Customer Reviews

The Next Always: Book One of the Inn BoonsBoro Trilogy

5 star:		(68)
4 star:		(49)
3 star:		(40)
2 star:		(36)
1 star:		(24)

 

 

Beckett Montgomery leads a pretty happy and satisfied life. He enjoys his job as a architect and loves that he, his brothers Ryder & Owen and their mom run a successful construction firm. There's one thing that's missing from his life and that's a chance to get to know Clare Brewster closer. He has had a crush on her since high school but never acted on his feelings.
Clare came book to Boonsboro after her husband was killed and runs her own bookstore in town. Her three sons and she are happy with the life they built and Clare doesn't have the time to date. And she never realized that Beckett is interested in her.
But suddenly things change and the two are no longer just good friends. Will they be able to get their own happy ever after?

Like always I was super excited to read the new books by Nora Roberts and like (nearly) always I loved my reading experience. I enjoyed the relaxed pace, the cozy and lovely setting and the lovely characters. The pace and how the book is built was similar to the books in the bride quartet series which I adore. The pace might be a bit too slow for readers that enjoy fast-paced books, but for me it was just perfect.

Boonsboro is a great place to set the book and thanks to all the little details Nora Roberts added to the story I was able to imagine the town and it's buildings very easily. And of course it's pretty cool that Boonsboro and the buildings described in the book really exist. Hopefully I will one day get the chance to visit the town.

The love story was very sweet and I loved the way it progressed. Especially the way Beckett handled Clare's boys was amazing and so sweet. Both main characters were strong and I'm excited to see more of them in the next two books of the trilogy.

There are two more plot elements in the story and both made it even more interesting. I want to tell you a bit about one of them, but will let you get surprised by the other one. One of them is a ghost, but don't worry, you don't have to be a big fan of paranormal stories to enjoy the ghost. The ghost lives in the Inn and I think her presence fit to the old building and it's history. The ghost is only a small part of the story so don't worry, the book is still a contemporary romance.

I loved reading about the relationships between Beckett, his brothers and his mom. Their scenes together made me laugh and smile a lot. I liked all three brothers and I'm excited to read Owen and Ryder's story. Owen's will be next and it's already clear with whom he will get together. I definitely can't wait to go on with the series and read more of the three brothers, the women they love and Boonsboro.

cover
Beautiful!

final appraisal
Loved the book! The cozy, relaxed pace, the lovely setting and the sweet romance worked perfectly for me and made me excited for more books in the series.
I would recommend this book to all fans of cozy and romantic books.

Inn Boonsboro series
1. The next always
2. The last boyfriend (May 2012)
3. The perfect hope (November 2012)

I love Nora Roberts; I have read all her books and I enjoy the amount of detail and research in her stories. This book is typical Nora and it is decent if you are a fan. I agree that her research is what changes from book to book and that it feels like she pulls character descriptions out of her archives. My biggest gripe is how this novel reads like a 300+ page travel brochure for her real-life hometown and businesses. I am sure I would enjoy staying at the Inn Boonsboro, but the constant cross-promotion buries the romance. I like travel books, but do not package one as a romance novel and try to fool me. The Inn was the main character; the hero and heroine felt like the supporting cast. I think Nora does much better without a financial stake in the novel's setting.

This reads almost exactly like the McCade brothers books, down to the inn renovation and ghost. The only real difference is the shameless self-promotion of her various businesses in the real town of Boonsboro. I love Nora, but this really isn't worth buying.

I am a HUGE NR fan and own every one of her books (including the In Death series) and I've never contemplated not finishing a book of hers until now. I love how she usually finds an area of interest to focus on in books... I've learned so much about ballet, fire jumping, flowers, wedding planning and so much more. However, the detail that she goes into with this book is just ridiculous. I'm about a third of the way through and it feels like I've spent about 5 minutes with the characters and hours reading about fence pickets, color schemes and copper tubs. I'm so disappointed. I agree with some of the other reviews that I feel like I'm reading a travel brochure rather than a romance novel and resent that it's a brochure for her real life town and businesses. It's like she's using her fan base for free advertising but it's only free to her... we've paid for it. As I've told so many people throughout the years, Nora's strength as a writer is how she can make you fall in love with not just a single character but entire groups of characters and you can't wait to know their story. The hotel is the character in this book and I could care less about it's story.

Oh dear. I keep buying Nora, even though I know better, even though she hasn't written a compelling or original word since before the turn of the millennium, all because I loved (and continue to love) her books from the late 80s and the 90s. If you've never read her before, or have read only a few of her books, you will probably like this one because it is a cozy (if bland) little love story. If you have read most of her other books, however, you will be disappointed. This book is a weak, washed-out photocopy of characters and plots from far better novels she wrote in the past (in particular, "The Return of Rafe MacKade" and "The Heart of Devin MacCade".)
More troubling, however, is the fact that it seems to be a novel-length advertisement for her inn, her husband's bookshop, and her son's pizzeria in Boonsboro, MD. The three main businesses in the book really exist and belong to her family. Granted, the characters are fictional, but it's rather tacky and somewhat creepy to use a novel in this way.

I've read every book Nora Roberts has written and tend to love her series books. My favorites have been The Bride Quartet, Sign of Seven Trilogy, McKade Brothers, Quinn Brothers, and the Key trilogy. I'm no stranger to the NR trilogy. HOWEVER, as an avid NR reader, I agree with many different reviewers in regards to this book. It definitely fell short of expectations. Here were my thoughts:

-Plot was extremely slow for first 2/3.
-Ending was extremely rushed and abrupt.
-Characters not developed as well as normal NR writing
-Too much expository writing regarding the Inn and it's construction.
-Relationship between two main characters not developed and deepened as normal NR writing.
-Two "B" storylines seemed to come out of nowhere

NR typically has a "formula" for her shorter novels or series. Knowing the formula has never bothered me, and even if it is predictable, her writing, descriptions, dialogues, romantic entanglement descriptions are all enjoyable and intriguing. However, I found myself bored with this book, which I normally never am when reading NR (except her In Death series). I was disappointed. As I read, it felt like someone else wrote it. It didn't feel true to what I love most about NR.

All that said, I will probably still read the next two hoping they get better.

Please do not buy this book. It is a re-mix of various Nora Roberts books and it is deadly boring. You have met all the characters before, twice! You have read this plot before and even the dialogue is stale. This is not a new book; it is almost a cut-and-paste of some old ones.

Regular readers of Norah Roberts books beware: this is a rehash and complilation of previous characters, from the hero and heroine to the kids and from the friends to the ghost, and of the storyline as well. The main character here is the inn and even it--on paper--looks very familiar and if it doesn't at first it will by midpoint as Roberts goes into excruciating detail describing it. Frankly, when I buy a romance novel I'm less interested in the setting--real or not--than I am the characters and storyline, both of which take a backseat here. This inn may be Robert's darling but writers have an old saying to prevent them from getting too maudlin, "Kill your darlings." If this is your first Norah Roberts it might make a pleasant read but it is in no way indicative of this writer's talent.

Yes, all the books are mildly similar. Girl meets boy or boy meets girl. Fall in love. Issue arises. Issue resolved. They get married. The comfort that provides is wonderful.

HOWEVER, this book was a complete rehash of the MacCade Brothers. Also, I don't know if she is basing these characters on real people - BUT they also seem to lack depth.

I have read all of Nora Roberts book, she is far and away my favorite author. I have tried to read this book since Nov. 1, just can't find anything interesting about it. I am beginning to think someone else is writing her books, or greed has taken her over and she's putting out crap.