Nora Roberts’ books have class, sophistication and honorable characters.And I mean the exact opposite of everything I’ve said.I absolutely hated his sleezy behavior. He likes “mindless, no-strings sex,” and at the very beginning of the book he’s with this woman who has an accent and speaks quite crudely. He’s calling her sugar and baby and kisses her for the paparazzi, and he had trouble remembering her name. Way to start off a romance book with him about to have sex with someone else.His shirt stuck to his back; his feet began to weep.His feet began to weep?The son of a bitch would get him to Mexico, all right, and anywhere else he wanted to go.Who calls a car a son of a bitch?With her free hand she pushed back a messy shock of dark hair.A shock of hair? How about a lock of hair?He walks in now, punchy and panicked, and asked for Raymond Quinn at the admission’s desk.What the heck is punchy?Just when I was getting interested in Ray Quinn, we find out that Seth, the boy, is his son, and that pretty much ruined Ray in my eyes.Cam used bad language when he was a kid, and so does Seth. I didn’t like at all.To throw another wrench into the mix he can see the ghost of Ray. That just came out of nowhere. And it was frustrating because you’d think there’d be some questions answered from Ray, but he just doesn’t answer any question from Cam. Really annoying.Anna, like most of Nora Roberts’ characters, are the suit-wearing, tight hair pulled back in a bun, stuffy straight-laced women that live frugally and think doing things like eating cookies for breakfast and buying a new car are wild.When I found out Anna had been raped I couldn’t really put that together with the sexually blasé woman she had been played out to be. It sounded like she had had sex not long after it happened and when she was young, which really doesn’t coincide with what I’ve learned of rape victims. If anything, she should have been closed off, not having casual sex all the time.“Let’s see, you were just about fourteen when I came along. First thing you did was pick a fight so you’d have the excuse to bloody my nose.”“That was just a welcome-to-the-family tap. Besides, you gave me a hell of a black eye as a thank-you.”That was funny.“You get fries?” Cam poked in the bag, snagged one. “Cold. Somebody better nuke these. If I do it they’ll blow up or disintegrate.”It was funny how Cam couldn’t work the microwave.I liked the bickering and bantering between the three of them, mostly the ones about Phillip and his fancy clothes. If the book hadn’t that humor it would have been so boring I couldn’t have read it. I just wish there was some excitement or other interesting factors that kept the book going besides the fighting between them.“How the hell am I supposed to live here and work there?”“That’ll be a problem,” Cam agreed. “Bigger one will be how you’ll fit all your clothes into that closet in your old room.”Tears were raw in his stomach.How can you feel tears in your stomach? I think you mean throat or eyes.“Just temporarily,” Ethan said, though he enjoyed the image of his brother wearing an apron and hunting up cobwebs with a feather duster.“Everybody makes their own bed, g.d. it. I’m not a maid.”“What about breakfast?” Phillip asked dryly. “You’re not going to send your men off in the morning without a hot meal, are you?”She found him good-looking and he felt the same way about her, but he commented on her ugly shoes and drab colored clothing quite a bit. She actually asked him to turn around while she took off her shoes and hose to clean up. Ugh.I liked how the 2 other brothers come in cussing, and when they notice her they turn charming.Phillip comes in, “Damn it, Cam, didn’t you hear me honking?” Ethan comes in, “Christ, this bitch blew in fast.” Even as Ethan dragged off his slicker, the dog set his feet and shook furiously. Anna only winced as water sprayed her suit. “Barely smelled her before—“ He spotted Anna and automatically pulled off his soaked cap, then scooped a hand through his damp, curling hair. Seeing woman, bucket, mop, he thought guiltily of his muddy boots. “Ma’am.”“My brother, Ethan.” Cam handed Ethan a steaming cup of coffee. “This is the social worker your dog’s just sprayed water and dog hair all over.”“Sorry. Simon, go sit.”“It’s all right,” Cam went on. “Foolish already slobbered all over her, and Phillip just got finished hitting on her.”He goes to their apartment and they’re kissing and he asks her to have sex. This is the 3rd meeting they’ve had. They don’t even really know each other.Cam was scowling at a basket full of pink socks and jockey shorts when the phone rang. He knew damn well the socks and underwear had been white—or close to it—when he’d dumped them in the machine. Now they were Easter-egg pink. Maybe they just looked that way because they were wet.He pulled them out to stuff them in the dryer on what he hoped was broil and went to answer the phone.Cam trying to do housework was pretty funny.Surely it had been a few years ago that he’d flown across the finish line in his hydrofoil. Blue water, speed, cheering crowds, and money to burn.Now he was lucky if he found enough milk in the fridge to wash down a stale oreo.He didn’t hurl the receiver through the window. He wanted to, considered it, then figured he’d be the one sweeping up the glass, so what would be the point?So he hung up the phone, with careful deliberation. He even took a deep breath. And if whatever he’d put in the washing machine hadn’t chosen that moment to spin out of balance and the send the machine hopping, he wouldn’t have slammed his fist into the wall.