It’s no secret that Nora Roberts is one of my favorite authors of all time. She’s my comfort read of choice. So I was understandably thrilled to find an early audio copy of her newest title, Hidden Nature, waiting for me in my inbox. And the fact that this took place on a day when I was down with a migraine felt like a gift. As I expected it to, the combination of Nora’s easy, lyrical writing, her compelling characters, wonderful sense of family, deep dives into interesting profession, and signature plot tension—all delivered via the dulcet tones of January LaVoy’s narration—carried me away from the headache. There were a few things about this particular novel that kept me from loving it quite as much as a lot of Nora’s other work, but it was still a wonderful narrative respite.

First, the things that worked for me. This list has to start with Nora’s phenomenal storytelling. I love Nora’s writing and voice just as much as I always have. I was immediately entranced. Her style is this phenomenal blend of easy and lyrical, and nothing else pulls me in as quickly or as deeply.

I also really loved this cast of characters. Sloan, our main perspective character, is a natural resource officer who fights her way back from the brink of death with incredible tenacity. She has this beautifully tight, happy, healthy family unit that supports her through it. And then there’s Nash, our male lead. He’s left everything he’s ever known, and the high-powered life he was groomed for, to move to the mountains of Heron’s Rest, Maryland, and start a handyman business. His family life was the opposite of Sloan’s but with an exception. He's incredibly tight with his brother, Theo, who is delightfully exuberant. I loved the family and found-family dynamics in this story; it’s one of the elements Nora always does best. She also does a fantastic job portraying construction and renovation. As her husband is a carpenter, this makes all kinds of sense, and I always enjoy when this is an element in one of her stories.

Sloan and Nash don’t even meet until over a third of the way into the book, and I like that we’re given such solid narrative foundations for both characters before they ever appear together on the page. This makes them stronger both individually and as a unit. I also really enjoyed the fact that some threads of this story remind me of the In Death books. The weirdness of the case. Sloan brainstorming over it with Nash as her sounding board. Her dreams. All of these elements brought Eve and Roarke to mind.

But, as much as I love that correlation, it’s also where some of my issues with the story started. First of all, I found Clara and Sam, our villains, to be deeply disturbed and disturbing. Which is, of course, the point. But their weird, cultish motivations mixed with their loving, well-adjusted couple’s routine made me really uncomfortable, especially as their beliefs were something of a bastardized version of Christianity. The fact that they’re totally in love and almost cute with it made the fact that they were so completely off their rockers more unsettling, as did the religious nature of their crimes. Clara struck me as a vampiristic Stepford wife, and that added element of blood consumption was all kinds of icky. But again, these elements worked for the story. They just grossed and weirded me out, which is totally subjective.

What’s a bit more objective is my critique of how the case was handled. The way Sloan comes to conclusions about the murders, about the who and the why, feels like a stretch. It’s all a bit too on the nose and convenient. That also goes for how everything comes together in the story’s climax. It all seemed kind of easy and tidy.

Also, I can tell that I've been mostly reading clean and Christian fiction, because the language felt a bit harsh. There was more profanity/strong language than I remembered there being in Nora’s work. But that’s another subjective issue. My ability and desire to stomach strong adult content, be it in language, sexuality, or gore, has just diminished with age.

Any day that brings a new Nora Roberts book into my life is a good day. And when that happens to align with me being sick or having a migraine, it makes a bad day so much better. Hidden Nature made a bad day better. I’m not sure it’s one that I’ll be revisiting as often as I have some of her other books, but I still mostly enjoyed my time with it.

*Spoiler-free*
This author creates great romantic suspense thrillers that balance crime, family dynamics and a romance sub-plot. In this romantic suspense story, the main character Sloan, a police officer, gets severely injured at the start of the novel and must recover and start fresh. As she is learning to adapt to her injury and rehabilitation, serial abductions are occurring. Sloan cannot leave her detective mind behind and starts to investigate the missing person’s cases that seem odd and connected in some way.
I read a lot from this author and love her work but for some reason, this story started out too slowly for me, and I couldn’t get invested. Before I get to “know” or care about the main character, she gets injured and is “recovering” for the first third of the book. Later the dynamics of her new life setting, family relationships and a set of brothers who moved in nearby, helped pull my interest a bit more. The suspense plot is introduced early on with plenty of POVs from the “villain.” Unfortunately, these POVs did not interest me and took away the “whodunit” mystery that usually makes books thrilling or suspenseful.
I enjoyed the ending because it was unique and unexpected in the way things played out. The FMC and MMC relationship had good pacing, and I enjoyed them the most. The characters had good rapport, however in some cases they were too similar and had some of the same speech patterns and personality.
Overall, in my opinion, this was not my favorite by this author but I still enjoyed it once I got to know the character and was interested in what happens to her.

I always enjoy reading Nora Robert’s books. I liked the book and all of the characters. Nash is my favorite character and I wish there was a little bit more romance between him and Sloan. It was a little slow in spots but I thought it was a great book and I recommend reading it.

