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    Blue Smoke
    Blue Smoke
    Blue Smoke
    Audiobook15 hours

    Blue Smoke

    Written by Nora Roberts

    Narrated by Joyce Bean

    4/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    Incomparable #1 New York Times bestselling author Nora Roberts delivers a tale of gut-level fear, human triumph, and the bonds that carry us through our darkest times…

    Reena Hale’s destiny was shaped in the destructive—yet fascinatingly beautiful—fire that leveled her family’s pizzeria when she was young. Now an arson investigator, she finds her strength and wits constantly tested, although sometimes the job seems like a snap compared to her love life. But she can’t always blame the men. After all, a soot-caked woman barking orders and smelling of smoke isn’t the biggest turn-on in the world. Then she meets Bo Goodnight, who seems different. He’s been trying to find Reena for years, and now that she’s close enough to touch, he has no intention of letting go.

    Nor does the man who has begun to haunt Reena’s life—with taunting phone calls and a string of horrifying crimes. And as Reena tries desperately to trace the origins—of the calls, the fires, the hatred aimed in her direction—she will step into the worst inferno she has ever faced...

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBrilliance Audio
    Release dateOct 4, 2005
    ISBN9781597109291
    Blue Smoke
    Author

    Nora Roberts

    Nora Roberts is a bestselling author of more than 209 romance novels. She was the first author to be inducted into the Romance Writers of America Hall of Fame. As of 2011, her novels had spent a combined 861 weeks on the New York Times Bestseller List, including 176 weeks in the number-one spot. Over 280 million copies of her books are in print, including 12 million copies sold in 2005 alone.

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    Reviews for Blue Smoke

    4/5

    667 ratings29 reviews

    What did you think?

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    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 5/5
      Just a great read. I really enjoyed the family bonds in the story
    • 5/5
      Truly a Nora Roberts winner. Always love a good story and this one keeps you listening non stop!
    • 3/5
      I am normally a big NR fan, but this one was hard. The book was interesting, but I couldn't hardly take the detail on the murder of the widow. It was awful, and made me have some pretty bad flashbacks from my past. I wish I would've known to skip through that. It was horrible.
    • 3/5
      Slow beginning and a hurried ending. Still a good book
    • 5/5
      This is one of my favorite books of Nora Roberts
    • 3/5
      Blue Smoke has an intense storyline, yet the most important part of the story goes by to fast that it is a little difficult to understand what is happening.
    • 4/5
      Years of tradgedy always surrounded by fire...I love the way Nora Roberts has us become a part of a strong Italian family...has them wrap around our hearts and brings us on a ride of fear and suspense...I am just now starting to breath at a normal pace...
    • 3/5
      I'm a Nora Roberts fan, but this wasn't one of my favorites. It might have been better if it was 50-75 pages less, because I was starting to say "hey, don't you get it!" The main character was supposed to be so bright, etc etc but it took her almost to the end to figure out who was behind the terror, when I knew from the beginning.
    • 4/5
      How does Nora Roberts know so much about so many topics?This story is about a fire that burns down a family restaurant -- and how it changes both the arsonist's son and the victims's daughter, both of whom become obsessed with fire.
    • 5/5
      I can never, and I mean never, miss a book from Nora Roberts. Her books are like the chocolate cake you can't say no to, the potato chip you can't have one of, the sale happening at your favorite store you can't miss out on! An story about a young girl who grows to learn about fire and meets two men who will very much change her life and close certain chapters she didn't know she had opened. Mysterious, family-oriented and romantic, this book can't and won't disappoint fan everywhere.
    • 2/5
      the one where she is an arson investigator and he is a carpenter!

