Review: Angels Fall – Nora Roberts

SYNOPSIS: Reece Gilmore has come a long way to see the stunning view below her. As the sole survivor of a brutal crime back East, she has been on the run, desperately fighting the nightmares and panic attacks that haunt her. Reece settles in Angel’s Fist, Wyoming-temporarily, at least-and takes a job at a local diner. And now she’s hiked this mountain all by herself. It was glorious, she thought, as she peered through her binoculars at the Snake River churning below.

Then Reece saw the man and woman on the opposite bank. Arguing. Fighting. And suddenly, the man was on top of the woman, his hands around her throat . . .

Enjoying a moment of solitude a bit farther down the trail is a gruff loner named Brody. But by the time Reece reaches him and brings him to the scene, the pair has vanished. When authorities comb the area where she saw the attack, they find nothing. No signs of struggle. No freshly turned earth. Not even a tire track.

And no one in Angel’s Fist seems to believe her. After all, she’s a newcomer in town, with a reputation for being jumpy and jittery-maybe even a little fragile. Maybe it’s time to run again, to move on . . .

Reece Gilmore knows there’s a killer in Angel’s Fist, even if Brody, despite his seeming impatience and desire to keep her at arm’s length, is the only one willing to believe her. When a series of menacing events makes it clear that someone wants her out of the way, Reece must put her trust in Brody-and herself-to find out if there is a killer in Angel’s Fist before it’s too late. – via Goodreads

Alrighty, another Roberts recommendation from Natasha, and another one that I enjoyed. I don’t know, it was more of a meandering romance than a thriller, although Roberts worked in some of those aspects. I liked Angels Fall because it wasn’t overly soppy (I just don’t even) and there were quite a few characters to enjoy, not just the main. While Reece was alright, she certainly wasn’t my favourite. I was a fan of Joanie, the woman was pretty hardcore and strong, which I liked. She reminded me of Ellen in Supernatural, and that is a huge compliment. Anyway, the villain was fairly obvious quite early on, and Roberts spent a lot of time trying to make other people look guilty, but it never really fit like the actual bad guy. The book doesn’t rush anywhere or go anywhere, really, just tells the story of this girl who moves into a new town and starts putting her life back together while falling in love with an author. She has some serious psychological issues that she needs to deal with, and I would really have liked it more if Roberts had actually spent some time fleshing out Reece’s history and what exactly happened to her, it might have made me care more about her in the present happenings as well as give a deeper understanding of her mental state. Maybe that’s just because I studied psychology. But still. The small town atmosphere was both endearing and smothering, but I liked it. The book is very long, much longer than is actually required for the scant story, so like I said, it is like reading all about this woman’s journey to falling in love and settling down and fighting for herself back, but again, I wish we knew more of the fight. The romance at least never got out of hand, but I have to say the relationship is typically one of those ridiculous ones from a movie/paperback – couple doesn’t want to fall in love, they do, they fight, they bend each other and break the other’s will, realise they cannot live without each other, yap yap. But still, I can’t put my finger on exactly why I enjoyed this one as much as I did, but it was a decent read from her, not one of her super sketchy forest fuck fests again.