‘Miz Spanelli. How do you feel about crabs?’‘Ah . . .’‘Let me rephrase that.’“Cam kissed her, right on the mouth.”Ethan stopped walking, looked down at Seth’s face. “What?”“Smackaroo. It made her laugh. It was like a joke, I guess.”“Like a joke, sure.” He shrugged and ignored the hard, sick ball in his gut.None of his business who Grace kissed. Nothing to do with him. But he found his jaw clenched when Cam, hair dripping, stepped onto the back porch.“How’s the crab business looking?”“It’ll do,” Ethan said shortly.Cam lifted his eyebrows at the tone. “What, did one crawl out of the pot and up your butt?I liked the jealousy Ethan displayed, and Cam’s line.I hated how Anna acted like it was inevitable (as most of Nora Roberts’ characters do) that they were going to sleep together and there was nothing they could to stop it, like they had no control over it.Anna was way too forward and after she got done saying they’ll have sex in her bed when the time comes she says she doesn’t sleep with strangers. So she just spews out random facts about herself, as if that will do the trick…asking nothing about him.Cam says something about how would she know about terror and pain, and she blew it out of proportion and got way madder than the situation warranted. He glanced down at her clenched fist. “Go ahead,” he invited. “But if you belt me you’ll have to write a five-hundred-word essay on violence in our society.”It was funny how he tied together what Seth had to do to their fight.They both start to have feelings for each other pretty much right off the bat, and I really couldn’t understand why he was sticking with her when he hadn’t with any other woman. To me she was just that, one of the many women he’s been with, so I wasn’t buying the “love” he felt for her. I don’t even think he knew what made her different. Basically, love came too soon and I wasn’t buying it.“Phil, try to control that wild optimism.” Cam turned to Ethan. “What do you think?”“It’ll do.”“It’ll do what?” Phillip threw up his hands. “Fall down around our ears?” At that moment a spider—which Phillip estimated to be about the size of a Chihuahua—crawled over the toe of his shoe. “Get me a gun,” he muttered“Pull that seat up some, Ethan. I’m jammed back here.”“Nope. Maybe you should drop me back by the place. I can start figuring things, and I can get a lift home later.”“We’re going shopping,” Cam reminded him.“I don’t need any damn shoes,” Seth said again, but in reflex rather than annoyance.“You’re getting damn shoes, and you’re getting a damn haircut while we’re at it, and we’re all going to the damn mall.”“I’d rather get hit with a brick than go to the mall on a Saturday.” Ethan hunched down in his seat, pulled the brim of his cap low over his eyes. He couldn’t bear to think about it.“When you start working in that death trap,” Phillip told him, “you’ll likely be hit with a ton of them.”“If I have to get a haircut, everybody’s getting one.”Cam glanced briefly at Seth’s mutinous face. “You think this a democracy? Shit. Grab some reality, kid. You’re ten.”“You could use one.” Phillip met Cam’s eyes in the rearview mirror as he drove north out of St. Chris. “Your hair’s longer than his.”“I hate the mall.” In defiance, Ethan stretched his own legs out and tipped the back of his seat down a notch. “It’s full of people. Pete the barber’s still got his place on Market Street.”“Yeah, and everybody who walks out of it looks like Beaver Cleaver.” Frustrated, Cam gave the back of Ethan’s seat a solid kick.“Keep your feet off my upholstery,” Phillip warned. “Or you’ll walk to the damn mall.”“Tell him to give me some room.”“If I have to get shoes, I get to pick them out.”“You don’t have any say in it. If I’m paying for the shoes, you’ll wear what I tell you and like it.”“I’ll but the stinking shoes myself. I got 20 dollars.”Cam snorted a laugh. “Try to get a grip on that reality again, pal. You can’t buy decent socks for twenty these days.”“You can if you don’t have to have some fancy designer label on them,” Ethan tossed in. “This ain’t Paris.”