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A review of Midnight Bayou

by Nora Roberts

Love and ghosts in the steamy Louisiana bayou.

Reviewed by: Jennifer Santiago
About Jennifer Santiago

Midnight Bayou I hate Nora Roberts. Her gooey romance novels feature hackneyed plots whose only purpose is to give context to the frequent and monotonous sex scenes. Her books are the type toted on trains and planes by semi-literate talk show addicts who read only as a last resort. I abhor "novels" that can be purchased in the supermarket check-out, and my only concessions to mass market fiction have been Stephen King and Jackie Collins. Understandably, then, it gives me great pain to admit that I read Midnight Bayou on a recommendation from my mom, only because of my passion for all things Louisiana, and ended up loving the book.

Although I wouldn't call Midnight Bayou dazzlingly well-written, it was surprisingly engrossing, quite imaginative and not nearly as flimsily constructed as I'd imagined when I decided I hated Nora Roberts without ever actually reading one of her books. [sheepish grin].

Midnight Bayou centers on Declan Fitzgerald, a Boston trust-fund baby fleeing his Yankee upbringing, Ivy League law degree, and a narrowly-escaped marriage to a miniature version of his own mother. Declan packs it all in and drives south to Louisiana, where he's purchased the old Manet Hall, a dilapidated plantation on a bayou outside of New Orleans. One drunken spring break, Declan and college buddy Remy broke into the ramshackle mansion, and since then Declan has felt drawn to the place.

It is not long before Declan hears the rumors that the Manor is haunted, and strange things start happening to him? doors slamming, waltzes playing, babies crying, visions of empty rooms suddenly filled with furniture and luxuriously appointed in turn-of-the-century décor. And then there's the matter of the icy cold bedroom that scares Declan so much he faints.

Of course, the ghostly activity at the Manor doesn't prevent Declan from cruising the French Quarter and falling in love at first site with the feisty Lena, a strong-willed Cajun girl from the bayou whose great-grandmother was the bastard child of one of the Manet sons.

As Declan and Lena explore their feelings for each other, visions of a shared past come bursting in unbidden with increasing frequency and intensity. Is Lena the reincarnation of a murdered servant, and Declan the reincarnation of the Manet boy she was married to? Are they meant to be together now, or are they doomed to repeat the past? And what is it about Remy's fiancée Effie that seems so familiar to Declan, although he's only just met her?

These questions and more are answered in Midnight Bayou. You certainly won't find this novel nominated for the Booker Prize, but it's a fun read. Roberts skillfully evokes the down-home attitude of Declan's Louisiana neighbors, and gives detailed descriptions of his renovations to the Manor that make the reader feel like the improvements are happening right before their very eyes.

I wouldn't exactly say I'm a Nora Roberts convert, and I won't be rushing to Shop Rite for my next book purchase, but hey, even a book snob needs a break from the highbrow stuff now and then.

Click here to buy this book, or read more about it at Amazon.com: Midnight Bayou

Copyright © by Jennifer Santiago, 2003

Reviewed by Jennifer Santiago:
-- The Lovely Bones - by Alice Sebold
-- 30 Minute Meals - by Rachael Ray
-- Raising Blaze - by Debra Ginsberg
-- Backpack - by Emily Barr
-- You Are Not a Stranger Here - by Adam Haslett
-- Bookends - by Jane Green
-- A Confederacy of Dunces - by John Kennedy Toole
-- Ash Wednesday - by Ethan Hawke
-- All Saints' Day - by Brent Benoit
-- The Stepford Wives - by Ira Levin
-- The Evolution of Desire: Strategies of Human Mating - by David M. Buss
-- Literary New Orleans - by Judy Long (Editor)
-- The Sopranos Family Cookbook - by Allen Rucker; Recipes by Michele Scicolone
-- Atonement - by Ian McEwan
-- The Crimson Petal and the White - by Michel Faber
-- Midnight Bayou - by Nora Roberts
-- The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants - by Ann Brashares
-- The Zygote Chronicles - by Suzanne Finnamore
-- Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix - by J.K. Rowling









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