      I was a little disturbed by the scene at the end where the bad guy rapes and then burns to death a nice widowed lady. Was not expecting to find that or the word "cunt" in a Nora Roberts book!
      Not that I'm against swearing in books, just found it surprising.
    • 5/5
      This one made it on TV as a movie on Lifetime, but television version was disappointing after reading Robert's skillfully crafted story of a female arson inspector who keeps loosing the men in her life.
    • 4/5
      This reminds me so much of her J.D. Robb In Death series. Exactly what I would expect from our loved Nora Roberts. Predictable, but in a way that's like a breath of fresh air.
    • 4/5
      Idealized characters. A bit 'sappy', but could not put it down.
    • 3/5
      A good easy read with interesting characters and taut myetery and plot. Definately one of her better novels.
    • 4/5
      Reena has a dream of becoming an arson investigator after her parents' pizzeria is burned when she was a little kid. Along the way she meets some men who tickle her fancy but they meet unfortunate endings and Reena suspects it's the same boy who attacked her and burned her parents' business. Now it's just a matter of proving it.Nora Roberts, from the majority I have read, has a usual "feel-good" quality to her novels. But this one has a lot of tragedy and heartbreak that gives it an extra emotional factor. There were actually a few times where I cried and I felt that it would be hard to make this story into a positive one after what Reena had been through. A theme that really hit me, whether it was intentional or not through Nora, was the female empowerment. I felt that this is what really kept the ending a classic Nora Roberts ending. If Reena wouldn't have been such a strong female character, I wouldn't have enjoyed anywhere near as much as I did. Another factor I really enjoyed was that the main male character, Bo Goodnight, had fallen for Reena the first time he saw her, which happened to be at the beginning of the novel. They don't end up finding one another until much later but I thought it was so cute that his love-at-first-sight endured many years until they finally found one another.Also for those who like movies, this was made into a Lifetime movie. It wasn't anything epic but it was a cute little movie for one of those snowy or rainy days.
    • 5/5
      One of my favorite Nora Roberts'. Fast paced, great secondary characters, interesting subject matter with enough details so that you feel it is more that a plot ploy. The killer's backstory, so closely linked to the heroine, is a compelling one, and he is genuinely insane, but not stupid with it. The romance is great, with that little spin, and as always the families in this book and their interactions really round out the story. As always, Nora never lets me down!
    • 5/5
      I am not a Nora Roberts fan. Their are many of her books I have tried to read and could only read the first few chapters before putting them down. I really want to like Nora Roberts, so many people rave about her books but I just can not get into a lot of them. Their is one series she wrote that I loved and it will stay in my top reads forever and that was her In The Garden Trilogy- Blue Dahlia, Black Rose, and Red Lily- and now I can add Blue Smoke to my favorites of Nora Roberts books. From page one when Reena sees the fire of her families business in the middle of the night, to her losing her boyfriends to horrible fires. This was truly an amazing book and a fun read that kept me entertained on each page.
    • 5/5
      Aw, this is good. This is Nora Roberts at her best. She writes wonderfully. Tense and suspenseful, characters so individual and concise, and humour just to keep the balance right. When she writes about the heroine's family, always, there is warmth surrounding this reader's feelgood heart. The climax was nailbiting and going into the mind of a murdering rapist wtih a penchant for setting fires was scary but compelling..
    • 5/5
      While I haven't read every one of Ms. Roberts works I must state that I have read quite a few. I absolutely adore her way with words and the way she moves a story along without being obvious. Since many other reviewers have given a synopsis of this book I will limit myself to comments on the whole. Fully rounded characters were what first grabbed my attention. It is through the central character's interaction with those around her that we learn of the events that have brought her to the present day and why she is so fiercely independent. Ms. Roberts attention to details is one of the many things I love about her writing. Not too wordy, not too sparse, just enough to give you a perfect picture of the who or where she is describing. In Blue Smoke she is absolutely eloquent in her descriptions of fire, especially how it is perceived by some as a living thing. Her heroine, Reena, and the nemesis, Joey, are actually cut from a bit of the same cloth but the fine line between madness and sanity is what sets them apart. Both are drawn to fire because of its power but one is drawn to its capacity to harm while the other is searching for a way to quench the powerful beast. The Hale family is down to earth as they rally to protect their own. The Pastorelli family is as dysfunctional as they come. Thrown into the mix is a wonderful leading man named Bo Goodnight (with a name like that you know he rides the white horse). Suspense piled up as this reader tried to figure out where the arsonist would set his next, premeditated fire. I literally held my breath when Reena and Joey finally confronted each other. I truly enjoyed this book. The final couple of chapters are definitely not for the squeamish but I didn't think they were too gruesome. I've seen plenty worse on the TV set. I give Blue Smoke five stars for keeping me up way past my bedtime on way too many nights.
    • 4/5
      I really enjoyed this. I liked how Reena and Bo circled around each other for years. It did seem that it took Reena a bit too long to connect all the fires together. I mean, who has fire touch their life *that* much? And the ending seemed a little rushed. But all in all, it was romantic and suspenseful, as any good Nora Roberts should be.