“You haven’t bought decent shoes in ten years,” Cam threw back. “And if you don’t pull up that frigging seat, I’m going to—”“Cut it out,” Phillip exploded. “Cut it out right now or I swear I’m going to pull over and knock your heads together. Oh, my god.” He took one hand off the wheel to drag it down his face. “I sound like Mom. Forget it. Just forget it. Kill each other. I’ll dump the bodies in the mall parking lot and drive to Mexico. I’ll learn how to weave mats and sell them on the beach at Cozumel. It’ll be quiet, it’ll be peaceful. I’ll change my name to Raoul, and no one will know I was ever related to a bunch of fools.”The dogs greeted them with wild and desperate enthusiasm the minute they pulled into the drive. This would have been endearing but for the fact that the pair of them reeked of dead fish.With much cursing and shoving and threats, the humans escaped into the house, shutting the dogs with their hurt feelings outside.The phone was ringing. “Somebody get that,” Cam pleaded. “Seth, take this junk upstairs, then go and give those stinking dogs a bath.”“Both of them?” The thought thrilled him, but he thought it best to complain. “How come I have to do that?”“Because I said so.” Oh, he hated falling back on something that lame, and that adult. “The hose is around back. God, I want a beer.”But because he lacked the energy even for that, he dropped into the closest chair and stared glassy-eyed at nothing. If he had to face that mall again in this life, he promised himself, he would just shoot himself in the head and be done with it.“That was Anna,” Phillip told him as he wandered back into the living room.“Anna? Saturday night.” He couldn’t stop the groan. “I need a transfusion.”“He’s got enough clothes to last him a year. If we only have to do it once a year, how bad can it be?”Phillip opened on eye. “He’s got spring and summer clothes. What happens when fall gets here? Sweaters, coats, boots. And he’s bound to outgrow every damn thing we bought today.”“We can’t allow that to happen. There must be a pill or something we can give him.”This was no pencil-slim model with a body like a boy, but a woman.Did you have to throw that in there? What’s with Nora Roberts and her female characters having “women’s bodies?” Wth does that even mean? There’s no standard body type, so that’s an empty statement. I didn’t like the author when she took this little jab at small people.We can’t help how small we are, and saying we have the body of a boy is really crappy. Couldn’t she have just said she had a good-sized body for him or something along those lines without taking a stab at slim women?Anna was so boring. She listened to music, hummed a little, sipped wine and that’s about it.There was a mahogany lady’s vanity with a skirted stool and glinting brass handles. For some reason he’d always found that particular type of furniture sexy.He found a piece of furniture sexy? It sounds like he hasn’t been with as many woman as the author led us to believe if he’s eyeing furniture with those kinds of thoughts.As far as Phillip was concerned, it had been the worst two weeks of his life. He had barely spent any time in his apartment, had lost his favorite pair of Magli loafers to the gnawing puppy teeth of foolish, hadn’t seen the inside of a single four-star restaurant, and hadn’t so much as sniffed a woman.Unless he counted Mrs. Wilson at the supermarket, and he damn well didn’t.“Did you know that television is the tool of the Communism left?”“I hadn’t heard that.”“I’m here to tell you.” She used her key to check her mail slot, gathered letters and bills and a fashion magazine. “Sesame Street is just a front.”“I always suspected that big yellow bird.”“Nah, he’s just a shill. The frog’s the mastermind.”The woman he was with at the beginning comes back into play, as I just knew she just would, when Cam’s in Anna’s apartment looking at her on the cover of the magazine. When Anna comes up behind him he jumps with guilt for looking at it, and I was like wtf was he doing staring at her?Anna said she used to hate her, because Martine is slim and blond and perfect, and she’s too round and brunette. Cam tells her that she’s real and Martine’s not. In Martine’s case, that’s true. ‘Cause she’s ad plastic surgery and things like that, but as far as being slim, a lot of people are that way on their own. We don’t do anything to get that way and I think it shows a certain amount of jealousy to assume that we starve ourselves or work out or watch what we eat to get that small.I’m glad she wasn’t a virgin, but I finally put a name to the reason I didn’t like her. She was just as casual as Cam was about sex. I absolutely hated her attitude about relationships.He’s flirting on the phone with an Italian woman he’s had sex with, and Anna overhears it and gets mad. Rightfully so. She’s saying the right things, and Cam says she’s the 1 he thinks about and she just loses her anger and moves on to the sounds of music coming from the house. Wth? Something like that happens and you leave, you don’t stick around and forgive him in the blink of an eye.When the insurance guy comes to their place, Anna gets hurt that he didn’t tell her about it. This lady gets irrationally emotional all the time. But they never last long before she pushes them aside to contemplate at a later date. ‘Cause she’s calm and collected and responsible, keeping her personal life separate from business life. I’m almost falling asleep as I write this.When he tells her they hired an investigator to search for Seth’s mom, she says this:Her heart broke in two halves. One for the woman, one for the professional. Both sides bled.What the heck is wrong with her? Why would it break your heart because he withheld that? That’s going a little too far, and it’s overly dramatic.She’d have that home in the country near the water, and children of her own, and a g.d. stupid dog if she wanted.I really don’t care for her attitude or the language. Everyone in here cussed, to professional Anna to ten year old Seth. I should have a counter for how many times the f word and g.d. was used. And what’s with her characters calling dogs stupid? Anna apparently loves dogs, and now she’s saying she’d have a g.d. stupid dog. Wth?