The Final Target Published by St. Martin's Press on 5/26/2026 Genres: Romantic suspense
Pages: 418
Format: eARC
Source: the publisher
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A young author becomes the object of a fan’s desire―and rage―in the gripping new thriller by the #1 New York Times-bestselling author of Hidden Nature.
He showed up at Arden Bowie’s debut author appearance with a copy of her novel and an eager smile. He showered her with compliments and got her autograph. Then he came to her next event. And the one after that.
Dustin was just an aspiring writer who wanted advice, Arden reassured herself. But after giving in to one of his incessant invitations and chatting with him over coffee, she discovered that ignoring her inner alarm bell had been a terrible mistake…
An introvert at heart, Arden had long craved solitude―but now, after a harrowing assault, she finds herself hiding behind locked doors and startling at every sound. And her relief at his imprisonment is tempered by anxiety when Dustin’s wealthy mother helps to get him a paltry five-year sentence at a psychiatric facility.
Arden decides to write a new story for herself, moving to a tiny Oregon town and befriending Gideon, an ex-LAPD detective. But while she learns to thrive, Dustin remains his delusional, twisted self, as fixated as ever and now seething with anger. He still believes Arden's purpose on earth is to serve and please him. And his job is to protect her. But who will protect her from him?
I received a review copy of this book from the publisher.
An author is stalked and assaulted by a deranged fan in Nora Roberts’ latest romantic suspense novel.
I’ve been a fan of Nora Roberts for over 15 years now. I’m not sure when I first discovered her romantic suspense and paranormal or fantasy romance books, but I fell in love with them pretty quickly. I think the first may have been Northern Lights, but it was Tribute that made me a fan. The Final Target is the latest in a long line of romantic suspense novels destined to be bestsellers, and deservedly so.
Ms. Roberts immerses you in the main character’s world: her life, her thoughts, her feelings. As in Identity, the initial crime—in this case, a violent assault—takes place early in the book and is followed by Arden’s slow healing and rebuilding of her life. As the day of her stalker’s release looms closer, Arden moves across the country with her faithful dog to start afresh: a new house, new friends. Arden’s family is completely supportive of her: her cousins and their families already live not far away from her new home, and her aunt and uncle, who took her in when her parents died, will likely follow their children to the West Coast.
One of Arden’s new friends is the proprietor of the local hardware store, a charming older gentleman whose grandson was formerly a detective with a major metropolitan police force. Now the son is helping his widowed granddad with the store, and doing some woodworking on the side. The attraction between Gideon and Arden is instant, but their relationship develops more slowly; this isn’t insta-love, but something strong and built over time. Of course, Gideon’s former calling puts him in a good position to keep an eye on developments when Arden’s stalker, Duncan Dubecki, finally gets out of the psychiatric facility to which he was confined. And when Dubecki shows every sign of still being obsessed with Arden, she has Gideon and her other new friends on her side.
I found it easy to relate to Arden, and enjoyed the descriptions of her life in Oregon, from flea market shopping to furnish her house, to meeting the next-door baker and his husband, a painter who soon becomes one of Arden’s closest friends. The normal, ordinary details of life make the growing tension of the stalker plot stand out in sharp relief, and Arden’s healthy, happy relationships with family, friends, and of course Gideon only raise the stakes. This is the life, the love, the support Arden both needs and deserves: a stark contrast to the stalker’s picture of her life with him. Because it’s romantic suspense, and because it’s Nora Roberts, I trusted that everything would work out in the end, and even so, Roberts had me dreading the inevitable moment when the stalker would show up to threaten Arden again.
As far as I can tell, Nora Roberts is incapable of writing a bad book. Even at her worst, she’s pretty darn good, and this is very far from her worst. I’m not sure whether The Final Target will become a comfort reread for me in the way Mind Games, Whiskey Beach, Tribute, Identity, and The Liar have done, but I definitely enjoyed it and I look forward to reading it again!
NOTE: On a personal level, I have a hard time with scenes involving assault and scenes written from the perspective of someone as twisted and evil as Dubecki. I know that it adds a level of realism and tension that many readers prefer (though I hope they don’t actually enjoy those scenes!), and that what I find uncomfortably disturbing (to the point of nightmares) is simply part of the suspense/thriller experience to many readers. I tend to skim these scenes on first reading, going for the gist rather than full immersion, and often skip them entirely if and when I reread the book. If reading about assault or reading the thoughts of someone deeply steeped in misogyny is upsetting to you, you may want to skip those scenes.
Challenges: NetGalley & Edelweiss Challenge 2026
Reading this book contributed to these challenges:
- Netgalley & Edelweiss Reading Challenge 2026
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