Legacy: A Novel

We first meet Adrian Rizzo when she is seven. Her biological father has shown up at her mother’s Georgetown townhouse to confront the woman who bore his child. He is, after all, a revered professor (who loves messing around with the female co-eds) and his reputation might be tarnished when knowledge of his love child gets around. He is a volatile and cruel man and takes his rage out on young Adrian. But her mother, Lina, steps in to protect her daughter and in the ensuing scuffle he falls from the second floor and dies. Years later, Adrian is in high school and after living in the shadow of her mother’s career is ready to step out on her own. Lina Rizzo is what’s known as a fitness guru with her own brand on her exercise DVDs, clothing line, and so much more. This is how she provides for herself and Adrian but the relationship between mother and daughter is almost nil – Lina puts her work and her travel schedule before her daughter. Adrian learns to be self-sufficient at an early age. She quietly recruits a tight group of nerdy fellow-students to help her and she produces her own fitness DVDs. Throughout her growing years, Adrian has formed a close relationship with her grandparents (Lina’s parents) who live in Traveler’s Creek, a small, country town in Virginia. Adrian feels loved and makes lifelong friends who seem to ground her while supporting her growing fitness line. But soon after Adrian becomes a public figure she begins to receive poems – not of the flattering kind. It soon becomes apparent that she has a stalker. But with the poems coming once a year on Valentine’s Day can this truly be something to worry about? Lina worries for her daughter but advises turning things over to the police, which Adrian does. When Adrian’s grandmother dies, she moves in with her aging grandfather. She’s always loved their house and sets about creating an exercise studio in the basement. For companionship and protection she gets herself a large dog named Sadie who falls in love with Jasper, a dog belonging to one of Adrian’s friends. When the stalker/serial killer makes the final move on Adrian, things come to an exciting close. There is so much going on in this book that sometimes it was a bit difficult to follow. We have the mystery of the serial killer/stalker; there’s the ever-changing relationship between Adrian and her mother; the growing success of Adrian’s fitness business; and the slow burn romance between Adrian and one of her life-long friends who is healing from the loss of his wife. Any one of these topics would be sufficient for a stand-alone book yet they are thrown together to form a tapestry of words. Ms. Roberts is a solid storyteller. No doubt about that as is evidenced by her prolific writing. But for me this novel was a bit slow. The action is concentrated at the beginning and the final twenty pages; the...

As usual Nora makes me smile, laugh and enjoy the story so much I forget what I am doing. Strong characters that you get lost in and love so much want them to be part of your family. Thank you Nora

Couldn’t put it down. I laughed, cried and got scared. How perfectly written. I recommend this book to everyone who reads.

Nora Roberts romance novels are great, this book I enjoyed reading. Her description of all of the Characters in this book I like!

I is a good but pain full in the beging.but it gets better.as she get older even when she get the threats. It has murder.in the story.