Nora Roberts: Has She Got The McDonald’s Syndrome?

I don’t know about you, but I’ve been reading Nora Roberts’ books for years now. I remember glomming her MacGregor series years ago, and re-reading them to death!!
In fact, up until last year, I used to read her stuff constantly. Since then though, I’ve found myself taking longer and longer to finish her books.
In fact there was a particular Nora book that I started reading, and never got round to finishing.

In terms of her best work, I still have many of her stuff from 1985, and I have to say, in my opinion that year saw her produce some of her best books (this may just be nostalgia talking). Books like, One Man’s Art, All the Possibilities, Tempting Fate, Nightmoves etc, were amongst my best ever reads (they were then anyway) but I find that her more recent work almost has a lazy feel to them. Does that make sense? I honestly don’t believe that she has the same passion for writing as she used to.

I re-read ‘For The Love of Lilah’ about a month ago, and I still enjoyed it as much as I had the first time I’d ever read it, the same cannot be said for her more recent offerings.

I can’t really put my finger on it, but there is definitely something missing for me personally.

I wonder if she has been hit by the McDonald’s syndrome. Millions of people still eat Big Macs, but how many people really enjoy them? Personally my reasons for going to a McDonald’s rather than any other burger restaurant is because I know exactly what to expect, the food is bland, but it fills a hole, and I know that there wont be any nasty surprises waiting for me. I can’t help but make the comparisons with a Nora Roberts book.

So, what’s your opinion on Nora? Is she at the top of her game, or just living off her name?