I absolutely love Nora Roberts books and when I find myself in a reading slump, her writing pulls me right back out. This book was a little slow to start but picks up really quickly and never stops. This book has it all serial killers, wrong place wrong time trope, love, home renovations and a mystery all in one. I will be buying a copy when the book is published and why not, the story is great and the cover is beautiful. Thanks NetGalley for the ARC.

Hidden Nature is a twisty tale that showcases Nora Roberts’ blend of mystery and romance. The story follows Sloane, a resilient heroine recovering from a serious injury, as she navigates a new career path and becomes entangled in the unsettling mystery of a string of disappearances.

Roberts does a fantastic job with character development—each character feels fully realized, adding depth and emotional weight to the unfolding suspense. The romantic undertones woven throughout the narrative enhance the story without overshadowing the central mystery.

However, the detailed focus on Sloane’s recovery and her home renovation, while perhaps meant to ground her transformation, sometimes felt overly drawn out. These slower sections occasionally disrupted the pacing and shifted attention away from the more compelling elements of the plot.

Despite this, Hidden Nature remains a solid, enjoyable read. While it could have been more concise, the strong characters and mystery kept me turning the pages.

I will never not enjoy a Nora Roberts book! Her writing is a comfort to me and I will always love her characters, their relationships (significant others, family, and friends), and the settings are always so enjoyable! While the pace of this one was a little slower than normal (we start off with a bang, then we dip for quite a bit and it's just day-to-day life, then the suspense and relationship building really kicks into gear around 60%), I still enjoyed it! Nora always has a way of sweeping me away into the worlds of her books and this one was no exception.

The suspense plotline was interesting (and by that, I mean the motivations behind the crimes) and not one I was totally on board with, if I'm being honest, but I still enjoyed the story and how it was interwoven throughout the character arcs and their storylines.

So while this is not my favorite Nora Roberts book, I still really liked it and enjoyed my time listening to it!

Hidden Nature is a fast paced suspense thriller/romance. If you're a Nora Roberts fan, you can't help but enjoy her latest about Natural Resources police officer Sloan and her new guy Nash. Her sister and his brother Theo are also a couple so there's lots of family interaction and support of one another. I thoroughly enjoyed watching Sloan figure out who was behind the serial killing she started to research during her recovery after a shooting. Great setting as usual. Nora Roberts is always a must read for me!

Many thanks to NetGalley for the opportunity to read/listen to the audio and review. January LaVoy did an amazing job like always! All opinions are my own.

Publication date: 27 May 2025

A romance and thriller all in one! While this one by Nora was a bit formulaic and had a hint of her alter ego JD Robb's FMC Eve Dallas. It was a nice, easy-to-read book that had me picking it up whenever I had a spare moment. Thanks to Netgalley for an early copy in exchange for an honest review.

another 5 star read from nora roberts! love the story and the twists! characters are wonderfully relatable and you can see yourself in the story

I really enjoyed this story, like the majority of the stories by Nora Roberts. The main charachters Sloan and Nash are very enjoyable, and relatable. They both have histories that have shapped them into who they are today. Along with plenty of trauma that they have and are working through. I liked that they build up to their relationship was not a quick one but grew as they actually got to know eachother. That was nice to see, and also they are both really nice people who care for and show thier love to their family.

The mystery in this story doesnt really come into the last half of the story, thoguht you do see peaks of it early on in the story. The mystery is one that is the disapperance of seemingly random people with initially no connection to one another. But Sloan being who she is pulls it all together.

The ending of the story, did seemed to be a bit rushed to me. But that could also be beacuas of the long lead up to Sloan and Nashs relationship. And all the amazing supporting charachters who showed up. This is the only downside to the story for me, and its really not a big one. The ending wrapped up the story very nicely.

If you enjoy Nora Roberts books, you will like this one for sure.

Thank you to Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for this ARC.

I have been in a tiny bit of a reading slump, so I skipped ahead and read this ARC before a bunch of others I have. Nora Roberts writing style is comforting and never fails to please. The way she describes the setting in her books soothes me. The characters, their stories always gets me invested. And this one had a bit of a mystery involved.

I loved the descriptions of the houses, the renovations and could actually picture the cottage in the woods. Sloan was a great main character, and I loved her story! I loved watching her recover and grow and reunite with her family. I loved watching her fall in love with Nash, who was overcoming his own past, and watching them grow together as a couple. I loved the secondary characters as well. The siblings were amazing, and of course the dogs.

This one was a solid 4.25 stars for me. It felt a tiny bit repetitive, too similar to some other books, in a few places. And it took me just a little longer to feel hooked than many of her other books. But by the end I was totally invested and stayed up late to finish the last 20% of the book.

A little sluggish at first, but then fully kicks into the serial killer romantic suspense that I love from NR. We got close family dynamics, we got home reno porn, we got a heroine with witchy eyes - basically my comfort bingo card

Nora Robert's latest romantic thriller is a winner. Hidden Nature starts with a bang, slows down just enough to meet the characters, then ratchets up the tension with a serial killer mystery.

