Nora Roberts writes in very different genres that will interest different people to her books. she writes under a pseudonym of J D ROBB and I love this continued story following the lives of Eve Dallas and her husband Roarke. Eve a Lieutenant with the New York City Police and Safety Department, through the trials and tribulations of Eve coming from working class to marrying into money and still wanting to be able to pay her own way and to balance the stresses that she faces with her job as a police officer solving different crimes.
TAKE A LOOK AT THE J.D.ROBB COLLECTION
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Nora Roberts (b. Eleanor Marie Robertson, October 10, 1950 in Silver Spring, Maryland, USA), is a bestselling American author of more than 165 romance novels, and she writes as J.D. Robb for the "In Death" series. She also has written under the pseudonym Jill March, and by error some of her works were published in the UK as Sarah Hardesty.
Nora Roberts was the first author to be inducted into the Romance Writers of America Hall of Fame. As of 2006, her novels had spent a combined 660 weeks on the New York Times Bestseller List, including 100 weeks in the number-one spot. Over 280 million copies of her books are in print, including 12 million copies sold in 2005 alone. Her novels have been published in 35 countries.
Eleanor Marie Robertson was born on October 10, 1950 in Silver Spring, Maryland, the only daughter and the youngest of five children. She is of Irish descent as both of her parents have Irish ancestors, and has described herself as "an Irishwoman through and through". Her family were avid readers, so books were always important in her life. Although she had always made up stories in her head, Roberts did not write as a child, other than essays for school. She does claim to have "told lies. Really good ones -- some of which my mother still believes."She attended a Catholic school and credits the nuns with instilling in her a sense of discipline. During her sophomore year in high school, Roberts transferred to a local public school, Montgomery Blair High School . where she met her first husband, Ronald Aufdem-Brinke. They married, against her parents' wishes, in 1968, as soon as she had graduated from high school.
The newly married couple settled in Keedysville, Maryland. Roberts's husband worked at his father's sheet-metal business before joining her parents in their lighting company. She stayed home with their sons, Dan and Jason. Calling this her "Earth Mother" years, Roberts spent much of her time doing crafts, including ceramics and sewing her children's clothes.The marriage ended in divorce.
Roberts met her second husband, Bruce Wilder, a carpenter, when she hired him to build her bookshelves. They were married in July 1985. Her husband owns and operates a bookstore in Boonsboro, Maryland called Turn the Page Books.The Roberts also owned the nearby historic Boone Hotel, that was undergoing renovations when it was destroyed by a fire in February, 2008. After 3 million dollars in renovations, Inn Boonsboro opened on February 17, 2009
Roberts believes that pursuing a career as a writer requires discipline: "You're going to be unemployed if you really think you just have to sit around and wait for the muse to land on your shoulder." She concentrates on one novel at a time, writing eight hours a day, every day, even while on vacation.Rather than begin with an outline or plot summary, Roberts instead envisions a key incident, character, or setting.She then writes a short first draft that has the basic elements of a story. After finishing the first draft, Roberts goes back to the beginning of the novel. The second draft usually sees the addition of details, the "texture and color" of the work, as well as a more in-depth study of the characters. She then does a final pass to polish the novel before sending it to her agent, Amy Berkower. She often writes trilogies, finishing the three books in a row so that she can remain with the same characters. When possible, she does the same with the "In Death" books, writing three in a row before returning to contemporary romances. Her trilogies are all released in paperback, as Roberts believes the wait for hardcover editions is too long for the reader.
Roberts does much of her research over the internet, as she has an aversion to flying.Despite this she owns property in County Clare, Ireland and visits the country regularly. Some of her novels are set in Ardmore, County Waterford.
She began to write during a blizzard in February, 1979 while housebound with her two small boys. Roberts states that with three feet of snow, a dwindling supply of chocolate, and no morning kindergarten she had little else to do.While writing down her ideas for the first time, she fell in love with the writing process, and quickly produced six manuscripts. She submitted her manuscripts to Harlequin, the leading publisher of romance novels, but was repeatedly rejected. Roberts says, "I got the standard rejection for the first couple of tries, then my favorite rejection of all time. I received my manuscript back with a nice little note which said that my work showed promise, and the story had been very entertaining and well done. But that they already had their American writer. That would have been Janet Dailey."
In 1980, a new publisher, Silhouette books, formed to take advantage of the pool of manuscripts from the many American writers that Harlequin had snubbed. Roberts found a home at Silhouette, where her first novel, Irish Thoroughbred, was published in 1981. She used the pseudonym Nora Roberts, a shortened form of her birth name Eleanor Marie Robertson, because she assumed that all authors had pen names.
