Nightwork was a wonderful amazing uplifting story that held my attention from beginning to end; as Harry’s life totally captivated me. Nightwork had a bit of everything, romance, suspense, mystery, family, friendship, as well as the many exciting adventures along the way. Though he was a thief that started when he was a child helping his mother, Harry was always a good guy. Nightwork was so very well written by Nora Roberts. I wholly suggest you read this fantastic book. Harry is also just kind of blah. I also wasn't in the mood to root for a thief. I feel like a little bit this was a little of her trying to do another "Roarke" type character for her readers. We all know that Roarke started off stealing as a kid and of course got involved with criminal gangs in Ireland and then New York. Most of the dialogue and circumstances about him I think were supposed to read as thief with heart of gold, but I just kept rolling my eyes. Also Harry does have "relations" with other women in this book so when you get to the whole "heroine" in this one you wonder why it even matters. I will add that I think that most of the books where Nora just follows a "hero" it does not work as well for me, see my review of "Shelter in Place." href: https://api.overdrive.com/v1/collections/L1BLQAAAA2a/products/55c01898-08ca-406d-97ca-976e1c054a7a/metadata Harry Booth started stealing at nine to keep a roof over his ailing mother's head, slipping into luxurious, empty homes at night to find items he could trade for precious cash. When his mother finally succumbed to cancer, he left Chicago--but kept up his nightwork. We grow up with Booth and watch his talents as a thief evolve until he actually gets a rep (a good one) amongst the underground and attracts the attention of a man, LaPorte, who begins to think of Booth as much of a possession as the art and baubles he hires Booth to steal. But Booth has no plans to be anyone's possession.

I finally had the time to read this book. And I ended up reading it in one sitting!!!!! It was SO GOOD!!!!! This one just wasn't for me :(. I want to feel conflicted about rooting for a morally grey character but I just didn't feel anything for Booth. So of you do like him, then this could be a winner for you! href: https://img1.od-cdn.com/ImageType-400/2390-1/{55C01898-08CA-406D-97CA-976E1C054A7A}IMG400.JPG From mystics and soothsayers to madmen and mountebanks, prophets people many of my very favourite books and stories. Here are some of them.

For me, the sign of an awesome author is one who changes the tide of the story with such subtlety that you do not even realize it is happening. FYI, I almost DNFed this thing four times. It was painful to get through. The flow was so bad. I did start to skim towards the halfway point because I found myself not caring a whit about what was going on. Also as others have pointed out this book skips forward in time a lot and changes locations. It honestly reminds me somewhat or some of her older books like "Risky Business". I know she's done the time jump thing before, but think that only "Under Currents" has done it to great effect in her latest books. I think that's because we stayed with the hero for a time period before moving to the present day. And we didn't stay long in the "past" either before shifting things forward in the story. Eventually the book does stop flip flopping around which helped with my reading. A thoughtful exploration of one thief’s motivations and relationships, featuring a healthy dose of romance and suspense.

Mantel does something brilliant in this book: identifying the analogy between the prophetic experience – living outside time – and the experience of trauma. Alison Hart – a medium and survivor of childhood abuse – lives between worlds, between the past and the present, between the living and the dead, between the astral plane and Aldershot. The characters are not developed at all. We also have insta-love which I don't recall Roberts doing for ages in her stand-alones. The fact that the lead male commits crimes might be difficult for some readers to accept easily. But Harry Booth is not your usual down and dirty thief. I know – I know -- you’re thinking that a crime is a crime and should not go unpunished. But it’s fiction! And it’s Nora Roberts!! And the writing is marvelous!!! And the story equally so!!!!

5681

I’m really surprised at the 4 and 5 stars people are giving this book. There was no spark and honestly the hero of the story, the thief, was one of the most boring characters ever. I think I have to quit buying NR’s books which I’ve been reading since she started writing. The odd thing is that her JD Robb books keep getting better and better. The prophet at the heart of Tressell’s masterpiece is Frank, a socialist agitator who spends most of the novel trying and failing to rouse the slumbering lions of labour. We and he can see what has gone wrong in the penury-stalked world of unfettered, early 20th-century capitalism. But his fellow characters – mainly – cannot. Owen leaves the scene at the end of the novel to seek more fertile ground for his message. It ends, however, with a remarkably eschatological epilogue: “Mankind … is at last looking upward to the light… that will be diffused throughout all the happy world from the rays of the risen sun of Socialism.”