The Collector

by Nora Roberts

When professional house-sitter Lila Emerson witnesses a murder/suicide from her current apartment-sitting job, life as she knows it takes a dramatic turn. Suddenly, the woman with no permanent ties finds herself almost wishing for one. Artist Ashton Archer knows his brother isn't capable of violence--against himself or others. He recruits Lila, the only eyewitness, to help him uncover what happened. Ash longs to paint her as intensely as he hungers to touch her. But their investigation draws them into a rarified circle where priceless antiques are bought, sold, gambled away, and stolen, where what you possess is who you are, and where what you desire becomes a deadly obsession.

• ISBN10: 0399164456
• ISBN13: 9780399164453
• Publish Date: 15 April 2014
• Publish Status: Remaindered
• Imprint: Putnam Adult
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 483
• Language: English

Reviews

[Leigha]

House-sitter Lila witnesses a murder while looking out her window in this disappointing adult contemporary romance.

I’ve tried over the years to read NR’s The Collector. Something about it – the premise, cover, first chapters – never captured my full attention. I picked it up at my local used book store last week ($3.15 FTW), finally making my way through it.

My biggest problem with this book has a name – Ashton Archer. Listen, I’m not unaware that NR tends to write “alpha” leading men. I usually enjoy an alpha male, especially when pitted against a strong willed opinionated woman. Let me see all the sparks fly! However, I found Ash to be an overbearing asshole. He orders Lila around like a parent orders a child around. He never listens to her or allows her to take ownership of their relationship.

Lila is enjoyable despite her insufferable romantic lead. Her lifestyle of house sitting, fiction writing, and handyman tinkering worked well against the ridiculous, over-the-top plot. I would have enjoyed this story so much more if Lila and Julie, her BFF, had taken on the art thief/assassin by themselves. Leave the men at home, ladies, and embrace your inner woman warrior!

tl;dr The interesting main character and over-the-top plot worked well together, but the male romantic lead pulled all the fun out of it.

[kimbacaffeinate]

Five Reasons to Grab a chocolate flavored coffee and nestle down with The Collector:

1. Lila Emerson- House sitter extraordinaire, young adult-paranormal writer and female MacGyver. I adored Lila and found her lifestyle fascinating. If my husband ever passes before me, I have decided I want to be a house sitter and go all over the world taking care of family pets, plants and homes for the wealthy. Have laptop will travel. Lila was quirky, quick-witted and for a petite little thing she is a total kick-ass.

2. Artist Austin Archer is a worthy hero. While his father is alive, he is the unspoken head of the family to a misfit group of siblings and extended family. He is a very talented artist and the descriptions alone of his work made me want to own them. Ash is an enterprising person, a problem solver and protects those in his circle.

3. The romance – We get two, Lila’s and a second chance romance for her best friend and a yummy baker who could bake scones for me any day. The relationship built slowly, with moments of heat, laughter and compromises that made me giggle, swoon and I genuinely want them to find their happy.

4. The murder mystery and quest were intense and took us from the city to Florence. Rare Russian antiques, history, and ruthless collectors made for some intense scenes. Roberts is superb at creating a believable story, and the flow was beautifully paced and balanced between the romances.

5. The villains- Roberts villain is powerful and employs ruthless agents to broker his deals and handle the dirty work that includes murder, bloody interrogations and unlimited wealth at their disposal. Jai is a ruthless, bloodthirsty agent, and her methods are chilling making her role in the story as important as our hero and heroine.This review was originally posted at Caffeinated Book Reviewer

[wyvernfriend]

I love Lila Emerson, I want to be her.

[EBookObsessed]

It seems Lila Emerson spends a good deal of time watching the world through her binoculars. Lila likes to people watch. As a writer, she likes to make up stories about the lives of the people in the neighboring buildings and as a house sitter, there was always new windows to peek into. At her most recent job, she is enjoying watching the little boy and his new puppy on ten imaging all the adventures they will have. There’s the exotic dancer on twelve who’s hoping for his big break on Broadway. There is also Blondie and Mr. Slick on fourteen. If they are not dressing up for a night on the town, they are bickering, probably just for all the make up sex.

It is one sleepless night that’s going to change everything for Lila. When she sees Blondie take a punch to the face, she races to call 911 but before she can even punch in the three little numbers, Lila see her get pushed out through the window, falling the fourteen floors to her death.

She wants to help the police catch Mr. Slick and have him pay for what he did, but the police already have Oliver Archer in custody. He’s on his way to the morgue with a bullet to the brain. But not everyone is willing to believe Oliver would orchestrate a murder/suicide. His brother, artist Ashton Archer, knows his brother was no saint. Oliver was always looking for the next big thing, but he wasn’t violent and he wasn’t a killer. He was more likely to call big brother Ash to get him out of a bind rather than take his own life.

Ash seeks out the only witness to Sage Kendall’s death. Lila can see the pain that this is bringing Ash and she is more than willing to help Ash find some answers. Kindness from a stranger was the last thing Ash expected, nor did he expect how desperately he wanted to paint Lila. All he sees when he looks at her is her free spirit and he wants to capture that on canvass.

As some of the puzzle pieces start to fall together, Ash and Lila are starting to see the set up behind Oliver and Sage’s deaths, as well as the valuable piece of art and history which Oliver stumbled onto. Oliver might have recognized the value of what he found, but he didn’t recognize what kind of man he was trying to extort more money out of. Oliver thought he would be willing to pay a more reasonable finders fee for such a treasure, but this Collector would rather just remove the finder permanently and take his own treasure.

So Ash and Lila are on the trail of Oliver’s hidden treasure but Oliver’s killer is on their trail waiting for them to uncover the valuable piece of history.

THOUGHTS:
The hunt for the treasure is only half the story. The rest is a great romance between Lila who reaches out with compassion to Ash for his loss and Ash’s need to paint Lila. Both are very interesting characters, I love the way Ash sees what he wants to paint when he looks at Lila and how he keeps working on her until she caves. The more their attraction grows, the more Ash focuses on Lila and he keeps seeing different paintings featuring her.

Of course Ash’s rich father accuses Lila of being a gold digger and somehow orchestrating her witnessing of the murder to worm her way into Ash’s life. It is so far fetched you can only scratch your head how he can jump to that conclusion.

We also get a secondary romance with Lila’s best friend and Ash’s best friend. They had a history so although it is more behind the scenes, it does not feel awkward or rushed and we feel how they are lost lovers from their initial meeting and how easily they reconnect and have a chance to start over.

The hired killer in this story is as intriguing as she is dangerous. She begins to obsess about Ash and Lila and you know that even if they give up the treasure, she isn’t going to let them walk away. She wants to kill them just for her own pleasure. She is a stone, cold killer. I think it was very fascinating that Nora Roberts chose to make her killer for hire a woman.

As always, Nora Roberts hits it out of the park with The Collector with both the mystery and the romance.

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