Legacy: A Novel

Nora Roberts

May 2021 · Macmillan Audio · Narrated by January LaVoy

About this audiobook

#1 New York Times bestselling author Nora Roberts presents Legacy, a new novel of a mother and a daughter, of ambition and romance, and of a traumatic past reawakened by a terrifying threat...

Adrian Rizzo was seven when she met her father for the first time. That was the day he nearly killed her—before her mother, Lina, stepped in.

Soon after, Adrian was dropped off at her grandparents’ house in Maryland, where she spent a long summer drinking lemonade, playing with dogs, making a new best friend—and developing the stirrings of a crush on her friend’s ten-year-old brother. Lina, meanwhile, traveled the country promoting her fitness brand and turning it into a billion-dollar business. There was no point in dwelling on the past.

A decade later, Adrian has created her own line of yoga and workout videos, following in Lina’s footsteps but intent on maintaining creative control. And she’s just as cool-headed and ambitious as her mother. They aren’t close, but they’re cordial—as long as neither crosses the other.

But while Lina dismisses the death threats that Adrian starts getting as a routine part of her daughter’s growing celebrity, Adrian can’t help but find the vicious rhymes unsettling. Year after year, they keep arriving—the postmarks changing, but the menacing tone the same. They continue after she returns to Maryland and becomes reacquainted with Raylan, her childhood crush, all grown up and as gorgeously green-eyed as ever. Sometimes it even seems like the terrifying messages are indeed routine, like nothing will come of them. Until the murders start, and the escalation begins...

A Macmillan Audio production from St. Martin's Press

Ratings and reviews

Adrian Rizzo’s life as she knew it changed when she was seven years old and met her father for the first and last time. It was a violent and pivotal moment that shaped her future. Her mother, Lina, had a successful and thriving fitness business that became even more high profile after this event and she left Adrian with her parents for the summer to heal. There she created lifelong relationships that would become even more meaningful for the rest of her life. When Adrian started her own fitness business as a teenager, it not only did well but ignited some unwanted attention from someone who sent her poetic threats with regularity until the day they became something more. I’ve come to expect these stories to take considerable time to develop, laying the foundation for not only the characters but the situational settings that immerse you so deeply into their lives that you feel you’re a part of it all. I love how it envelops me and won’t let go. Yes, there are dramatic moments but they’re not the heart and soul of the whole of it. It’s a different kind of suspense so that’s important to consider before starting. I loved getting to know not only Adrian the child and the adult, but all of the people who were important in her life. Even though I suspected who probably was the author of those sinister notes throughout the years, that knowledge didn’t detract from my level of enjoyment in the least. The relationships were rich and meaningful and when she connected with her childhood crush, Raylan Wells, that felt as natural and complete as it should. The final confrontation with the “poet” couldn’t have been more exciting, satisfying that aspect of my expectations and concluding with a magnificent crescendo. Finally, the narrator, who is one of my most favorite, just elevated this story to a higher plane as she managed to create distinctions for a host of characters with diversity not only in gender but age and background. I actually had to check to ensure there weren’t multiple performers! I loved everything about this story, which celebrated the value of family in all its beauty and messiness. (Thanks to Macmillan Audio for my complimentary copy. All opinions are my own.)

ending was garbage, overall story telling was good, like how u expect me to believe he wouldn't kill a dog but all these woman, very predictable story, wouldn't read again

Lovely 🌹

About the author

NORA ROBERTS is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of more than 200 novels, including Hideaway, The Chronicles of the One trilogy, Under Currents, Shelter in Place, Come Sundown, and many more. She is also the author of the bestselling In Death series written under the pen name J.D. Robb. There are more than 500 million copies of her books in print.