I am a fan of Nora Roberts and have been for a goodly number of years. While I don’t profess to having read even a fraction of this prolific writers works, I’ve read a fair number of them in all genres she choses to write in.

I have especially enjoyed the ones where she includes bits of magic lore or “witchcraft”, so when the first of this trilogy came out “Blood Brothers” I read it with relish. She drew me into the town of Hawkins Hollow and the story of the three boys all born of different mothers on the same night at the same time and how, when they were 10 years old, they snuck out and performed a ritual that made them blood brothers. The ritual also unleashed a terror that had been held, contained for centuries. A terror waiting for the three boys to unleash it so that, in time, it could be vanquished forever.

Every seven years, on the seventh of July starting at midnight, many of the inhabitants go a little crazy and do things they wouldn’t normally do. They kill each other, burn and maim. As the years pass, each successive seven gets worse and more frightening. Then, the year of their 31st birthday, twenty-one years after they unwittingly unleashed the terror, three women come to town and the six people discover a bond.

It’s a bond of family; a bond of shared history. Together the six research, plot and plan to finally bring the horror to an end.

Nora Roberts is a skillful weaver of tales. Her characters are all very human in their needs, desires, strengths and weaknesses. While none of them need fat burners, they are otherwise pretty much like you and me. She writes compelling and erotic love scenes that make every hero a lover beyond compare and every heroine a sexy, desireable woman.  While the events they may find themselves caught up in are challenging they are well within the bounds of do-able.

I enjoyed very much Blood Brothers and The Hollow, but the third in the series, Pagan Stone which is the climax of the trilogy left me unsatisfied. It was too cookie-cutter like many of the –other trilogies she’s written in scope and scenes. Even the two main characters seem way too -familiar and it’s not because they were introduced and were part of the other two books.-

So, while the series is a good one, it’s not a great one. If you’re new to Nora Roberts, and you don’t mind a little dark arts in your stories, you’ll enjoy this trilogy a lot. It moves along at a good clip and never leaves you wanting to rush through it.

Blood Brothers, The Hollow, Pagan Stone by Nora Roberts
Published by Jove Books, 2008
ISBN 978-0-515-14466-6

Cover of Foul Play

I haven’t read a romance novel in a while and when I saw the cover for Foul Play by Janet Evanovich in the bookstore, It piqued my interest and I picked it up not knowing what to expect.

What I found was a delightfully funny tale of love at first sight between two unlikely and un-stereotyped characters.

Amy Klasse plays the part of Lulu the Clown on a children’s show at the local television station, but the station’s manager fires her in favor of the buxom Veronica and her dancing Rhode Island Red Rooster. Amy literally bumps into the handsome Jake Elliot, a veterinarian whose practice is within a few blocks of the grocery store where they meet (and where they are NOT looking for any Orovo detox) and, after hearing her plight hires her as his receptionist on the spot despite not knowing of he truly NEEDS a receptionist.

Then Veronica brings the rooster in to Jake’s veterinary clinic seriously ill. Jake requests she leave him overnight so Jake can run some tests and observe him. When he returns the next morning, the rooster is gone and when the police arrive, all chaos breaks loose and when Amy arrives with chicken soup in hand, she’s immediately pounced upon as a likely suspect.

Amy knows that SHE had nothing to do with the disappearing rooster and Jake doesn’t believe she’s guilty either, so they pair up to find the real bird-napper. Their search for the criminal brings them closer together and ultimately, Jake proposes to Amy.

But it wouldn’t be a romance worth it’s salt if the couple had it too easy, so I won’t spoil the book for you by telling you what happens to drive them apart and how they subsequently get back together. Or how they solve the mystery of the missing rooser.

Christina Dodd and Connie Brockway are an awesome team of writers who took this great idea of writing about an historic bed and wove tales around it that have delighted me with their characters, the intertwining of the 4 stories that make up this book and the humor and drama within. That I’m getting 4 romance novels for the price of one is icing on the cake.

These awesome ladies each take two periods each from the Medieval, Elizabethan, Regency and modern times and create these four tales that are centralized around the Masterson Bed. The bed is a huge piece of furniture originally built and carved by the medieval Knight and first Masterson, Nicholas who was given the manor of Trecombe as reward for serving Richard in the Holy Wars.

Titled “The Bed is Made“, the story of Nicholas and Jocelyn begins with a tourney between Nicholas and Guy Moore who seeks not only Nicholas’ land, but his lady as well. Married by proxy to Trecombe’s mistress, Jocelyn, Nicholas must now win the heart of his bride and do battle to keep the lands he’s already won.

“The Bed Unmade” is set in 1583 and sees Lady Helwin, a poor relation of the current Earl of Smythwick who is used by her conniving cousin to thwart the unwanted attentions of Rion, the current Masterson Lord who has fallen on bad times and seeks a wealthy bride to shore up his finances. Helwin has long held a secret attraction for Rion, but he has been unaware of her until Berthilda’s machinations bring Helwin to his castle as Rion attempts to force a wedding between himself and Berthilda to secure his fortune. He falls in love with Helwin and they must find another way to secure the fortunes of the Mastersons.

In “The Lady Makes Her Bed“, Phillipa and Ned Masterson have an undeniable desire for each other, but will it turn into a love that will transcend them? You’ll have to read how.

“The Bed Wins All” brings us to contemporary times and our heorine is the American museum director Laurel Whitney who is currently responsible for caring for the Masterson Manor’s antiquities and leading the tours through the home. Her reincarnation of Lord Masterson is the illegitemate son of the last lord. Despite being born on the wrong side of the blanket and in humble circumstances, Max Ashton has reversed his fortunes and purchased the Manor back from it’s current owners. Laurel is unaware of this because there’s also someone stealing the Masterson antiquities and selling them on the black market and Laurel is a suspect!

I hope you’ll be as charmed by this novel as I was! I laughed and cried with it’s characters and delighted in their banter with each other. All four sets of heroines and heroes quickly won their way into my heart although the “bad guys” didn’t always earn my total contempt even when they threatened the hero or heroine’s life.

Once Upon A Pillow by Christina Dodd and Connie Brockway
Published by Pocket Books a division ofSimon & Schuster, Inc., Inc. 2002
ISBN 0-7434-946-6