    • 4/5
      Prior to reading a book, especially when I have several other books to read on my "to-read" shelf, I check out Amazon.com's reviews. There were quite a few positive reviews for this book but more than a fair share of people slamming the book for one reason or another. Not certain what I was getting into, I read the book with lowered expectations and was pleasantly surprised.When she was eleven, Reena watched her parents' Italian restaurant burn. It was arson, the culprit went to jail, and Reena found her life's work - investigating arson fires. The novel starts when Reena was eleven and in the first couple of hundred pages follows her at various points in her life as tragedy takes the life of her boyfriend, an almost boyfriend, and another fire is set to frame her. The isolated incidents take place over the course of 10 years, so while it is obvious to the reader that Reena is being singled out, it is not obvious to her.At thirty-one, Reena buys a house next door to Bo Goodnight (great hero, but seriously horrible name, how high of a cheese factor can you get?). Bo has glimpsed Reena through the years at various points, once at a party, another time at the mall, once in traffic, but he has always been thwarted from actually being able to meet no matter how hard he tried to reach her. One of the highlights of the book is Reena stepping out into her back yard and meeting Bo for the first time. This is a funny, endearing scene that really had me liking Bo.For those who are fans of J.D. Robb, this book will be a fun and great read for you. I'm a Nora Roberts fan, and I am also the first to admit that not all of her books are winners (the Key trilogy was unreadable). "Blue Smoke" is a fun book and an entertaining read. Reena has a large family that she is close to and spends a lot of time with, people in the neighborhood know her, and reading about her life and her neighborhood was enjoyable.The romance is enjoyable, too, with two characters who do not treat each other horribly or get into stupid misunderstandings or fight for no reason. I particularly like to read romances where the main characters are not stupid or mean with each other, and this is a great example of that. The most believable romance stories to me are the ones where the characters like each other, respect each other, and have a fairly easy going relationship with each other. This novel illustrates the joy of that type of relationship.In reading the unfavorable reviews, I think that Nora Roberts is in a very difficult position. There are many people who love the familiarity in a Roberts novel, the known happily ever after, the type of hero and heroines she writes, the kind of families she showcases. I think that when she writes books with these signature elements some people really enjoy them and some people wail "She's in a rut!"However, when she branches out and does something different with her novels, as she does here, the reverse happens, people are upset that they had to read almost 200 pages before the main romance kicks in, while much of the book is relegated to solving a mystery that the readers have solved from page one.None of these factors really dulled my enjoyment of the book. I tend to like Roberts' work, especially when she does something out of the ordinary. She writes well and even the beginning parts that I knew ahead of time would contain tragedy were extremely entertaining to read because Roberts is simply an excellent writer. I enjoyed the book immensely, in part due to the big family, the friendships, and sense of community she imbues this novel with.I'm pleased that Nora Roberts continues to write different types of novels without paying too much attention to the criticism she receives. She can't please everyone, but her popularity shows that she does please the majority of people the majority of the time.If you do not like her J.D. Robb books, give this one a pass, but for those who enjoy reading Roberts for her excellent writing, you will enjoy "Blue Smoke"
    • 5/5
      You can always count on Nora Roberts for a great read.
    • 4/5
      This is the first Roberts book I've read (other than the J.D. Robb "in Death" series). I picked it up at a used bookstore after seeing a favorable review.It's a romance, sure, but it's also a tightly-plotted suspense novel. Will the cops catch the arsonist before he reaches his ultimate goal? The love story advances the plot, or at least doesn't get in the way, and the characters are realistic, even the secondary ones.I don't want to get started on the works of an author as prolific as Roberts or I'll go broke, but I would certainly buy any of her stand-alone novels if they're as good as this one.
    • 5/5
      As usual, Nora Roberts can do no wrong! This was an excellent book... well written, suspenseful, hot sex, fabulous characters!If you're looking for a fast and enjoyable read, I highly recommend Blue Smoke!
    • 5/5
      Loved, loved, loved this book!! I'm an avid Nora Roberts reader and Blue Smoke is a top 5 Nora favorite! Gripping suspense, complex characters, and as always, riveting romance! A must read!!!
    • 4/5
      One hot summer night in Baltimore, eleven-year-old Reena Hale watches as her family’s restaurant goes up in flames. She decides in that moment to become an arson investigator. That fire shaped another’s destiny also, as Joey Pastorelli sees his father arrested for setting the fire. Reena’s close-knit Italian family rebuilds and she goes on to complete police and firefighter training. While she excels at her job, she is unlucky in love – all of her relationships end with a fire. Things start looking up when she meets Bo Goodnight, the hunky carpenter next door. Reena’s one problem: the pyromaniac psychopath determined to kill everyone she loves. With wonderful characterizations and attention to detail, Nora Roberts offers another thrilling combination of danger and romance.
    • 4/5
      There\'s really no mystery here to who the culprit is. But the writing is good and keeps you going through the phases of the lead characters life. I could hardly put it down.
    • 4/5
      Arson and detection and romance