Reef

Amazon.com
New York Times bestselling author Nora Roberts returns to a familiar subject-treasure, the kind of treasure found among the shipwrecks in the balmy waters of the West Indies and the treasure of love--love of family, love between the unlikeliest of partners, love found and lost and found again. Marine archeologist Tate Beaumont finds herself thrown together with salvager Matthew Lassiter, eight years after he brutally crushed her first stirrings of young love, as they again attempt to locate Angelique's Curse, an amulet heavy with jewels and history, tainted by blood and madness. An earlier expedition ended in betrayal and tragedy, changing both their lives forever and leaving their families inextricably entwined. Matthew has an agenda of his own: to draw out Tate's former employer, the unscrupulous and mysterious millionaire responsible for killing his father and maiming his uncle--who will stop at nothing to get his hands on Angelique's Curse. Tate and Matthew find themselves circling each other warily, each unsure of the other's motives, yet drawn together by passion and danger beneath the azure waves. The Reef is an entertaining read, delighting readers with its meticulous research and detail, but it fails to adequately develop the tension between its lead characters caused by the love neither trusts can overcome the past. --Alison Trinkle


From Library Journal
The Reef represents Roberts (Rising Tides, Audio Reviews, LJ 11/1/98) at the top of her form. Not only does the novel have a passionate, compelling love story at its center, but it is rich with intrigue, suspense, and a full complement of fascinating characters. Roberts's skill at pumping the written momentum aides Sandra Burr's virtuoso performance. Her warm Southern drawl encapsulates the essence of Tate Beaumont and her family: their warmth, humor, and commitment to loving life itself. Matthew Lassiter and his contingent are given equal measure with deeper tones, more northerly accents, and a thirst for revenge that blots out any expectation for happiness. Even Burr's narration, steady and inviting, elevates the reading to greater heights. The story is occasionally wordy, but the pleasure of Burr's performance is worth the time. Highly recommended for all fiction collections.?Jodi L. Israel, Jamaica Plain, Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From AudioFile
Tate Beaumont and Matthew Lassiter combine their skills and knowledge of underwater salvage in a race against a formidable opponent to recover the jeweled necklace known as Anguelique's Curse. Burr clearly distinguishes Tate and her parents with a deep Southern accent. As Matthew, Burr drops her voice several tones and uses generic American speech. Buck, Matthew's uncle, delivers irritated remarks with a matching gravelly bass voice. Burr commands Spanish and French accents for secondary characters with realistic pronunciations and intonations. Her gentle alto narration brings a natural balance and contrast to the emotions of the characters. P.A.J. (c)AudioFile, Portland, Maine


From Booklist
Feisty marine archaeologist Tate Beaumont lives for the challenge of retrieving sunken treasure from the depths of the ocean. Years ago, her life had a more personal focus, namely, one Matthew Lassiter, but he destroyed her hopes, and work became her passion. She returned to college with a vengeance, and Matthew retreated to the frozen North where he works as a salvage diver. Now Tate's father plans to ask Matthew and his uncle to help him find "Angelique's Curse," a ruby-and-diamond-encrusted amulet, rumored to have been worn by the witch Angelique as she was burned at the stake centuries before. The Beaumonts and the Lassiters weather their new and tentative partnership on turbulent waters, united by an obsession matched in intensity by only one man--an insane collector who has already committed murder in pursuit of "Angelique's Curse": Matthew's father. Perennial best-seller Roberts has crafted a thrilling treasure-hunt with a trademark edge. One of her most suspenseful tales to date, this novel, a Literary Guild main selection slated for national television advertising, will surely lure a veritable feeding frenzy of fans. Melanie Duncan


From Kirkus Reviews
With her happy balance of love, sex, and the supernatural, Roberts has become the fairy godmother of escapists and the queen of formula romance. Leaving the ``Jones curse'' of last spring's Homeport, Roberts dives now into Anguelique's Curse and the life of another ambitious career girl. It seems that Anguelique Maunoir was a 16-year-old healer who in 1533 was burned for witchcraft, but not before putting her double-whammy on the gold and bejeweled amulet her lover gave her before his own death. Now, Matthew Lassiter and his family of salvage divers have known nothing but bad luck since starting their search for the necklace. Matthew's father was murdered by Silas VanDyke, another of this authors sadly two-dimensional villains, while his uncle Buck lost a leg to a shark. Matthew, though, still hits pay dirt when he and Buck team up with Tate Beaumont and her loving parents to dive for a 16th-century Spanish ship off the coast of Nevis and St. Kitts. Young Tate is the logical, reasonable one of this pair of lovers, studying to become a marine archaeologist and dreaming of one day having her own museum; Matthew, on the other hand, is the stormy one who's had a tougher row to hoe and now loves Tate's mother's home-cooked dinners. Yet, true to the familiar type of honorable ravishers and responsible rogues, he gives Tate up rather than see her drop out of school to follow a lowlife diver like himself. Eight years later, when no one seems particularly happy, the Beaumonts and Lassiters reunite to search for Anguelique's Curse: Tate hopes to establish her professional credentials, Matthew to avenge his father's death. After lots of salty sea and sex, as well as a short course in treasure hunting and marine salvage, the lovers will discover (no surprise) that their fortune is in each other. Clunky denouement aside, Robertss legion of fans will swarm to this. (First printing of 250,000; Literary Guild main selection; $250,000 ad/promo) -- Copyright ©1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.


Book Description
From the #1 New York Times bestselling author-a story of passion and adventure that uncovers the hidden undersea world...and the depths of the human heart.


Download Description
Sea Swept brought the name Nora Roberts to the top of the New York Times list for the very first time--but with more than 35 million copies sold and countless previous bestsellers (six in 1996 alone!), readers and booksellers have long known the power of that name..and expected the very best in suspense and romance from her books. With The Reef, Nora Roberts presents the story of Tate Beaumont, a beautiful student of marine archaeology--and 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.


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