Between 1982 and 1984, Roberts wrote 23 novels for Silhouette. They were published under various Silhouette imprints: Silhouette Sensation, Silhouette Special Edition and Silhouette Desire, as well as Silhouette Intrigue, and MIRA's reissue program.[Despite the large number of books she had produced, Roberts did not have real success until 1985, when she released Playing the Odds, the first novel in her MacGregor family series. The book was an immediate bestseller. Sequels followed, and romance readers began to associate her name with multigenerational sagas.
Roberts was instrumental in helping shift the romance novel away from virginal, eighteen-year-old heroines and superficial male portrayals. Her early heroines were much less passive than the norm. Her novels also featured a more in-depth characterization of the hero, because "the books are about two people, and readers should be allowed into the heads and hearts of both."The years spent writing category romance helped hone her ability to create realistic characters. The category romance's short page count forces writers to be able to "paint" their characters "quickly and clearly in a short amount of time."In 1987, she began writing single title books for Bantam. Five years later she moved to Putnam to write single title hard covers as well as original paperbacks.She reached the hardcover bestseller lists with her fourth hardcover release, 1996's Montana Sky. Despite her hardcover success, Roberts has continued to release single-title novels in paperback. Unlike many of her peers who have crossed from category romance to single-title, she still occasionally writes shorter category romances. Her attachment to the shorter category books stems from her years as a young mother of two boys without much time to read, as she "[remembers] exactly what it felt like to want to read and not have time to read 200,000 words."
Roberts and her career were featured in Pamela Regis's A Natural History of the Romance Novel. Regis calls Roberts "a master of the romance novel form, because she "has a keen ear for dialogue, constructs deft scenes, maintains a page-turning pace, and provides compelling characterization." Publishers Weekly lauds her "wry humor and the use of different narrators, two devices that were once rarities" in the romance novel genre.
Many of Roberts's novels deal extensively with families. Roberts believes that her sense of family is an important part of her life and how she developed. Because family is so important in her life, it is also often reflected in her books. Her "characters come from somewhere, and where they come from, good or bad, has a large part in forming who they are and who they can become."
Roberts had long wanted to write romantic suspense novels in the vein of Mary Stewart, but, at the urging of her agent, she concentrated on classic contemporary romance novels while she built a following of readers.After moving to Putnam in 1992, the publishing company quickly realized that they were unable to keep up with Roberts's prolific output. They suggested that she adopt a second pseudonym so that they would be able to publish more of her work each year. Her agent, Amy Berkover, convinced the publishers to allow Roberts to write romantic suspense novels under the new name. Her first romantic suspense novel was published in 1995 under the pseudonym J.D. Robb. The initials "J.D." were taken from her older sons, Jason and Dan, while "Robb" is a shortened form of Roberts. She first decided to use the pseudonym D.J. MacGregor, but right before publication, she discovered that this pseudonym was used by another author.
As J.D. Robb, Roberts has published a series of futuristic science fiction police procedurals. These books, all part of the "In Death" series, feature NYPSD Detective Eve Dallas and her husband Roarke and are set in a mid-21st century New York City. Despite the emphasis on solving a crime in each of the books, the overall theme of the series is the development of the relationship between Eve and Roarke. When the "In Death" series began, neither Roberts nor her publisher acknowledged that she was in fact the author. They hoped to allow the series to stand on its own merits and build its own following. It did, and when readers discovered that Roberts was in fact Robb there was little outcry.
After publishing 18 novels in the "In Death" series, Putnam published the nineteenth, Divided in Death first in hardcover. The book became Roberts's first bestselling novel of 2004.
As of December 2009, Roberts had published 36 books in the In Death series, with more scheduled.
She wrote a story for a magazine titled "Melodies of Love" under the pseudonym Jill March.
Roberts has also been known as Sara Hardesty. When the "Born In" series was released in Britain it carried that name instead of Nora Roberts. She has since changed publishers.
Roberts is remarkably prolific—in 1996 she passed the hundred-novel mark with Montana Sky. In both 1999 and 2000, four of the five novels that USAToday listed as the best-selling romance novels of the year were written by Roberts. Her first appearance on the New York Times Bestseller List came in 1991,and between 1991 and 2001, she had 68 New York Times Bestsellers, counting hardbacks and paperbacks. The New York Times did not review any of those novels. In 2001, Roberts had 10 best-selling mass-market paperbacks, according to Publishers Weekly, not counting those books written under the J.D. Robb name. In September 2001, for the first time Roberts took the numbers 1 and 2 spots on the Publishers Weekly bestseller list, as her romance Time and Again was number one, and her J.D. Robb release Seduction in Death was number two.