“He made a couple of buddies today.”“Really? Terrific.”Her eyes lit with such pleasure and interest, he couldn’t help himself.“Yeah, I had them all up on the roof, practiced catching them as they fell off.”I liked when Phillip told Cam to let him know when he was done with Anna, and Cam got into a fight with him over it. Phillip points out that it must be serious since he fought him. Anna leaves for a week, and he goes to her apartment to confront her when she gets back. She had it all planned out before and was doing everything perfectly. She said she had a date and what they had was over and that she didn’t want him anymore. It was great, and then she had to go and ruin it, as happens in every romance book. Nora Roberts’ characters couldn’t stick to an emotion if they were covered in glue.Anna said it’s bad luck that she broke it off first, and he said what makes you think I’d have said it at all? And she goes and ruins it by saying she’s not gonna stay with him no matter how she feels about him. And he just miraculously figures out she loves him.I had my doubts when I read the description of the book, that three brothers take in a troubled kid, but Nora Roberts managed to take a mundane situation and bring some humor to it. It was a pleasant read; I liked the bickering of the three brothers. They each had a distinct style and personality that was consistent throughout the book, and they were equally funny. I didn’t like how Phillip and Cam were so womanizing though. There were aspects about the story that weren’t so enjoyable though, mainly how fast the love came, and Anna’s inability to stay angry at Cam when she should have been. Nora Roberts’ books tend to play out that way, so I wasn’t surprised. I was surprised however at the ending. I felt like she just rushed them towards the finish line and quickly wrapped up things.
What is it about Nora Roberts' Quinn brothers that makes them so special? They're rough and tumble, they swear a lot, they like to be in charge, they're all good-looking. But I think it's the fact that they were once all troubled boys who were saved by two good people who instilled in them a sense of family, love, and loyalty that lasted even when they were grown and their adopted parents gone.Sea Swept tells the story of the first of those boys, Cameron. He was the first troubled boy that Ray and Stella Quinn took in and saved. Now that he's grown, Cam travels the world racing boats, cars, motorcycles, dating models, gambling, and just plain old having a great time. But when his adopted father is in a fatal car accident, he must return to St. Christoper on the Chesapeake Bay where he learns that just before the accident that eventually kills him, Ray Quinn had taken in another troubled boy. A boy with secrets no one but Ray knew, and he's no longer there to answer the Quinn brothers questions.This book, at least in my opinion, is a quintessential Nora Roberts romance. Great characters, a strong sense of family, and a romance that draws you in and makes you fall in love along with the hero and heroine. I first read this book years ago, but it's one that stands out in my mind and one I like to go back and reread once in a while, especially when I want a great romance and family story.I love heroes that are rough-edged and Cam is definitely that. He likes to swear, he wears jeans most of the time, wears his hair long. Yet there's something about him that's rather endearing. And the heroine, Anna, is the perfect match for him. She's fiery and passionate and is strong enough to stand up against Cam's Alpha personality. The sparks flow between them from their first meeting.What I really enjoy about this book, though, is the overall story. Three brothers suddenly find themselves in charge of a damaged 10-year-old boy and it changes all their lives. The story focuses on Cam and Anna, but you still feel like you know everyone else - Ethan, Phillip, Seth. And Ray. Despite the fact that he has a small appearance in the beginning and then dies, Roberts still makes you feel like you know him. Seth's storyline is wonderfully done. I loved reading the interactions between Cam and Seth, and Seth and everyone else. You really feel the boys pain and just want to hug him and protect him. And the way it's all set up, you can't wait to keep reading the rest of the series to see how everything plays out.This is just a great romance/people/family story to read. I loved every part of it and it's one that will always be on my keeper shelf.
