Nightwork

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I feel like a little bit this was a little of her trying to do another "Roarke" type character for her readers. When she was too ill to work, Harry goes with his aunt, but it wasn't enough for her medical bills, he was worried about foreclosure.

I could guess a lot of this guy's character building was there - under the surface - because he had to repress all his feelings to get his 'nightwork' done in tne beginning, and this repression ended up being a survival technique.He was just a kid when he stole to keep his mother's bills paid while she fought the demon that is cancer. Harry is essentially self-taught, advancing from pick-pocketing to what he terms “nightwork”: burglaries of luxury goods from rich homes. Starting with losing a loved one to cancer, switching to having a teacher that means everything to you, and ending with the idea that life will always work out the way that it's meant to. Booth Harrison lands at UNC in Chapel Hill, North Carolina with a thrust for knowledge, a fake ID and lucrative nightwork.

The boy now a man has skills, he stays under the radar, a bit of a loner but eventually falls for a girl. But he doubts this man will ever tire of his pursuit, and begins to long for a more settled existence: a job as an English/drama teacher in a mid-size town would fit the bill. The nature of his work makes it hard for him to settle down anywhere, so after his mother’s death, he travels around the country, never staying in one city long enough to become suspicious. And Ashley is a young, very-much-in-love bakery owner specializing in muffins who devotes herself to giving back to the community through a nonprofit that helps community members develop skills and find jobs. A scheming and horrible man who wants Harry for his own purposes forcing Harry to run and leave all the goodness he’s found behind him.This turns into a fully-fledged professional career as this kid is quite the boy genius, upskilling on languages, mathematics and code cracking. That's really the only point where I empathized with Harry, which is also why I felt entirely too much and cried like a baby. I can't help but compare it to say Honest Illusionsor Three Fates where we get to the see the final heist and the villain(s) get their comeuppance in person and on page. When his mother eventually dies, Harry still keeps stealing and breaking into homes hence the title of this book.

When his mother finally succumbed to cancer, he left Chicago--but kept up his nightwork, developing into a master thief with a code of honor and an expertise in not attracting attention? I know she's done the time jump thing before, but think that only "Under Currents" has done it to great effect in her latest books. The plot follows Harry through his youth to adulthood, as he begins pickpocketing and stealing from homes to pay for his mothers chemo.This time when Booth disappears, he lands in Westbend, Virginia, a place he feels, in his gut, is home. My book, The End of Nightwork, is about that most pointless and painful of things: the passage of time. For just one divine minute, through communion with the Misfit, the grandmother is transported out of her homespun hypocrisy and into a universe of grace. I was never bored because he was interesting and, if I’m honest, I’m a die-hard fan of Roberts’ storytelling style. I thoroughly enjoyed this stunning romantic suspense novel – such a pleasurable read - and have no hesitation in recommending it highly.

This is supposedly romantic suspense, but it's so light on that it feels like a misnomer to categorize it as such. Even for the parts when it wasn't easy - for example, when Miranda struggles to reorient her own principles to accomodate how strongly she feels for Harry - there's barely any justification. But when he met Miranda Emerson, with her father as his professor, he felt his edges crack and fray and he grew close to her. When his mother finally succumbs to cancer, Harry leaves Chicago but somehow he can't quite leave all of his past behind. The man is a predator more frightening than the alligators that haunt the bayou—and when he strongarms Harry into robbing a Baltimore museum, Harry abandons Miranda—cruelly, with no explanation—and disappears.

For me, the sign of an awesome author is one who changes the tide of the story with such subtlety that you do not even realize it is happening. Thanks to his love of acting and theatre, Booth is by now expert at switching identities, and escapes the country to avoid LaPorte’s further demands: he will not be owned. Refusal is not an option: this man is used to getting his own way, and Booth can’t risk the overt threat of injury, even death to those he loves.