Since 1999, every one of Roberts's novels has been a New York Times bestseller, and 124 of her novels have ranked on the Times bestseller list, including twenty-nine that debuted in the number-one spot. As of 2006, Roberts's novels had spent a combined 660 weeks on the New York Times Bestseller List, including 100 weeks in the number-one spot. Oddly enough, outside of the United States she is marketed by a single woman, Judy Piatkus of the independently-run company Piatkus Books, which publishes about 150 books a year. Over 280 million copies of her books are in print, including 12 million copies sold in 2005 alone. Her novels have been published in 35 countries.
A founding member of the Romance Writers of America (RWA), Roberts was the first inductee in the organization's Hall of Fame. As of 2006, she has won an unprecedented 19 of the RWA's RITA Awards, the highest honor given in the romance genre.
Two of Roberts' novels, Sanctuary and Magic Moments, had previously been made into TV movies. In 2007, Lifetime Television adapted four Nora Roberts novels into TV movies: Angels Fall starring Heather Locklear, Montana Sky starring Ashley Williams, Blue Smoke starring Alicia Witt, and Carolina Moon starring Claire Forlani. This was the first time that Lifetime had adapted multiple works by the same author.[31] Four more films were released on four consecutive Saturdays in March and April 2009. The 2009 collection included Northern Lights starring LeAnn Rimes, Midnight Bayou starring Jerry O'Connell, High Noon starring Emilie de Ravin, and Tribute starring Brittany Murphy.
Time Magazine named Roberts one of their 100 Most Influential People in 2007, saying she "has inspected, dissected, deconstructed, explored, explained and extolled the passions of the human heart." Roberts was one of only two authors on the list, the other being David Mitchell.
In 1997, another best-selling romance writer, Janet Dailey, admitted to repeatedly plagiarizing Roberts' work. The practice came to light after a reader read Roberts' Sweet Revenge and Dailey's Notorious back-to-back; she noticed several similarities and posted the comparable passages on the Internet. Calling the plagiarism "mind rape," Roberts sued Dailey.[7] Dailey acknowledged the plagiarism and blamed it on a psychological disorder. She admitted that both Aspen Gold and Notorious lifted heavily from Roberts's work. Both of those novels were pulled from print after Dailey's admission.In April 1998, Dailey settled the case. Although terms were not released, Roberts had previously indicated that any settlement funds should be donated to the Literacy Volunteers of America.
In January 2008, Roberts joined the chorus strongly criticizing fellow romance writer Cassie Edwards, who had lifted many passages from much older sources (many in the public domain), without giving credit, forcing Edwards out of the business.
THIS IS A BOOK REVIEW ABOUT HER FIRST BOOK IN THE DEATH SERIES...
Several years ago, I picked up Naked in Death by J.D. Robb, the first book in a series. I had heard a lot of good things about the series and decided to finally pick up one of the books. I loved the book and quickly decided to read the rest of the books. I’ve been hooked on the series ever since and now pick up the new books as they are released. I recently decided to start re-reading the books even though I still have all kinds of other books around to read.
I want to share a little bit of general information about the In Death series before I talk specifically about Naked in Death. The series is set in the future and many things have changed. The police used tasers and guns were illegal. Murders were still committed in other ways. Prostitution was legal and prostitutes were called licensed companions. Body sculpting procedures replaced exercising for many rich people. Cars still drove on the ground though they had the ability to fly as well. Colonies and vacation destinations were located in space and space travel was common. People used a machine called an Auto Chef instead of actually cooking food. They just had to push a few buttons and the fully cooked item would come out. One of those things would be very handy to have. I enjoy reading about the futuristic gadgets that were created for this series.
Eve Dallas, a lieutenant on the New York police force, got a high profile case involving special security measures. Only one other detective, Ryan Feeney, was assigned. He and Eve had worked together in the past when he trained her to become a detective. He was now in charge of the Electronic Detective Division. Sharon DeBlass, a licensed companion and granddaughter of a Senator, was found murdered in her apartment. She’d been shot several times, something that Eve hadn’t seen before since guns had been illegal for more than twenty years. Sharon’s grandfather was putting pressure on the force to catch her killer which trickled down to Eve since she was the detective in charge of the case. Eve discovered that Sharon had some kind of connection to Roarke, a billionaire that owned many businesses around the world and off planet as well. Roarke had a collection of guns, something else that made Eve want to talk to him. There was an attraction between them from the beginning that Eve tried to deny since he was involved in the investigation. Other licensed companions were discovered murdered and the case was complicated more by other connections to Roarke. Eve had to decide if she should trust Roarke and follow the attraction while trying to solve the murders under growing scrutiny.
