Okay, so I unintentionally took a hiatus there for a while, but I am happy to be back. 🙂 I picked this book up because I had been talking to some friends about how much I LOVED The Chemist by Stephenie Meyer, and I found my self in a mood to read a book similar to that. And so, I did a little digging and I found this one. Nora Roberts is known for her romances and honestly I find many of her books to be cookie-cutter and rather bland. At least for my tastes. But I figured after reading the synopsis that I would give it a shot with a result of….

I should have just re-read The Chemist. If Stephenie Meyer wasn’t so good at writing long books, I probably would have. Despite my residual feelings, this book was not all bad. Abigail Lowery (The Witness) is no Juliana Fortis (The Chemist), but their differences are understandable. Both characters are bad ass females who I would be super interested in having as friends. Both women have to learn their skills essentially on the run, though Abigail has a little bit more learning to do than Juliana. What I didn’t like about this Nora Roberts book, was how Abigail switched from being super independent to letting Brooks Gleason, the rural Sheriff in the small town where she’s moved to, take care of her. But this is a trope that Nora Roberts has made a career out of and I don’t want a bunch of rabid fans after me. Actually, send them after me. I could use the practice for the zombie apocalypse or, you know, the impending nuclear war…. But for real, this book is currently rated at 4.19 on Goodreads and The Chemist is only rated at a 3.69.

And while I didn’t intend for this post to be a compare/contrast between the two books, this story differs from Meyer’s in that Abigail essentially grew up as a eugenics experiment. Her mother hand-picked the sperm that she wanted to use to become pregnant in the hopes that Abigail (real name Elizabeth) would be blessed with the greatest traits that any two parents could bestow on their offspring. The one thing Mamadukes couldn’t provide for her child? Love. And we learn that early on when we hear how regimented Abigail’s entire upbringing has been. No wonder the girl wants to rebel and cut her hair and buy new clothes and hang out with a girl she hasn’t spent more than 5 minutes talking to in her entire life. Unfortunately for Abigail, the night didn’t go as planned, which many teenage rebellions don’t – for those of you who are keeping track. She ends up witnessing a murder and when her mother thinks that witness protection is a waste of the many plans she had carefully laid for her daughter’s life, Abigail decides that maybe this is exactly what she needed to escape her mother’s clutches and be free.

I liked Abigail and I LOVED Bert, her well-trained guard dog that made me super envious and wish that my dogs were even half as smart as him. I have a thing for strong, independent women and Abigail was that. The love story with Brooks was a little too quick for me, but I loved his family.

All in all, this was a quick read that satisfied what I was craving (though not completely). And now I have a recommendation for fans of Nora Roberts who want something a little more thrilling (ahem, my mother). If you’re looking for a socially awkward female who has a super awesome guard dog, that can fend for herself and is also running from bad guys, and you happen to like clichéd romance stories that you can get through in a couple of hours…..look no further. 🙂

And even though the fall semester is starting up for me soon, I promise not to take so long between posts. I’ve been in a bit of a reading slump lately and I haven’t been jiving with much of anything I’ve been reading. But I intend to just slog through my CR so, maybe you’ll see some more posts soon?