2007-11-07 Before Ms. Roberts started going all 'Trilogy' on us

If you really want a primer for Nora Roberts, as in more than Mills and Boon penny dreadfuls, but less committment than a Trilogy, then this dense one shot is for you.

Three sisters, one ranch. Jack Mercy has died, and left the ranch to the three sisters, with the caveat that they all have to live on the ranch in the same house for a year or else the will's forfeit and they only get $100 each. This is more tricky than not, because Wilma has grown up on the ranch while Lily and Tess are strangers (from the East and West coast respectively). This is Nora Roberts' trifeca, the archetypical women that you'll find in her books: Wilma is a tomboy, all lean and tough, Lily is the soft one, bruised by life and men, while Tess is all body, all woman, all knowing.

The action takes place over a year, from Spring to Winter, and the ladies each have their own problems to wrestle with: Lily is on the run from an abusive ex husband, and shies away from Adam, Wilma's half brother, because she on edge around men. Wilma is struggling to come to terms with her feelings for her father, her feelingss towards the hunky neighbour, trying to lead her ranch hands as well as keeping the ranch together despite sabatoge. Tess is all California, chomping at the bit to just leave the ranch behind, and yet having a liason with Nate, the lawyer.

I think this is the book that probably spurred Nora to start writing character trilogies, because there's so much going on in the space of 500 pages, that each time spent on each woman doesn't feel enough.

It's a good read, and a dense one.