9. Come Sundown by Nora Roberts
I’m not much of a romance reader, but my mother is. When I was much younger and living at home if I had no new books in the house and became desperate for something to read I would grab one of my mother’s romance novels off the shelf. I found that for the most part I actually enjoyed Nora Roberts, so when I got the opportunity to read an advanced reader’s copy of Come Sundown I decided I would check it out. It takes place in Montana at a ranch and resort owned by the Longbow family. The story includes multiple generations, multiple love stories, though the main protagonist is Bodine who now runs her family’s resort and an old friend named Cal who returns to Montana to work on the ranch after a long time away. Half of the book is also somewhat of a mystery based on Bodine’s Aunt Alice, who disappeared as a teenager to never be heard from again. The reader knows from the beginning that she was kidnapped and held hostage for all of these years, but is her captor connected to the mysterious murders of young girls that have started happening around the ranch?
I didn’t care that much for this book. All the romances seemed tied up to neatly in bows for me, and while I found the mystery part of the story compelling for awhile once Alice returns home and the story starts focusing on attempting to reintegrate her into the family it just fell flat for me. I give it a 5 out of 10.