3.5 stars

So, romance is not my genre. Nora Roberts, however, is reigning queen of romance- she manages to put out at least 3 books per year which continue to dominate the best-seller charts. I've read some of her stuff before and liked it well enough. Her first Irish trilogy was particularly enjoyable, so when I heard about the new series- Ireland AND magic- I thought I might like this book, too.

However- to be blunt, this book is horrible. It starts out with some sort of prologue set in medieval (probably) Ireland, with a good witch, her three children, and a bad sorceror. The bad sorceror wants the good witch, and so a cycle is set for the future- the bad sorceror will try to get, or defeat, or do something to, the reincarnations of the witch's children. All of whom have a protective totem,: horse, hound, hawk.

This book gets the reincarnated kids together again, and the series will have each of them finding love! So, okay. The first heroine is a perky horse trainer who likes to chatter who's come to Ireland to find her roots. She falls for a grumpy horse trainer.

The writing seemed like a first draft. No depth to the characters, no interest in the plot, a half-heartedly done conflict between the lovers that was resolved before the climax- pure formula, nothing interesting, magic a light show instead of complex or thought-through, just nothing whatsoever to recommend this book. It felt like it was churned out in the knowledge that it didn't really matter what the book was like; it's Nora Roberts so it will sell. Just don't bother.

There was a time that I would inhale absolutely every Nora Roberts book I could get my hands on. A couple of them I read so many times that the pages began to fall out of the books. I need to hunt those up and give them a reread...

Anyway, somewhere over the last several years, something began to change. I still enjoy reading her books, but I no longer have the urgency to buy them when they first come out.

I also have grown to prefer her paranormal-type trilogies over her stand alone contemporaries, though I think that's contrary to a lot of other people.

That last fact is what makes me sad that I didn't enjoy this one quite as much as I thought I would. I should have loved it. It has witches, legends, a group of three women and three men coming together to try to defeat a centuries old foe, and a central romance between two of six characters.

And I did like it. I liked it quite a bit, but just not as much as I was anticipating. For me, it felt like the author was just going through the motions as far as the romance goes. And in a Nora Roberts book, I expect to love the romance.

Our heroine, Iona, arrives from America in search of her family and her destiny. Iona, I liked. I liked that she babbled when she was nervous, and that she constantly apologized for things she didn't need to apologize for--something I do myself--but yet she was very direct. She didn't tap dance around her attraction to Boyle, our hero.

And I liked Boyle too. I actually liked all the characters, but the problem was, none of them had much depth. The potential was there, but it wasn't fully realized, in my opinion. Therefore, the romance fell flat for me, especially the love-at-first-sight aspects of it. I could buy that Iona and Boyle were attracted to each other, sure. But other than that...

I will read the entire trilogy, because for all it's issues, and like I've said, I did enjoy this one. I own the next one, it's Connor's book (Iona's cousin), and he was my favorite character in this one. Though that may be because my brain pictured him looking somewhat like Aidan Turner. Anyway, hopefully, I'll enjoy it a bit more than this one.

Another awesome love/magic story from Nora Roberts. More magicky than her usual novels, it has a deep Celt flavour to it, and amazing characters. Totally recommend it to anyone that likes strong heroines, and equally strong heroes, love, magic and above all (cheesy moment) the magic of love. :3

Its a cute book and a nice series I think. Nice quick read :)

Iona goes to Ireland to stay with her cousins Branna and Connor. The family legend says the three of them with tackle dark forces that have been around for a long time. Iona is willing to learn and help with that, but she also has always felt lonely and unlovable, so she is really embracing having a family.

The story was great and the characters were all well thought out. I found it dragged a little at times but I'm excited to read the next two in the trilogy and see where it all goes.

I hate to say it, but I didn't love this book.

I've read many, but not all, of Nora Roberts's books. I'm not a big fan of the magic and supernatural, but her books are usually good enough to pull me in anyway.

Iona knows, sort of, that she's a witch. After growing up in the US with cold, uninvolved parents, she's spent her life feeling left out of love. She does have a warm relationship with her grandmother, though, and it's through Nan that Iona learns of her Irish connections.

As soon as she is able, Iona moves to Ireland to seek out her cousins, and her destiny.

There seemed to me to be a bit of a distance between Nora Roberts and the characters in this book. ...just a little something missing.

Everything seemed a little too quickly drawn. On one hand, Iona feels that she's grown up unloved; on the other hand, much is made of her loving relationship with her grandmother. I realize that some of the relationships will be explored in the other books in the trilogy, but even Boyle and Iona's story seemed to be superficial.

And the big battle they've been building up to for the entire book? It's over in about 30 seconds. I actually went back to be sure I hadn't accidentally skipped a couple of pages on the e-reader.

As I said, I'm not a big fan of the supernatural elements so that is influencing my opinion, but even most of Nora Roberts's witch-y books had enough depth to the people and their relationships to keep me interested. This one...not so much.