Chesapeake Blue

Nora Roberts

Seth Quinn, the tag-along Quinn brother, has returned from Europe to his beloved Maryland home on the Chesapeake Bay. His 3 older brothers and their families all live there. The Quinns have a business hand building special order wooden boats. Each also has other interests. Seth has become an artist of some acclaim, especially in Europe. He has longed to return home, though. Now he has returned, he doesn't want the family to discover the problem he had across the ocean that brought him back.

Seth knows how special his life is. For the first ten years of his life he was abused by his mother, a woman who wanted parties, liquor, and drugs. Then Ray Quinn found out about him, rescued him, and brought him into his home. After Ray died, his older brothers, Cameron, Ethan, and Phillip, kept him. Now they, their wives, and children, are the family he had dreamed about the first ten years of his life.

On his first day back home, he meets Druscilla Whitcomb Banks, the owner of the new flower shop. He is smitten. Her classic looks are striking. He knows he has to paint her portrait. He plans on much more, too. Dru, though, has broken away from her family and Washington DC social life to live her own life. Seth Quinn is no part of her planned future. Why would the man want to paint her, anyway? Especially naked? No, she was having no part in that!

I was excited when I discovered this was another story in the original Seaswept trilogy. It is wonderful to see Seth grown up in the supportive family environment surrounding the Quinn family. These characters are charming, ornery, fighters, and lovers. They tug at a romantic's heart. Roberts is very good with this type of romance, with enough tension to keep the story going, yet obvious in its conclusion. It is getting to the conclusion in Chesapeake Blue that touches the reader.

Notice: Strong sexual content

Seaswept
Rising Tides
Inner Harbor
Chesapeake Blue