Unlike Night Shield, which is a Desert Isle Keeper for me, every once in a while Nora Roberts writes a book that I forget the minute I finish the last page. Considering Kate is just such a book. There’s nothing wrong with the writing or the plotting, there’s just nothing memorable in any of it. The characters are likable enough, but they lack real depth. And although I know that short category romances don’t have a lot of room for major conflict, this author has proven in other books that conflict is possible and does definitely make the story more interesting.

As she does every once in a while (usually coinciding with the release of repackaged editions of series books), Ms. Roberts has brought back one of her popular families in a book that features the daughter of Natasha and Spencer, Kate Stanislaski Kimball. Kate is a prima ballerina who has given up her international career to open a ballet school in her hometown in Shepherdstown, West Virginia. This was the first hint that things were going to be pretty smooth sailing. Kate didn’t leave ballet because of a career ending injury or because she was exhausted and burned out, she left because she decided that at 25 she’s ready to give up the glamour and glitz and teach small children. That’s very nice, but she comes across as very bland and perfect.

She hires Brody O’Connell to renovate the building she’s bought for her school. He’s a widowed father and private contractor. The two are immediately attracted to each other. In fact, before she even knew who the man was, Kate was flirting with him. She’s offended when she finds out he has a son, because that means he’s a married man and what’s he doing flirting with her?! Now in this day and age would you immediately assume a man is married because he has a small son? He’s just as likely to be single, divorced or otherwise as be married. That’s the kind of conflict that comes up between these two. Each problem is manufactured on one page and resolved two pages later, and none of them pulls you into the story.

Brody is supposedly reluctant to get involved with Kate because his deceased wife was from an upper class family and that led to nothing but problems. What those problems are is never very clear. He loved his wife, he settled down to regular work when they married, he ended up with a son he loves very much – where’s the difficulty in any of this? We’re told that he faced opposition from her family and his father certainly seems to resent the marriage, but the reasons for this are never explained. Granted he didn’t follow in his father’s footsteps to become a plumber, but he’s a successful contractor and he’s raising a decent son. Nevertheless, Brody and his father can’t be in the same room without arguing – about not very much at all. This isn’t unusual for fathers and sons, but it has a manufactured feel in this case.

Brody and Kate date and make love. They fight over pretty inconsequential matters and Brody worries that Kate will lose interest in living in Shepherdstown and long for the bright lights of New York. That’s not unreasonable, but since Kate is the one pushing the relationship, he doesn’t have much reason to fear this and quickly gets over his concerns.

All in all they have a very nice mating dance, that leads to a happily ever after (in case you were worried). But other than the rather sweet scene when Brody’s son Jack proposes to Kate, there isn’t much that I’ll remember about this couple or this book. If you like to see how everyone is doing in a Roberts’ family series, pick up this book; otherwise you’ll find more intriguing Stanislaskis in the repackaged The Stanislaski Sisters and/or The Stanislaski Brothers.