I just finished reading Red Lily...by Nora Roberts

The first book was Blue Dahlia, and the second Black Rose and the last in the trilogy was Red Lily.

I enjoyed all three. Nora's books for me are comfort. Like visiting with an old friend. Her books have comforted me in a lot of stressful times in my life. Rarely does she disappoint me. I know what to expect when I pick up Nora's books. I'm not an avid fan of her J.D. Robb series, it's a bit much for me. Mostly I love how she writes about families.

Nora Roberts is a GREAT story teller. Is her technique perfect? Not by a long shot but she can spin a good yarn. She can hold my attention and make me stay up all night just to turn another page to see what's going to happen next.

Not everyone loves her books like I do and I'm not so far gone that I can't look at her writing objectively. I can. I see the little things. The head hopping (that does not bother me) the easy fixes and the sometimes weak plot lines.

But her stories are not about intricate plots, and perfect technique. No, her books are about emotion and heart and at it the root of it family.

And damn it, she can pull me in faster than a philly cheesteak sandwich at the fair. She has the inanate ability to make me care about her characters. What happens to them, what they have to go through. There are few authors that can do that for me. I'm getting pretty picky in my old age. My neice loves her books too...probably just as much as she loves Nicholas Sparks.

The one great thing I admire is her ability to tell a story within a story. Layering it...spreading it out and dropping clues here and there and by Gawd making you wish you'd waited until all the books in a trilogy were out to start reading them. She did a great job with this in this last series. I love the paranormal overtones, and she even managed to scare me a bit. I slept with the t.v. on last night. (laughing)and lost a good bit of sleep.

Not everyone loves her stuff, especially other writers, but I do. She has a great gift for characterization. A sweet and truly inspiring gift for making characters leap off the page and making you believe that you know them, would recognize them if you saw them in the grocery store. That takes some serious talent in my book. I can over look all the other stuff. Yeppers, I sure can.

But best of all? She made me want to write again. So I have to say thanks Nora...for making my fingers itch to get back to my keyboard.