What do You think about Sea Swept (1998)?
This felt like a surface book to me. There was no depth at all. The characters had very little development, and Anna and Cam had no chemistry at all, so I have no idea why the got together. Anna was annoying and got mad every two seconds for no reason. Anna's sob story did not ring true, and felt fake and forced, as if put there to make her seem real, when it had the opposite effect. Cam's sob story was never discussed; it just loomed in the distance for basically no reason. I felt nothing for the characters, as they seemed like cardboard cut-outs. The reunion at the end was so rushed and random I had to roll my eyes.
—Krista (I remember you, Min) (Critical)
This is my favorite series by Nora Roberts. I re-read it at least once a year. And it's always immensely satisfying.To give some background, you have the Quinns (Ray and Stella) who, though they couldn't have children of their own, made a family out of three unwanted boys. Trouble-makers, damaged, and severely injured - either in body, mind, or heart, and sometimes all three, Ray and Stella took them in and made them a home. Gave them family, love, care, and a future.When Cam is in Monaco after winning a big race he gets an urgent fax from his brother, Come home quick, dad's in the hospital. It's bad. Head reeling at the thought of losing his mighty father, Cameron quickly drops all else and heads back to Maryland, to the only home he's ever really had. There he finds that his father is in a coma, and it's not looking good. Even when Ray wakes for a few minutes - long enough to ask for a promise from his three boys and tell them how proud he is of them - it's only temporary. After Ray's death, Cam and his brothers are determined to do right by that promise. Raise the last young, troubled boy - Seth - that Ray'd brought home. Amidst ugly rumors they begin to do just that.Anna is the social worker assigned to Seth's case. When she goes out to the Quinn's house she expects it to be a simple matter of taking Seth and placing him in some other foster care. What she finds is a angry man that is a wall with no intention of giving up Seth. Despite her attraction to Cam, it'll take time and convincing that it's in Seth's best interests to remain.I said a lot there, and it doesn't even begin to delve into the complexities of this series, or even this book (where most of this is laid out). The heart of the story is the family that the Quinn's are, and Seth is becoming a part of. The loyalty, love, and persistence to give all to the memory of Ray and Stella Quinn. I couldn't help but love Cameron, Ethan and Phillip for their dedication, obstinacy, and love. I couldn't help but fall for Seth, who so desperately needed the family that the Quinns were going to provide.And I couldn't help but respect the woman Anna was. Straight-forward, with no games, and little coyness, she says what she means and means what she says. And she cares, deeply, about those she's assigned to. They're not case numbers to her, they're not simple and easy, they're people and she truly wants what's best for them.The sparks fly between Cam and Anna, strong and hot, and I enjoyed as they were getting to know each other that they had a lot in common, and honestly liked each other. Seeing Cam, used to slipping out of women's arms before they became entangled, fall for Anna was a, sometimes very funny, joy. They both make some mistakes - through assumptions mostly - with each other, but they work them out, and I have no doubt they'll be happy for many years.I still, many years after reading this the first time, go back and forth with myself on whether the resolution to the mistakes in their relationship works for me completely. And even now I can't say that it doesn't, but I can't honestly say that it does 100%. I think it's a little of understanding both sides of the issue, and where each Cam and Anna were coming from when they made the decisions that they did. Anytime anyone asks for a NR recommendation this is the series I start with. It's definitely male-centric, focused on the brothers perhaps a bit more than the romance, but there's more than enough romance in this series and the relationship of Cameron, Ethan, Phillip and Seth always makes me so incredibly happy. Four boys pulled off the path to ruin and destruction, finding home, family and love.
—Angela
Simplón.Entre incoherente, indecente y plano. Ya me había leído otro de la autora y es por ello que le voy a dar a esta serie el beneficio de la duda.Sobre los detalles técnicos voy a decir que no me gustó el estilo de la narración, porque llegaba un punto en el que no sabía si el narrador estaba en la mente de uno u otro personaje.En fin, me quedé con dos o tres dudas sobre la trama y es por eso que sigo... eso y que siento curiosidad por el 4to libro.Hay buen morbo y eso le ganó la segunda estrella. Fin.
—Aideeeee
