I was at dinner with some friends and of course the conversation turned to books. There was an audible *gasp* when they found out I'd never read a Nora Roberts novel. So... the next time we got together, one of these lovely ladies brought me this one knowing that I typically like mysteries and thrillers. I admit I was very skeptical; I thought most of hers were purely romance and that isn't a genre I enjoy (no shade, just not my jam). It started a little slow for me and I'll admit I was a little confused, not sure who was talking or what was going on, a lot of jumping around which wasn't clear if it was a different time or happening simultaneously etc... I quickly got myself sorted and was able to start enjoying the book. It was a little slow, I knew there was going to be a mystery element but it took its time getting there. One thing I absolutely loved about this is the setting...Northern Exposure (I'm showing my age LOL) was one of my favorite shows and this town was almost exactly like the setting of that show, including some of the characters, so I was very charmed by that. The mystery itself wasn't as big a deal as I was hoping it was, but it was still a mystery, there was quite a bit of murder actually, and I was wrong about who the killer was so that was interesting. I will caution there is violence against animals in this, so if that's a trigger for you, I would skip it. All in all I really enjoyed this, the spicy scenes weren't that much so it was tolerable LOL. I would recommend this book to anyone looking for a nice, easy, smooth read that ends satisfactorily and has a bit of everything. I might even read more from this author.