Title: Morrigan's Cross
Series: Circle Trilogy
Author: Nora Roberts
Read copy: eBook (Kindle)
Published: August 29, 2006
Publisher: Berkley
ASIN: B000OZ0O0W
In the last days of high summer, with lightning striking blue in a black sky, the sorcerer stood on a high cliff overlooking the raging sea...
Belting out his grief into the storm, Hoyt Mac Cionaoith rails against the evil that has torn his twin brother from their family’s embrace. Her name is Lilith. Existing for over a thousand years, she has lured countless men to an immortal doom with her soul-stealing kiss. But now, this woman known as vampire will stop at nothing until she rules this world—and those beyond it...
Hoyt is no match for the dark siren. But his powers come from the goddess Morrigan, and it is through her that he will get his chance at vengeance. At Morrigan’s charge, he must gather five others to form a ring of power strong enough to overcome Lilith. A circle of six: himself, the witch, the warrior, the scholar, the one of many forms, and the one he’s lost. And it is in this circle, hundreds of years in the future, where Hoyt will learn how strong his spirit—and his heart—have become...
My rating:
In the twelfth century, sorcerer Hoyt Mac Cionaoith fails to kill Lilith, the vampire queen who turned his twin brother, Cian. He also fails to save Cian from his demonic fate.
But all is not lost, for the goddess Morrigan tasks Hoyt with leading the final charge against the demons determined to destroy our world and those beyond it. He's to gather six—himself, the witch, a scholar, a warrior, one of many forms and the one he lost and take a stand against Lilith and her army of undead almost a thousand years in the future.
This one is tricky. Surprisingly (and not in a good way) it was rather plodding in the beginning with the necessary exposition, the world-building, the gathering of the circle...But once everything was in place and the action kicked into higher gear, the pace picked up.
As the beginning of the trilogy, this book was more or less used to established the premise, the backdrop, the lore, the main problem, and to get the main characters in place for more action to come.
Despite it all, it wasn't boring (except the beginning, I guess). The motley crew gathered in Ireland was interesting, intriguing and diverse enough and the conflicts between them, stemming from mistrust of some of their nature and for some even deeper issues rooted in the past and lifetimes of different lengths, were plenty enough to keep the attention. This part of the story, the conflict of six strangers suddenly thrown together in an intense situation, was realistic and believable, even though the late arrival to the circle sounded a little too much like Buffy.
That's not to say the fantastical part of the story wasn't compelling. The world-building, the mix of different lore and legends about the first vampire, the set-up for the dangers and action to come before the final battle intriguing.
It was the romance that left me with mixed feelings. Equal measure sweet and rushed, it didn't really convince me. Maybe because there was a more interesting creature than the sorcerer waiting in the wings. I guess I'll have to wait for the last book for the vampire to get his possible HEA.
4 stars, contemporary, contemporary romance, Nora Roberts/J.D. Robb, paranormal, paranormal romance, time-travel, vampires
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