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Binding: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780399155819
Edition: First Edition
ISBN: 0399155813
Label: Putnam Adult
Manufacturer: Putnam Adult
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 480
Publication Date: July 07, 2009
Publisher: Putnam Adult
Studio: Putnam Adult
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Product Description:
#1 New York Times-bestselling author Nora Roberts takes us deep into the rugged Black Hills of South Dakota, where the shadows keep secrets, hunters stalk the land, and a childhood friendship matures into an adult passion.
Asummer at his grandparents' South Dakota ranch is not eleven-year-old Cooper Sullivan's idea of a good time. But things are a bit more bearable now that he's discovered the neighbor girl, Lil Chance, and her homemade batting cage. Even horseback riding isn't as awful as Coop thought it would be. Each year, with Coop's annual summer visit, their friendship deepens from innocent games to stolen kisses, but there is one shared experience that will forever haunt them: the terrifying discovery of a hiker's body.
As the seasons change and the years roll, Lil stays steadfast to her dreams of becoming a wildlife biologist and protecting her family land, while Coop struggles with his father's demand that he attend law school and join the family firm. Twelve years after they last walked together hand in hand, fate has brought them back to the Black Hills when the people and things they hold most dear need them most.
An investigator in New York, Coop recently left his fastpaced life to care for his aging grandparents and the ranch he has come to call home. Though the memory of his touch still haunts her, Lil has let nothing stop her dream of opening the Chance Wildlife Refuge, but something . . . or someone . . . has been keeping a close watch. When small pranks and acts of destruction escalate into the heartless killing of Lil's beloved cougar, recollections of an unsolved murder in these very hills have Coop springing to action to keep Lil safe.
Lil and Coop both know the natural dangers that lurk in the wild landscape of the Black Hills. But now they must work together to unearth a killer of twisted and unnatural instincts who has singled them out as prey.
Average Rating: 
Rating:  -
This is the first novel I've read by Nora Roberts, and I am impressed. Two-fisted, steak and potatoes writing, with interesting relationship tensions. Her way of getting inside the male characters' minds is the most intriguing feature. From what I know of the Black Hills, the setting is very true to life. Roberts' only mistake is the claim that cougers don't stalk humans. There are many examples of big cats preying on humans in the Western US.
Rating: -
Nora Roberts delivers another quality romantic suspense on the verge of the American west. It begins in the summer of 1987, when 12-year-old Cooper Sullivan spends his first summer in the Black Hills. He's resentful at first, abandoned by his parents while they vacation in Europe. His wonderful grandparents and neighbor girl, Lil Chance, soon have him changing his mind about country life, though, and he learns to ride horses and care for animals. Over the years, cooper and Lily become best friends and, eventually, lovers, but their paths were headed in different directions and Coop eventually broke it off.
Lil spends the next several years realizing her dream of building a wildlife refuge and getting the experience and education to do so. Cooper returns to New York and becomes a cop, then a private investigator until his grandfather's accident brings him back to the Black Hills. The old flame between Coop and Lil ignites immediately, but Lil isn't quite so quick to get over her broken heart. She is forced to put up with Coop's presence, though, when it becomes evident that someone has her in his sights and she needs protection. A serial killer keeps returning to the Black Hills, and Coop believes he's been working his way up to a challenging prize like Lil.
I caught a couple of small snafus, like one character apparently being in a very early morning class on 9/11, and another character is grateful they haven't started spring planting yet in a March hail storm, when planting in that part of the world doesn't begin until later in the year anyway. It's still winter in March in the Upper Midwest. As a longtime Roberts reader, I've noticed a few pet phrases that seem to show up in every book, as well as the way everyone is incredibly open about even their most private emotions. It's a bit like having a friend with a wearingly familiar catchphrase that gets more and more noticeable over time. Roberts fans have been grumbling about lower quality in her books of late, but I thought this one held a pretty high standard. After a couple lackluster JD Robbs and a disappointing trilogy, it was refreshing. I love the Black Hills and appreciated the way the locals' viewpoint was highlighted here with a smattering of historical background, while largely ignoring the touristy aspects. Mount Rushmore barely gets a mention. In all, though I probably liked some of her earlier stuff better, this was a pretty decent read and the kind of book we look to Nora Roberts for.
Rating:  -
i've read this book, from cover to cover, 4 times since i received it. i believe its one on the best stories i've ever read.
i keep thinking her stories can't get any better...but they do.
i have almost all of her books and have reread several.....i also love her j d robb stories. nora is th greatest...
Rating: -
When Cooper Sullivan is sent to his grandparents farm in the black hills of South Dakota for the summer he expects to die of boredom. But things perk up when he meets Lil, the neighbors' daughter, who's a tomboy as well as a crack baseball player. Coop returns to the black hills for several summers and the two kids mature and fall in love, but are haunted by the discovery of a murdered hiker's body. However, Lil looks forward to spending her life with Coop, but when he returns to the East permanently one year he seems to forget her, and they drift apart. Then many years later Coop comes back to the black hills as a private investigator and finds Lil has become a noted biologist, who now runs a wildlife refuge and is devoted to saving her family's land.
She wants nothing to do with Coop at first, remembering how he'd hurt her, but gradually his persistence wears her down and she begins to trust him again. They now look forward to a life together but a crazed killer has other ideas and they are soon fighting for their lives. Another exciting fast-spaced story for the millions of Nora Roberts' fans and an interesting picture of the black hills.
Rating: -
This was a really great book. I couldn't put it down once I started. I am a big fan of her books. I recently read Tribute and Angels Fall and they were also really good. I think I finished each book in about a week that's how good they are. I can't wait to by my next book.
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