Hidden Nature began with a bang and kept the intensity going for the entire novel. For Sloan Cooper this is a story of second chances and she’s happy for the opportunity. She welcomes the chance to recover from her injuries surrounded by family. I loved the inner strength she relied on and it’s apparent where she came by it – her family.

Once Sloan is ready to go back to work she is offered a new position that she happily accepts. It will keep her close to home and now is the time for that. She also meets a new man who lives not far from her. He’s a contractor and it just happens that her family’s resort business needs a new contractor. If you’ve read a Nora Roberts novel chances are it included heavy doses of home renovation projects. I’m a fan of all that. But, the focus of the novel is Sloan making a connection with a rash of unexplained disappearances of people in a tristate area. Roberts reveals to the reader the gruesome details and POV of two serial killers and their deluded, righteous motivation. I found that very creepy. If you can get past that you will probably find Hidden Nature as hard to put down as I did. It’s a good Romantic Suspense novel.

Hidden Nature by Nora Roberts is a romantic thriller, but not a mystery because we know who is perpetrating the crimes. Sloan Cooper, who after taking down some criminals with her partner, walks into a convenience store where a robbery is taking place and is shot, point blank in the chest. After a long hospital stay, she heads to her parents home/resort in Maryland to finish her recovery and rebuild her strength. Realizing she wants family around her, she resigns her old position and takes a position in her hometown police department. She meets Nash, a former Wall Street worker turned local contractor and develops feelings for him. But when she starts investigating the disappearances of several local women, will she be putting him, her family and everyone she knows in danger? I really enjoyed this novel, Nora Roberts has done it again, but with a little different twist than her usual novels. Thank you to the author, publisher and NetGalley for an ARC of this novel in exchange for my honest review.

Another reviewer could not have said it better "Spine chilling murder mystery. A tale I've never read before. Just the right amount of awful to be riveting. Great characters, even the bad ones." This book literally starts off with a bang as our h is shot, but not in the line of duty. She almost dies, but is saved and starts the long road to recovery. I really enjoyed that part of the book the most. I was actually too scared by the case she is working and the parts with the bad guys to read before bed. I'm so glad i have finally finished and it is only 7:45 pm so I can start another book. It will have to be a light-hearted one for sure! Well done, 5 stars. Thank you NetGalley and Nora Roberts for an advanced copy.

I do enjoy a good romantic suspense, and while this isn't a favorite of mine I did really like it. I liked the build up, watching Sloan figure out her life, while falling for Nash, as well as watching her investigate all these missing persons that have popped up. I loved the family aspect. They are all so close and all had their own rolls in the story which I was here for. The pacing was at times a bit to slow for me which kept pulling me out of the story but man the farther I got in the more invested I became especially towards the end. All in all this is a solid read and think others will enjoy it.

Are you ready for some of Nora Roberts' creepiest villains yet? My jaw was on the floor multiple times! Hidden Nature is an engaging romantic thriller that never lags. I love all of the family connections in the story, but Nash and Theo were my favorites with their complicated history. This is definitely one of my top picks of Roberts' standalone novels! I was worried there in the beginning that we weren't going to get our signature cokes, but she came through ;)

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for access to this arc!

I’m a big fan of Nora Roberts books in general, more so of the crime or magick storylines. Those almost always get 5 stars from me. Romance? I can take it or leave it. I’m not a fan of spicy chapters so I never base my reviews on any of that. This one fell a little short for me because of the bad guys. Villains? Religious nut cases? You can call them all of these things.

I loved the characters of Sloan and Nash, as well as all of the extended family involved. I would move to Heron’s Rest and rent one of their cabins in a heartbeat if I could also be invited to family dinner. (And the home renovation amazement performed by all of them? HOW DID THESE THINGS HAPPEN IN SUCH A SHORT AMOUNT OF TIME?!)

The bad guys though, they didn’t do it for me this time. Usually we get some canny criminals who come close to outsmarting the MC. These two just seemed kind of…weird. A mismatched couple that just struck me as a young man following around an older religious nut, but she was also kind of submissive at the same time. And the *SPOILER* addition of a certain substance to their meals just seemed like it was reaching too far.

I honestly was expecting this book to become a series, because the story went so far without looking like it was coming to a resolution. I was totally expected a cliffhanger and another book to come by about 93%. With that being said, I feel like the ending should have felt rushed but somehow didn’t. The book description definitely made it feel like Sloan was facing danger, but she honestly knew nothing about it until it actually happened. This was just a case she was working that suddenly went awry on her front door step. I do think it ended how it should have, I’m not sure I would have had it in me for another book of Clara and Sam.

Thanks to Nora Roberts, St Martins Press and NetGalley for the advance readers copy!

This was a solid thriller with a hint of romance. Sloan is recovering from a gunshot wound at her family home. During this time she begins to investigate a couple of local disappearances on her own. I really liked Sloan's method of investigation. I thought it added to the way the plot was able to develop. I liked the romance sub-plot; although, I wish we got to see more of Sloan's relationship. This was fast-paced and a good book to read if you need to get out of a reading slump.