Book Review: The Reef, by Nora Roberts

Genre: Romance/romantic thriller
Date Published: 1998
Publisher: Putnam
# Of Pages/Listening Time: 440 pages/13.25 hours

Goodreads | Audible

Synopsis: The Reef is the story of Tate Beaumont, a beautiful young student of marine archeology - and of Matthew Lassiter, a sea-scarred young man who shares her dream of finding Anguelique's Curse, the jeweled amulet surrounded by legend and said to be long lost at the bottom of the sea.
Forced into a reluctant partnership with Matthew and his uncle, Tate soon learns that her arrogant but attractive fellow diver holds as many secrets as the sea itself. And when the truth emerges about the mysterious death of Matthew's father eight years earlier, desire - and danger - begin to rise to the surface.
True to form, Nora Roberts offers a story of grand passion and gripping adventure, bringing her devoted fans to the hidden undersea world - and to the deepest parts of the human heart.

My Rating:

 ★★★

.....For being a decent mindless read.

My Thoughts:

This is a book I've read before, back in 2006/2007 when I was studying archaeology in college. I remember liking it enough then, but feeling a little uncomfortable with the romance scenes. It was my first ever Nora Roberts novel and I ended up reading a few more of her romance-thrillers before my interest petered out.

Thanks to a summer reading challenge ("read a book set in the tropics"), I decided to try this book again; I was curious to see how I felt about this book over a decade later.

My feelings after having read this? Meh.

Nora Roberts is best known for her romances, and I think the plot was strongest there. She also did a reasonable about of work researching scuba diving and marine archaeology. The pacing of the story was pretty good and kept my interest; I kept thinking that the story was exciting enough to make a decent adventure movie.

I have two problems with the story though. My first problem is with the villain Van Dyke; I don't know why, but he didn't feel all that believable this time around. Sure, you could explain a lot of his behavior to be the result of his obsession with Angelique's Curse, but it just seemed like his sadism was a little overdone. I blame my skepticism on the fact that I married a psycholgist.

My other problem is the shark attack scene. I love sharks, and it's a big hobby of mine to learn as much as I can about them (I even went diving among them in the Bahamas), and I feel the shark was really misrepresented in this story. Sure, sharks attack in murky waters, but they tend to attack stragglers if there's a group; Matthew and Buck, combined with their loot, would have looked too big for a 10-ft shark to tackle (I think), and there wasn't any blood in the water to tempt the shark towards them. Continuing the attack after the initial bite is also so rare as to be non-existent (especially with scuba divers). And they don't do "mindless revenge" or "eyes rolling back in pleasure". I know Nora Roberts was using a lot of literary license here, and that this book was written in the 90's before the Shark Conservation Act, but still! I feel like this scene could have been done a little differently, with a little less hatred towards the poor shark. Ok, rant is done.

Overall, the book is ok. It made for a good mindless adventure read. It was quick and fun, but I don't think I'll ever be a major Roberts fan. I'm definitely not big on romances and detailed love scenes, and I get annoyed with inaccuracies in important plot events. So, good, but not great.