The Quinn Legacy

Author: Nora Roberts

Published: February 7, 2006

Category: Romance
Series: Chesapeake Bay (Inner Harbor and Chesapeake Blue)
Rating: 8/10

I think this volume in the Chesapeake Bay series is more about Seth than The Quinn Brothers, even though Inner Harbor is Phillip's story.

Phillip begins dating Sybill, a well-known psychologist/sociologist studying small town behavior. However, she's really Seth's aunt, using the research as an excuse to get close to the Quinns and investigate Seth's situation. Her alcoholic/druggie sister Gloria called her with a bogus story about how Seth had been stolen from her when in fact, she sold her son to Ray Quinn and is out of money yet again and the Quinn brothers refuse to fork over more money. Fortunately for her, Sybill didn't stay stupid for too long, and decided that Seth was better off with a family that actually cared about him. Sybill's entrance into the story provides helpful background information about Seth's early childhood, his mother's twisted personality, and the truth beneath the rumors of Seth being a Quinn by real blood.

Chesapeake Blue brings us almost twenty years into the future and Seth is now a famous artist, Boats by Quinn has taken off in the best way, and his brothers have families. As soon as he returns to St. Christopher's, he homes in on a newcomer in town who's just opened a flower shop. And it turns out she's also rich and comes from an affluent family in Washington D.C. The obstacle in their relationship was trust. Seth didn't want to tell Dru about his mother coming back into his life. Then Dru gets pissed because he wouldn't tell her about it. Seth pissed me off with his refusal to tell the other Quinns about his secret payments to his mother over the past dozen years. After all the support they gave him and repeating that Quinns stood together, etc., I kept wanting to shake him and yell, "Tell your brothers! They love you and will help! Stop feeling sorry for yourself!"

I can't pinpoint why, but I didn't like The Quinn Legacy as much as I liked The Quinn Brothers. I think I liked the couples in the first volume more. Maybe it's because both couples this time around are rich all around, and it seems a little hollow at times. I found it hard to feel bad for the female characters: "Aw, poor little rich girl doesn't have a perfect life and she keeps feeling sorry for herself." Despite the annoyances, I did enjoy the story and as it goes in Roberts' series, the last book is like a big epilogue for the couples who were in the previous books.