquered.” Much more effective than adding that “and” in there, too.)

But then, I drop things like “there are” or “it was” from the beginning of sentences all the time, just because I hate them and they seem useless. So I might not be one to talk, and I’m sure it’ll bother at least a couple of people.

Great review — I haven’t picked up many non-Robb books lately, but I think I’m going to have to get this one.