Depuis que trois adolescents ont mêlé leur sang sur l'autel de la Pierre païenne et fait le serment de rester amis pour la vie, la petite ville de Hawkins Hollow est victime, tous les sept ans, d'une semaine de phénomènes paranormaux dévastateurs. Devenus adultes, Cal Hawkins et ses amis vont lutter contre le Mal, sous le regard du journaliste Quinn Black.
Depuis que trois adolescents ont mêlé leur sang sur l'autel de la Pierre païenne et fait le serment de rester amis pour la vie, la petite ville de Hawkins Hollow est victime, tous les sept ans, d'une semaine de phénomènes paranormaux dévastateurs. Devenus adultes, Cal Hawkins et ses amis vont lutter contre le Mal, sous le regard du journaliste Quinn Black.
Not my usual style, but it was a good read. I have now read all 3 books of the series, and other than the fact that there is way too much romance and sex in them for me, and the fact that she plays games with reality, they were still somewhat enjoyable. There was a solid story, and the books followed a line of reasoning. And there weren't loose ends left, the existence of which I find extremely annoying. A little bit of suspension of disbelief, and of enjoying the “woo-woo" of the supernatural is required. The books are good, but they really need to be read in order (Blood Brothers, The Hollow, The Pagan Stone)!
Not my usual style, but it was a good read. I have now read all 3 books of the series, and other than the fact that there is way too much romance and sex in them for me, and the fact that she plays games with reality, they were still somewhat enjoyable. There was a solid story, and the books followed a line of reasoning. And there weren't loose ends left, the existence of which I find extremely annoying. A little bit of suspension of disbelief, and of enjoying the “woo-woo" of the supernatural is required. The books are good, but they really need to be read in order (Blood Brothers, The Hollow, The Pagan Stone)!
That I have read two Nora Roberts novels back to back I ascribe entirely to the fact that La Nora semi-regularly posts comments on Smart Bitches Trashy Books, and each time I see her post up there, the cooler I find her. Therefore, I felt obligated to pick up a couple more of her books.
The second of this last round of buying Nora was the first of her current paranormal trilogy, Blood Brothers, Book 1 of The Sign of the Seven. This was paranormal more in the vein of psychic/Gothic rather than fantasy, I note. In the hands of another writer, it might almost have been a horror novel plot. We have a small East Coast town where three young boys accidentally release a demon that proceeds to terrorize the town and drive everybody batshit every seven years--while the boys, who have been granted certain extraordinary …
That I have read two Nora Roberts novels back to back I ascribe entirely to the fact that La Nora semi-regularly posts comments on Smart Bitches Trashy Books, and each time I see her post up there, the cooler I find her. Therefore, I felt obligated to pick up a couple more of her books.
The second of this last round of buying Nora was the first of her current paranormal trilogy, Blood Brothers, Book 1 of The Sign of the Seven. This was paranormal more in the vein of psychic/Gothic rather than fantasy, I note. In the hands of another writer, it might almost have been a horror novel plot. We have a small East Coast town where three young boys accidentally release a demon that proceeds to terrorize the town and drive everybody batshit every seven years--while the boys, who have been granted certain extraordinary abilities, have to figure out how to do damage control every time the demon strikes. Now, twenty-one years later, they're joined by three women who share their unique gifts, and all six are teaming up to face down the demon, hopefully for the final round.
(I'm pretty sure that Ms. Roberts wasn't thinking of the old Star Trek episode "The Return of the Archons" when she wrote this thing--though I have to admit a little voice in my brain kept asking, "Are you one with the Body?" every time I read about the town's previous incidents of going batshit and otherwise perfectly normal people raping, murdering, committing wild acts of vandalism, killing themselves, etc., and the survivors not remembering much about what happened after. Aheh. But I digress.)
It's probably fairly pat and predictable that each of the men has a counterpart, ability-wise, among the women. Caleb and Quinn both can see the past. Fox and Layla are both psychic. And Gage and Cybil can see the future. Naturally, these pairings are also clearly getting set up romantically as well; in Caleb and Quinn's case, pretty much right out of the gate. However, despite the predictable pairings, the six lead characters are likable. Quinn in particular is very sympathetic to me as a reader--Nora gets points for a woman who cheerfully loves food, is aware that she needs to change her eating habits to stay healthy, and is productive about it rather than angstful. I also very much liked Quinn's very straightforward handling of not only her feelings for Caleb, but also the paranormal events at large. She pretty much poleaxes poor Caleb, and charmingly so.
Since we are dealing with a cast of six main characters, Book 1 is not surprisingly mostly devoted to bringing everybody on stage. There are initial low-level rumblings out of the demon, just enough to let the cast know that this time around it's more powerful than it used to be--and to let them all get used to the idea of facing it together. Other than that, though, not much happens; therefore, Book 1 leaves me very much with a prologue-y sort of "okay, now let's get to the main action" feeling. But it's a good enough feeling that I'll be seeking out Book 2. Three and a half stars.
