The subject matter – a mass shooting – will no doubt be too difficult/too close for some people to read. She is able to sketch out a relateable character in less than three sentences and that means when something bad happens to them, I care about it. Some are in the book for a very short time indeed but Nora makes me care about them. There are quite a few characters who do not survive. It’s one of the things which always hooks me about her In Death books. Nora Roberts has the ability to make me care about a character in a very few words. Both had their own journeys which eventually brought them to a place (physical and metaphorical) where they were ready and able to be each other’s “one”. That said, it was precisely because I had spent so much time with both Reed and Simone that I sank into their romance so easily. From there, the romance progressed pretty smoothly – the conflict here is not about the relationship.

Because Nora Roberts is the just that good, it was about the time that I started to feel a little antsy that my HEA-loving heart was blessed with Reed and Simone in the same room. But the story hooked me from the opening seconds and for the most part I was too busy being engrossed in what was happening to be tapping my foot impatiently for the main characters to finally meet. I’m all about the HEA of course so one could be forgiven for thinking this bothered me. Though they are both at the DownEast Mall on the night of the shooting, they don’t know each other and their lives take different trajectories for many years. It is a long time before Simone Knox and Reed Quartermaine actually meet. Unlike The Witness, Shelter in Place follows not only the heroine, but also the hero. What worked for me (and what didn’t):Like The Witness in structure, Shelter in Place tracks the main characters from youth, dipping in and out of their timelines until we reach present day. And as the survivors slowly heal, find shelter, and rebuild, they will discover that another conspirator is lying in wait – and this time, there might be nowhere safe to hide. Another would close herself off, trying to bury the memory of huddling in a ladies’ room, hopelessly clutching her cell phone – until she finally found a way to pour her emotions into her art.īut one person wasn’t satisfied with the shockingly high death toll at the DownEast Mall. In the years that followed, one would dedicate himself to a law enforcement career. But for those who lived through it, the effects would last forever. The chaos and carnage lasted only eight minutes before the killers were taken down. Mothers and children shopped together, and the manager at the video-game store tending to customers. A boy flirted with the girl selling sunglasses. Three teenage friends waited for the movie to start.

What it’s about: (from Goodreads) It was a typical evening at a mall outside Portland, Maine. Why I read it: I always buy Nora’s stand alone romantic suspense books.

Shelter in place nora roberts movie