Marianne (Australia) (2012/01/27): Sea Swept is the first of the Chesapeake Bay series by Nora Roberts. Cameron, Ethan and Phillip Quinn were all adopted by Ray and Stella Quinn as troubled teens. Now their widower father has died in a car accident that some suspect was suicide, leaving behind Seth, a difficult 10-year-old boy who looks remarkably like Ray, and whom he was in the process of adopting. His dying wish was that his three sons bring up Seth as their brother. Social worker Anna Spinelli is determined to realise the best outcome for Seth, but is strongly attracted to champion boat-racer Cam, extra prickly because of his suddenly curbed independence. There is plenty of humour in the situation of three men trying to bring up well a young boy, the clashes between Anna and Cam and the interactions between the brothers, but Roberts also touches on child abuse, the importance of honesty, finding your place in life and a child’s need for security and love. Roberts gives us good-looking, likeable male characters with solid personalities and great dialogue between them, strong, intelligent female characters, some hot sex scenes and the mystery of Seth’s parentage. This instalment is the story of Cameron Quinn and the unsolved mystery will send readers looking for Rising Tides, the story of Ethan Quinn. I had in my head that Nora Roberts was all romance, but this was very un-Mills&Boon, and surprisingly good.
