Review: The Liar by Nora Roberts (audio)

Title: The Liar
Author: Nora Roberts
Narrator: January LaVoy
Published: April 2015, Brilliance Audio
Length: 16 hours 41 minutes
Source: Publisher

The extraordinary new novel by the #1 New York Times–bestselling author of The Collector.

Shelby Foxworth lost her husband. Then she lost her illusions …

The man who took her from Tennessee to an exclusive Philadelphia suburb left her in crippling debt. He was an adulterer and a liar, and when Shelby tracks down his safe-deposit box, she finds multiple IDs. The man she loved wasn’t just dead. He never really existed.

Shelby takes her three-year-old daughter and heads south to seek comfort in her hometown, where she meets someone new: Griff Lott, a successful contractor. But her husband had secrets she has yet to discover. Even in this small town, surrounded by loved ones, danger is closer than she knows—and threatens Griff, as well. And an attempted murder is only the beginning …

My thoughts: I really enjoy Nora Roberts and her stand-alone, romantic suspense novels. They are definitely on my auto-reads, or lately, my auto listens, as I really end up enjoying them. She creates such enjoyable, realistic stories with great characters and I find myself completely engaged in the story.

Shelby is a very likeable and relatable character and I really felt for her during this story. I can't even imagine myself in her position and it seemed that at every point, things kept getting worse for her. The other characters, too, really helped round out this story, including Griff - could you make a better compliment to Shelby in light of what is going on? He is everything her ex is not and more. Even the secondary characters are crafted in such a way as to provide a necessary role in the book. Like them or not, they were all great and all got what they deserved.

While this story does follow some predictable patterns, I still enjoyed it. I figured out early on the mystery aspect, but still it didn't detract in any way from the book, especially the last part when you really see just how crazy and sick the culprit really is. The pace was great - a slow start with a fast, furious ending that kept my attention the entire time.

Audio Thoughts: January LaVoy did a great job with this narration. Not really familiar with a Tennessee accent, I think she did a good southern accent, and she gave each character their own voice, including sweet, little Callie, whose voice just melted my heart. I haven't listened to too many audio productions with January LaVoy narrating and I aim to change that soon - I'll definitely be checking out what else she narrates!