11.29.2014 | Saturday

Shadow Spell

category: Book Reviews
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Shadow Spelltitle: Shadow Spell
author: Nora Roberts
series: The Cousins O'Dwyer Trilogy #2
published: 25 March 2014
publisher: Berkley
genre(s): contemporary, fantasy, historical, romance
pages: 353
source: bought
format: eBook
buy/shelve it: Amazon | B&N | BookBub | Goodreads

rating: five-stars | series rating: five-stars

the blurb

With the legends and lore of Ireland running through his blood, falconer Connor O’Dwyer is proud to call County Mayo home. It’s where his sister, Branna, lives and works, where his cousin, Iona, has found true love, and where his childhood friends form a circle that can’t be broken…

A circle that is about to be stretched out of shape—by a long-awaited kiss.

Meara Quinn is Branna’s best friend, a sister in all but blood. Her and Connor’s paths cross almost daily, as Connor takes tourists on hawk walks and Meara guides them on horseback across the lush countryside. She has the eyes of a gypsy and the body of a goddess…things Connor has always taken for granted—until his brush with death propels them into a quick, hot tangle.

Plenty of women have found their way to Connor’s bed, but none to his heart until now. Frustratingly, Meara is okay with just the heat, afraid to lose herself—and their friendship—to something more. But soon, Connor will see the full force and fury of what runs in his blood. And he will need his family and friends around him when his past rolls in like the fog, threatening an end to all he loves…


my review

Much like the first, Dark Witch, I loved this next book in the Cousins O’Dwyer trilogy!  The stories are so engrossing and sweep me away to another place and often another time.

This book focuses on Connor and Meara.  I love both of these two, and much like Iona and Boyle in the first novel, one is a witch while the other is not.  I love that Meara, although without powers of her own, is a fierce warrior women.  She is loyal and strong and always fighting to protect those she loves.  But she has been hurt and it shows.  That part of her story was so relatable and I loved the vulnerability that it gave her character.

Connor is the book boyfriend.  He’s charming and funny, caring and compassionate, loyal and passionate… and Irish!  He is so patient with her, pushing her to acknowledge her own feelings without forcing it upon her before she was ready.  I love that he refused to give up and kept at with charm and humor.  As laidback as his character tends to be, however, he has a fierce streak of passion against any who would hurt his own.  A pretty sexy trait!

The weaving of the story through time and with the Dark Witches of the past mae made for a rich read.  The old and the new, the mythology, the magic… all of it created a novel that I could not stop reading!!  I can’t wait to start the next, and last :( , in the trilogy.

Things to love…

  • Connor.  His patience, kindness, and compassion were all delivered with charm and humor!
  • Meara.  Despite her “warrior woman” persona, she was vulnerable and sweet when it mattered most.

You definitely have to read Dark Witch first, but this is a fantastic series.

About Nora Roberts

Nora Roberts was born in Silver Spring, Maryland, the youngest of five children. After a school career that included some time in Catholic school and the discipline of nuns, she married young and settled in Keedysville, Maryland.
She worked briefly as a legal secretary. “I could type fast but couldn’t spell, I was the worst legal secretary ever,” she says now. After her sons were born she stayed home and tried every craft that came along. A blizzard in February 1979 forced her hand to try another creative outlet. She was snowed in with a three and six year old with no kindergarten respite in sight and a dwindling supply of chocolate.
Born into a family of readers, Nora had never known a time that she wasn’t reading or making up stories. During the now-famous blizzard, she pulled out a pencil and notebook and began to write down one of those stories. It was there that a career was born. Several manuscripts and rejections later, her first book, Irish Thoroughbred, was published by Silhouette in 1981.
Nora met her second husband, Bruce Wilder, when she hired him to build bookshelves. They were married in July 1985. Since that time, they’ve expanded their home, traveled the world and opened a bookstore together.
Through the years, Nora has always been surrounded by men. Not only was she the youngest in her family, but she was also the only girl. She has raised two sons. Having spent her life surrounded by men, Ms. Roberts has a fairly good view of the workings of the male mind, which is a constant delight to her readers. It was, she’s been quoted as saying, a choice between figuring men out or running away screaming.
Nora is a member of several writers groups and has won countless awards from her colleagues and the publishing industry. Recently The New Yorker called her “America’s favorite novelist.”

Rating Report
plot
five-stars
characters
five-stars
writing
five-stars
pacing
five-stars
Overall: five-stars

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