Rowena’s review of Born O’Hurley by Nora Roberts.

Dance to the Piper

Though her name was up in lights, Maddy O’Hurley cared nothing for the trappings of stardom. All that mattered was dancing. But Reed Valentine’s only passions were wealth and power. . .until Maddy engaged the mesmerizing mogul in the daring dance of love.

Do opposites really attract?

They do in this story. No one could be more completely different than straight laced, business before pleasure, Reed Valentine and fun loving, free spirit Maddy O’Hurley. She’s a dancer, he’s a big time business mogul. He’s the backer for her next Broadway play. They couldn’t have been more wrong for each other, but they had love on their side and just when you think there’s no hope for them, love comes out and saves the day.

I really enjoyed reading this story, it had all the necessary drama mixed in with a dallop of witty banter and what really drew me to the story was the hope that Maddy never really lost sight of. She knew what she wanted and instead of playing the coy seductress, she seduced Reed with everything that she was.

Herself.

It’s a feel good story of two people’s journey from friendship to lovers to husband and wife. You’ll enjoy this story as much as I did, I’m sure. Very light, which is exactly what I was looking for and NR really delivered with this story.

A treat.

The Last Honest Woman 

As the widow of an infamous car champion, Abby O’Hurley shunned publicity. But how could she keep charming, disarming and ruthlessly cynical biographer Dylan Crosby from uncovering her darkest secrets?

Assumptions really have a way of kicking us in the ass. That was very much the case with one, Mr. Dylan Crosby, investigative reporter turned biographer. His next project was about the greatest race car driver of all time, Chuck Rockwell who’s last race turned out to be the last race for him period, the crash that killed him. Chuck Rockwell was by all means, known to the world to have lived his personal life, just as fast as he drove his cars. He married one, Abigail O’Hurley when she was 18 years old and for the first couple of years, she was beside him at every race, at every celebrity function, cheering him on. Then, she fell off the face of the earth. In order, for Dylan’s book to really work, he had to get some answers from someone who knew Chuck like no other person did.

Which is where Chuck’s widow, Abigail O’Hurley Rockwell came into play.

Chuck had been dead for four years and Abby had turned away book deals before because she didn’t want her boys exposed to the half truths and secrets about their father’s past, things she didn’t want ANYone to know, her boys in particular. But money was really tight and she wanted her boys to have something for their futures, the only way to ensure her boys were taken care of was to finally allow, Dylan Crosby write their father’s story. But Chuck’s story was going to get written the way she wanted it to get written, she wasn’t going to let anyone tell her anything else.

Dylan was going to get to the truth if it killed him, and it damned near did. In order for anything written by him be published, he had to make sure that Mrs. Rockwell understood from the beginning that he would get the answers he sought, he was nothing if not persistent, she better be prepared to be point blank honest with him. Nothing was going to change that.

And then they met.

Dylan’s first impressions of her weren’t what he expected them to be, instead of finding the spoiled princess type “trophy wife”, he found a soccer mom who did everything by herself, with help from no one. What an odd thing to find from a celebrity’s wife. Especially, a celebrity such as Chuck Rockwell, who was an all balls to the wall type of guy. He was mighty intrigued by the woman who was indeed the mother and wife of Chuck Rockwell, but who was anything but spoiled and and princess like. She was as refreshing as they come, but honest? The woman was anything but. He would dig and dig until he got the answers he came for, of that you can be sure.
And Abby will protect her secrets with all that she is, because her sons futures depended on it.

The wild rollercoaster of this book was seriously, one of the bests I’ve read in a very long time. Nothing seriously spooky or action packed or anything, it was an easy fun loving story with the drama of a family who spent years on the road entertaining different crowds, it was a story dedicated to family and the love that comes automatically. I really enjoyed this book and recommend all to read it. Dylan and Abby’s story was wonderful and it was one that had me thinking of the characters long after I finished reading it. Ben and Chris are to die for and two of the sweetest boys I have ever had the pleasure of reading about, Nora Roberts does a wonderful job weaving us into this intricate plot to get to the end. There’s lots of ups and a fair share of downs, but the ending is sweet and it ends just as it should end.

LOVED it.

Grade: 4.5 out of 5

This book is available from Sihouette. You can purchase it here or here in e-format. I bought my copy of this book.