Treasures Lost, Treasures Found (CBR5 #4)

Treasures Lost, Treasures Found is a very early Roberts book, and in many ways entirely typical of 1980s romance novels. I think I’m running out of Nora Roberts books. I picked this one up in a double feature with Secret Star. The protagonists are Kate Hardesty and Ky Silver. Kate and Ky met four years previous; having a torrid love affair while Kate was staying on Ocracoke Island, North Carolina – Ky’s home. Kate left Ky at the end of that first summer and she returns to the Island to finish her father’s final project.

Kate brings with her emotional baggage about her failed relationship with Ky, her father’s inability to show love, charts showing the possible location of a sunken ship, and a suitcase. She makes the decision to hire her ex-lover to be her captain and co-diver in the search for her father’s treasure as she thinks of it. She’s not out for the treasure for herself, but for what it would mean for her father’s legacy – the last thing she could do for the father she could not fully mourn. Ky is caught off-guard by her offer; but decides to take it so that he can be close to Kate.

Roberts is a strong writer now, but it is easy to see from this work where she has grown from in the last 25 plus years. There is too much reflection by the characters for a book which is baely more than 200 pages. There is simply page after page of Kate thinking about Ky and her father, or Ky thinking about Kate and how his feeling are changing or being rediscovered. Meanwhile, the only action in the novel involves the search for the sunken ship and Kate and Ky’ individual run-ins with wild life. The only real conflict in the novel was inside their heads, and it wasn’t that interesting. Generally pretty predictable, ok if you want a mindless read.