When five-thousand-year-old human bones are found at a construction site in the small town of Woodsboro, the news draws archaeologist Callie Dunbrook out of her sabbatical and into a whirlwind of adventure, danger, and romance.

While overseeing the dig, she must try to make sense of a cloud of death and misfortune that hangs over the project-fueling rumors that the site is cursed. And she must cope with the presence of her irritating-but irresistible-ex-husband, Jake. Furthermore, when a stranger claims to know a secret about her privileged Boston childhood, she is forced to question her own past as well.

A rich, thrilling, suspenseful tale from a "storyteller of immeasurable diversity and talent" (Publishers Weekly), Birthright follows an inspiring heroine, an intriguing hero, and a cast of fascinating characters whose intertwined lives remind us that there is much more going on under the surface than meets the eye.

It was great...of course. Roberts never lets you down. Everytime you pick up one of her books you already know the outcome; you're going to get romance, mystery, comedy and a well researched plot, of course there are never really any surprises, but that's ok by me...I know I'll always get my money's worth!

I know this isn't the newest of Nora Roberts' books, but I hadn't read it until recently. I really liked the way she treated archeology in general and these characters in particular.

Nora Roberts manages to express the importance of knowing where we come from without preaching about it and solving a mystery and a murder while she does it.

Of all the Nora Roberts books I've read (and I've read almost all of hers) there was only one I didn't like and "Birthright" was not it. I liked the characters and their interplay. The academics at the dig site and the people from the town had good chemistry both with each other and between the two groups.

Another masterpiece!!!

In a smalltown in America, there is some controversy over whether or not 30 more houses should be built in the surrounding countryside. So when the builders dig up the remains of what turns out to be a neolithic settlement, they are very frustrated while their opponents are only too happy to call in archeologists. One of them is Callie Dunbrook, a young woman who's very successful in her field. She is soon joined by several other archeologists, including her ex-husband Jake. Soon the sparks begin to fly again between the two who never stopped loving each other but were unable to get along the first time around. While they are trying to do things better this time and in the midst of the conflict between those who want the area to be protected while others want to build, Callie is confronted with her unknown past. A local woman whose baby daughter was stolen 29 years ago sees the similarity between Callie and the women in her family. When Callie starts digging, she finds out that she actually was adopted - illegally. But the people who are still making money by stealing and selling babies won't stop at anything to stop her investigation - not even murder...
Nora Roberts writes a lot of books, a lot of them really good, some rather mediocre. This is one of the good ones, in my opinion. The archeological elements are well done and believable, the thriller elements are great, and the romantic elements are also very enjoyable and convincing. In this respect it's not just Callie's and Jake's story, which I enjoyed very much because it shows two people who really love each other, but need to take the time to really get to know each other and work on themselves to make their relationship work. You don't find that kind of depth very often in modern romance books. In addition you get the love story between Callie's brother Doug and her lawyer Lana. Here we have a man who saw the relationship between his parents go to pieces over his sister's kidnapping and who also has to develop as a human being to be able to risk loving someone. Lana is a widow with a young kid who finds it difficult to love someone again after her husband's murder. To a small degree, the relationship between Callie's birthparents also plays a role. So all in all, these are adult relationships in which there's not just blind passion and happy forevers, but people with problems who are willing to work on their relationships. I really liked this book for that alone. So I'd definitely recommend it as a good read. If you enjoy this, you might want to try the books she writes under the name J. D. Robb, starting with Innocent in death. To me they're by far the best Nora Roberts has written.Innocent In Death

I have read this book twice since it came out, and I absolutely love it! The best part is that it involves all of the characters at the heart of the book, not just those mentioned in the plot synopsis. The characters were all real as were the emotions that they expressed.

Callie is a recently divorced archeologist, who comes out of subatical to work a sight in Maryland where 5000 year old human bones had been found. It is there that Susan sees Callie on television, and is sure that she is Jessie, her daughter who had been stolen out of her stroller in 1974. Doug is Susan's son, and he is tired of all the women his mother claims is Jessie. He doesn't know Callie, so he feels that he needs to warn her away from his mother. Callie hires Lana to find out what really happened in 1974. She is a widowed mother of a 4 year old, who happens to be friends with Susan's father Roger, who wants her to get involed with Doug. Jake is Callie's ex-husband, who is still in love with her and wants her back. He is an anthropologist who is assigned to the case that Callie is working on. Together with Doug and Lana, they work to uncover a decades old truth involving.

Callie Dunbrook is an acclaimed archaeologist at the top of her game, but one appearance on television changes her life forever. While working on a historic dig in Maryland, she discovers she was kidnapped when she was an infant and raised by another family. As she struggles to deal with her new family ties, the sudden appearance of her anthropologist ex-husband Jake Graystone, she also has to try to find out who is sabotaging the site.

I really enjoyed this book! It is now one of my favorites. I have been on geology digs, so I really liked the setting of this story. There was good rapport and chemistry between Jake and Callie. They made a very likeable couple. The secondary characters were also an important part of the story. The biological family Suzanne, Jay, and Doug were well written.