Tribute
Nora Roberts, 2008
★ 4.04 from 33.4k ratings on Goodreads
Romance Mystery, thriller & crime
A former child star trades Hollywood for a ruined Virginia farmhouse — her grandmother's — and the small town that remembers the screen legend better than she does. Warm and unhurried, with a witty small-town voice, a slow-blooming romance and a quiet pull of family history underneath.
Feels like longing, hope and curiosity. About family, home and love.
Who it’s for
You may like it if you enjoy gentle small-town romance, renovation details and a charming, nerdy neighbor who takes his time. Be warned that the pacing is slow and the construction talk is heavy, and some readers find the mystery easy to guess.
Why read it
It offers a settled, hopeful story about coming home to a place that half-remembers you, and the slow work of making something ruined livable again.
A page from the book
What it takes to look at a ruin and see next spring.
Standing, she scanned the ruined lawns, the sagging fences, the sad old barn that stood soot gray and scarred from weather. There had been chickens once—or so she’d been told—a couple of pretty horses, tidy fields of crops, a small, thriving grove of fruit trees. She wanted to believe—maybe needed to believe—she could bring all that back. That by the next spring, and all the springs after, she could stand here and look at all the budding, the blooming, the business of what had been her grandmother’s. What readers say
Readers often adore the charming, nerdy neighbor and the sweet, gradual romance, with many finding the renovation and small-town details cozy and amusing. Others are bored by the slow pacing and construction talk, and some find the mystery weak or predictable.
Nora Roberts.Roberts began her first novel in a spiral notebook during a 1979 blizzard, snowed in with her two young sons. She has published more than 200 books since.
Books that feel like this
More by Nora Roberts
Northern Lights
Nora Roberts, 2004
A burned-out Baltimore cop takes a job as police chief in a tiny Alaskan town and finds a place where everyone knows everyone—and something is badly wrong.
Chesapeake Blue
Nora Roberts, 2002
A painter comes home to the Chesapeake, to four brothers, a porch rocker and a florist who has sworn off being charmed.
Where to get it
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Questions readers ask
- Is Tribute for me?
- You may like it if you enjoy gentle small-town romance, renovation details and a charming, nerdy neighbor who takes his time. Be warned that the pacing is slow and the construction talk is heavy, and some readers find the mystery easy to guess.
- What is Tribute like?
- Warm and unhurried, with a witty small-town voice, a slow-blooming romance and a quiet pull of family history underneath. Feels like longing, hope and curiosity. About family, home and love.
- What should I read after Tribute?
- If you liked Tribute, try The Wedding (Danielle Steel), Check & Mate (Ali Hazelwood) and Done and Dusted (Lyla Sage).
A taste of the feed
The most inventive way anyone has ever said I'd rather not sit here.
I’d rather drink a can of Axe body spray while feral raccoons feast on my exposed bone marrow than sit across from this twat.
Check & Mate · Ali Hazelwood
The boxes aren't clutter—they're a diary you're afraid to open.
Sometimes, it was just easier for me to live under the piles rather than face what might be in them. It wasn’t logical, but my brain didn’t really work normally.
Done and Dusted · Lyla Sage
Some people are simply at home in the world. The rest of us watch them.
It must have worked for her, because it never mattered where she was in the world, she was home. She waltzed through life like she belonged at every party she was never invited to, fell in love with every lonely heart she found, and found luck in every adventure. She had that air about her-tourists asked her for directions when she went abroad, servers asked her opinion on wines and fine whiskeys, celebrities asked her about her life.
The Seven Year Slip · Ashley Poston
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