Olivia MacBride and her parents, a fairy-tale Hollywood family, had everything--fame, fortune, and love. But when 4-year-old Olivia awakens one night to find her mother brutally murdered and her father, Sam, standing over her corpse, the little girl's dreamland dissolves before her very eyes.

Whisked away to the sanctuary of the Olympic Peninsula by her grandparents, Olivia learns to bury the past deep within her. Determined to protect herself from painful memories, Olivia limits her life to the emerald rain forests and the River's End resort. Years later, when Noah Brady arrives on her doorstop, Olivia allows her defenses to slip and opens herself to the passion that sparks between them.

When she learns that Noah is fascinated with her mother's death and is writing a tell-all novel, Olivia is devastated. But as Noah helps Olivia acknowledge the lingering effects of her painful memories, she learns to trust him again. With careful research and the apparent cooperation of Sam, Noah begins to unravel the mysteries of that night. However, soon after Sam's release from prison, dangerous threats begin to pursue Noah and Olivia. When the killer enters the serenity of their world, Noah and Olivia must face the dark secrets of the past, or fail to secure a safe future.

With the same skills that earned her the 1997 Romance Writers of America Lifetime Achievement Award, Nora Roberts convincingly peers into the complex minds and motivations of her characters. Though Roberts stumbles in her attempt to write with the voice of a 4-year-old child, her luscious descriptions of Hollywood glamour and rain forest wilderness ring realistic and true. Both longtime fans and new readers alike will enjoy the intriguing suspense and electric passion in this romantic thriller. --Nancy R.E. O'Brien

Olivia's parents were one of Hollywood's golden couples-until the night her father destroyed their home and took her mother away forever. Now, years later, Olivia is forced to recall those horrifying events and discover the truth about her childhood.

Olivia's parents were among Hollywood's golden couples…until the night a monster came and took her mother away forever. A monster with the face of her father. Sheltered from the truth Olivia only dimly recalls her night of terror--but her recurring nightmares make her realize she must piece together the real story.

Nora Roberts often shows signs of being a first-rate novelist, and then can't quite clinch it. This book is a perfect example of what I mean. The book starts very well, with the murder of a major movie star. Her drug addict husband is arrested, tried, and sent to prison. So far so good.

The story then focuses on the victim's four-year old daughter who may have or may not have actually witnessed the crime. She grows up, becomes a naturalist in the state of Washington and is approached by a writer who is doing a book about the sensational murder.

The book starts to go wrong, for me, at least, with the love affair between the writer and the girl. I know that some readers must crave this sort of thing, but somehow it just doesn't fit with the mystery/thriller genre. It distracts from our curiosity about what really happened that fateful night and how it will all turn out.

Still, I could have lived with the sex scenes, reruns in effect from Ms. Roberts' other books--lots of tasting and fisting without saying exactly where. The scenes are gauzy without the specificity of the X-rated movie. They remind me of those movies that had the camera point suddently up through the trees or at a waterfall at the crucial moment. If you're going to do a sex scene, then do it right. Be specific. Or don't bother with it.

Again still, it's the ending for this book that really bothered me. I'd have given this at least four stars except for the denouement. The problem is that it is too facile, too articulate. Obviously I can't go into the details about that without giving away the ending. Suffice it to say that in real life, perps don't take the time to explain, in detail, exactly what they did and why--in complete sentences and paragraphs. Only in bad movies and bad books do they do that. Unfortunately the reasons in this case don't make sense. But judge for yourself.

Despite what I consider flaws, the characters are interesting and well drawn. That's a strength of the novelist. As always, Roberts has the marvelous talent to take the reader to a place, in this case the rain forest of the west slope of the Washington range of mountains. Those are the attributes, the talent, that keeps me reading Roberts and hoping that she'll write better, more realistic last chapters. And maybe find a new vocabulary for the obligatory bedroom antics, if include them she must.

Oh, and I wish publishers would put a cast of characters at the front of complicated novels. I got a bit confused as to who was who in the first third of the novel. In fact, it would be a good idea to have a brief description of the characters in every novel.

When tragedy befalls 4-year-old Livvy, her life is forever changed when her father is convicted of murdering her mother. Since they were a popular Hollywood couple, everyone is curious about her, and the press won't leave her alone. To protect her, Olivia goes to live with her grandparents who raise her as their own. They live in the quiet Pacific Northwest, running a lodge providing vacationers the chance to be up close and personal with nature. Livvy loves nature, and majors in the field hoping to open a center at the lodge. As she settles into her peaceful life at the lodge, her past comes crashing into her present when her father decides to set the record straight. He has contacted writer Noah Brady to tell his story. As Noah and Livvy rekindle their childhood friendship and explore the future, they soon discover they have to resolve the past or there may be no future.

Nora Roberts' RIVER'S END receives veteran freelance voiceover talent Sandra Burr's moving and passionate voice: perfect for the high drama contained in this story of a young woman who struggles to recall events on the night her mother was murdered. The son of the police officer who found the then-four-year-old hiding in a bedroom closet strives to help her - and indeed may end her loneliness as romance evolves.

I loaned this book to a friend, who enjoyed so much that they did not return it to me. It is hard to put down, once you start to read; and the ending is not at all what I expected. When I saw this book, I purchased 2, one for myself and one for my daughter, who has also read it before. It is worth reading again.

What a great book! 420 pages, hardback, and every single page is worth reading, not one page is boring. You just want to keep reading and keep turning pages!

This is my first Nora Roberts' book. I can't believe how good she writes! I would recommend this book to everyone! It's got murder, mystery, romance, people, the love of the land...

I'd love to find another book like this one! I really enjoyed it.

(I'll let the other reviewers tell you about the story, I'm not so good at that.)