Chesapeake Blue by Nora Roberts Published by Penguin on January 27th 2004
Genres: Contemporary Romance
Pages: 368
Format: Hardcover
Welcome to Nora Roberts’ captivating saga about the lives and loves of four brothers on the windswept shores of the Chesapeake Bay…Chesapeake Blue is the fourth novel in a stunning quartet about four men bound by the love of the extraordinary couple who took them in and raised them as brothers. Now, Seth Quinn is finally home…It’s been a long journey. After a harrowing boyhood with his drug-addicted mother, Seth had been taken in by the Quinn family, growing up with three older brothers who’d watched over him with love.Now a grown man returning from Europe as a successful painter, Seth is settling down on Maryland’s Eastern Shore, surrounded once again by Cam, Ethan, and Phil, their wives and children, and all the blessed chaos of the extended Quinn clan. Finally, he’s back in the little blue-and-white house where there’s always a boat at the dock, a rocker on the porch, and a dog in the yard.Still, a lot has changed in St. Christopher’s since he’s been gone—and the most intriguing change of all is the presence of Dru Whitcomb Banks. A city girl who has opened a florist shop in this seaside town, she craves independence and the challenge of establishing herself without the influence of her wealthy connections. In Seth, she sees another kind of challenge—a challenge that she can’t resist.
In Chesepeake Blue, Seth Quinn returns home from Europe. After a successful career as a painter, he knows he needs to return home. Ever since he was fourteen years old, there is a secret that has been haunting him and feels a need to return home and to his family. After a family homecoming that lightens Seth heart and spirit. After overcoming his childhood that was a hellish nightmare, he is now more than ever determined to find joy in life and with his family now that he has returned home for good. Then through a course of fate he meets a woman who runs a florist shop in St Christopher, a woman who he views as a challenge. After meeting her Seth knows he needs to paint her and truly get to know the woman beneath the cool exterior. But there is a rising storm on the horizon, that will come to haunt him and his family if he finds the strength to seek help from those that truly love him.
As I have loved this series, this is the final installment of the series. In this one I read this book “Audio” style. Its been some time since I have listened to a book by Nora Roberts, but I am glad that I did. Of all the brothers of the Quinn family, Seth is definitely my favorite, especially as we see his childhood in the previous three books, we see a terrified little boy who has been sorely treated in his young life, but then is adopted into the Quinn family and shown the value of family and love. Who encouraged him how to work hard and develop his talents, especially his talent for painting which has made him famous world wide. Now as he returns home Then he meets Drusilla, where a passion and a powerful love ignites between them. Drusilla has grown up in a family unit whereas wealth and title mean everything. Having been hurt in the past, she doesn’t dare trust herself to be hurt by love once more. But when she meets Seth, things change, and the ice around her heart melts with every tender caress and kiss. This is a tender story where both Seth and Dru will have to trust in each other and in Seth’s family to overcome the rising challenge that could tear his whole family apart including the new love he has found in his life. This was such a enchanting story, where all the pieces of the puzzle come together and with a full satisfying end that leaves the reader content. So if you love Nora Roberts than you will definitely fall in love with the Quinn family on Chesepeake Bay!
About Nora Roberts
Eleanor Marie Robertson was born on October 10, 1950 in Silver Spring, Maryland, USA. She was the youngest of five children, also the only girl, of a marriage with Irish ancestors. Her family were avid readers, so books were always important in her life. She attended a Catholic school and credits the nuns with instilling in her a sense of discipline. During her sophomore year in high school, she transferred to a local public school, where she met Ronald Aufdem-Brinke, her future first husband.
In August 17, 1968, as soon as she had graduated from high school, Eleanor married, against her parents' wishes; the couple settled in Keedysville, Maryland. Her husband worked at his father's sheet-metal business before joining Nora's parents in their lighting company, while she worked briefly as a legal secretary. "I could type fast but couldn't spell; I was the worst legal secretary ever," she says now. After their sons, Dan and Jason, were born, she stayed home. Calling this her "Earth Mother" years, she spent much of her time doing crafts, including ceramics and sewing her children's clothes. The couple ended up separating; they divorced in January 1985.
In February 1979, a blizzard forced her hand to try another creative outlet. She was snowed in with a three- and a six-year-old with no kindergarten respite in sight and a dwindling supply of chocolate. During the now famous blizzard, she pulled out a pencil and notebook and began to write down one of her stories. It was then that a career was born. Several manuscripts and rejections later, her first book, Irish Thoroughbred, was published by Silhouette in 1981 under the authorship of Nora Roberts, a shortened form of her birth name Eleanor Marie Robertson, because she assumed that all authors had pen names.
Eleanor wrote, under another pseudonym (Jill March), a story titled "Melodies of Love" for a magazine.
Eleanor met her second husband, Bruce Wilder, when she hired him to build bookshelves. They were married in July 1985. Bruce owns and operates a bookstore in Boonsboro, Maryland called "Turn the Page Books". Since getting married, Eleanor and Bruce have expanded their home and traveled the world.
In 1992, she adopted another pseudonym so as to publish a futuristic-suspense novel series. She first decided to use the pseudonym D.J. MacGregor, but discovered that this pseudonym was used by another author. In 1995, her first "In Death" serial novel was published under the pseudonym J.D. Robb. The initials "J.D." were taken from her sons, Jason and Dan, while "Robb" is a shortened form of Roberts.
Eleanor has also been known as Sara Hardesty, because when the "Born In" series was released in U.K. it carried that name instead of Nora Roberts. She has since changed publishers.
Eleanor has been plagiarized by another best-selling romance writer, Janet Dailey. The practice came to light after a reader read Nora Roberts' Sweet Revenge and Janet Dailey's Notorious back-to-back; the reader noticed several similarities and posted the comparable passages on the Internet. Calling the plagiarism "mind rape," Eleanor sued Janet Daily. In 1997, Janet admitted to repeatedly plagiarizing from Nora Roberts' work and that both Aspen Gold and Notorious lifted heavily from Roberts' work. Both of those novels were pulled from print after Janet's admission. She acknowledged the plagiarism and blamed it on a psychological disorder. In a settlement, Janet paid Eleanor an undisclosed sum, which Eleanor donated to the Literacy Volunteers of America.
A founding member of the Romance Writers of America (R.W.A.), Eleanor was the first inductee in the organization's Hall of Fame. She also is a member of several writers' groups and has won countless awards.
