Oh how I love Nora Roberts' books.. Let me count the ways! This is another of Ms Roberts's triumphs... The second in the Inn at Boonsboro Trilogy in which three brothers who run their own construction company (we're talking gorgeous men in toolbelts ladies!!) find the loves of their lives in the scenic little Maryland town of Boonsboro while rehabbing an historic inn (with a resident ghost!). The first book had the thoughtful and dreamy Bennett falling in love with Clare, widowed mum of three boisterous young boys.

This second book follows Clare's best-mate Avery MacTavish, pizza restaurateur and serial hair-dyer, and her journey to Love (cap L) with the man she has loved (small l) since she was about 5, namely middle brother Owen Montgomery. Owen is thoughtful, hot (of course) and a planner (a serial-list maker). While Avery is all impulse and emotion (hence the hair situation!). Now some people have said this book was a little boring, because Owen and Avery's story is fairly comfortable, there's not a lot of conflict or 'big emotional moments' or 'wild tempestuous sex' or even 'incendiary sparring'. Because right from the start of the book, these two love each other. They respect each other. And while the cap L love still sort of sneaks up on them, it's never in doubt that they are gonna make this work - despite Avery's issues with her mother (who abandoned the family when she was 10) and Owen's issues with... Well, I'm not really sure he has a lot of issues, except the need to plan everything a bit too carefully. But really the lack of fireworks didn't bother me a bit. The book wasn't the least bit boring, because it's so rich in character detail and community. I loved the way Avery and Owen dealt with each other with such wit and intelligence throughout the book. And I also loved the way in which they interacted with the other characters - Roberts does Male Banter brilliantly but she pretty much turns it into an art form in this book when the three brothers get together and talk sex, and ghosts and women... There's also the beautiful lyricism of Roberts's writing and her scene-setting (I want to visit that darn inn so much now - which is a pretty nifty marketing trick on her part because it does actually exist!). Her books are always just so damn readable, I feel as if I'm slipping into the world these people inhabit as well as dipping into their lives and I love it.

And if you're dead set on fireworks, don't forget to read the little taster at the end for the third and final story. I think we've got a great firework finale in store when Hope (Clare and Avery's best mate and the Brothers' innkeeper) gets together with surly, moody and magnetic brother Ryder.