Naked in Death followed Eve’s investigation into Sharon’s murder and later the other licensed companions, which provided the mystery for the book. The case was one of the more complicated ones that Eve had worked on because of who Sharon was which lead to all the extra security measures within the force. Sharon’s grandfather was a very powerful man that wanted results in the investigation immediately and felt that he had the right to butt in on the investigation and have Eve tell him everything she knew about what was going on. The case got more complicated after Eve met Roarke and found herself attracted to him even though she considered him a suspect at that time. I thought that the mystery was strong and interesting. Several aspects of Eve’s investigation were shared and how the police did things in the future were shared. I thought that the book was suspenseful and it kept my interest. One thing was predictable since I was already aware of there being several other books with the same main characters when I read first read this one. That didn’t bother me and was the only thing I did think was predictable in the book. Eve was also having to deal with some issues related to how a previous case had ended. That didn’t have a big impact in what was going on other than to pop up again at a bad time to cause more trouble for Eve. There was some violence in a few scenes. All of the dead bodies were described once they were found. Those descriptions might be too detailed for some readers. Some of the encounter between the killer and one of the victims was also shared. People that are bothered by violence in books may want to pick a different book to read.
Eve and Roarke met because of the murder investigation. They were attracted to each other and ended up starting a relationship even though it really wasn’t the best time to do that. Eve and Roarke were different types of people that shared some similarities in their troubled childhoods that they over came. They did tend to look at things differently. Both were wary of starting a relationship, though Roarke accepted his growing feelings much faster than Eve did. He seemed to always be the one who did something to move their relationship to the next step. Even though Eve tried to avoid it, they started a sexual relationship. There were a few sex scenes between them in the book. The scenes were very descriptive. I didn’t think they were too graphic, but some readers may feel differently. The book wasn’t loaded with sex scenes, but people that are offended by those types of scenes may not want to read this one. I didn’t feel that the growing relationship between Eve and Roarke distracted from the mystery of the book. Since the case that Eve was investigating dealt with licensed companions, some things related to that were also shared, including a small amount of what happened when one of the women met a client.
Since Naked in Death was the first book in a series that is still going strong after more than twenty books, several of the future returning characters were first introduced in this book. Eve was the main character and in almost every scene. She was a dedicated detective that felt it was important to get justice for the dead. She really had no life outside of her job before she met Roarke. She suffered from frequent nightmares related to events in her childhood. She was a likable character even though she did have a bit of an attitude at times. She struggled in dealing with people, especially if she was in a relationship with them. Even though Roarke wasn’t in as much of the book, it was clear that he was important to what was going on and would be important in future books. He was a very rich man that had secrets related to his shady past. He distrusted cops in general but still wanted to pursue a relationship with Eve.
Mavis was Eve’s best friend. Mavis worked as a singer in a dive of a nightclub and frequently changed her hair color. She was very outgoing, free spirited, and a bit flamboyant, the complete opposite of Eve. The two women had still managed to develop a friendship, really the only one that Eve had outside of work. Summerset was Roarke’s butler. The two men had known each other for a long time. Summerset was very loyal to Roarke and didn’t really care for Eve. She shared his feelings. Ryan Feeney was the cop that had trained Eve before she became a detective. The two remained friends once Feeney transferred to a different division. Feeney didn’t like Roarke when they first met. Nadine was a reporter after a big story. She was professional and willing to wait to air her story, though she did want exclusive information from Eve in return. Dr. Mira was the psychiatrist for the police department. Cops had to visit her after incidents on the job. Dr. Mira also developed profiles of suspects. She was concerned about Eve and her obsession with her job. Charles Monroe was a licensed companion that lived in the same building as Sharon. The two had been friends. He acted like he was interested in Eve.
J.D. Robb is the name that Nora Roberts uses to write the In Death series. I once read that she decided to use a different name for the series because she wanted to see if it would take off just based on the merits of the book and not her name since she was already established as a successful author at the time. The books in the In Death series are very similar to the ones she writes under her own name. Both sets of books are well written, descriptive, and have well developed characters. The older Nora Roberts books aren’t as good in any of those areas, but that’s to be expected since she was just getting started writing then. I started reading the In Death series and once I read all of them that were out, I moved on to other Nora Roberts books. Really the only difference between the books is that the series is set in the future and has stronger mysteries than her other books tend to have. The book Remember When is listed as being written by Nora Roberts and J.D. Robb. The first part of the book took place in current time and then the book jumped forward to Eve’s time for another mystery that was connected to the first half of the book. Eve's part of Remember When took place between Imitation in Death and Divided in Death.
BY dragonfire88's
