A quick book recommendation for you, based on my current and recent reading….
I decided to take a chance on Nora Roberts’ recent novel, The One.
I say, “take a chance,” because while I’ve been aware of Nora Roberts for years (she’s been publishing since the 1970s), I’ve always considered her to be something of a romance author.
Straight men and romance fiction. You know how that goes. Oil and water.
The One certainly has more romance content than this reviewer would like. But this isn’t a Danielle Steele novel. From the perspective of a male reader who generally prefers writers like Michael Connelly and the late Michael Crichton, The One isn’t half bad.
This is the set-up: A plague (a particularly virulent version of the avian flu that so terrified everyone a decade ago) sweeps the earth and kills most of the population.
Some people are immune, of course. (Otherwise, there is no story.) Those who are immune have dormant magical powers, that are awakened in the aftermath of the catastrophe.
The One, then, is part post-apocalyptic, part urban fantasy, and (yes) part romance fiction.
On the whole: not bad.
Did this novel convert me into a raving Nora Roberts fan?
No. But then again, I’m not in Nora Roberts’s target audience, am I?
After The One, might I read another Nora Roberts title in the future?
Perhaps. It would probably depend on how intrigued I am with the description and opening chapters.
