Everyone knows Nora Roberts. If you don't, you can check out her wikipedia entry. Three sisters island is a trilogy about three women who are descendants of witches. Mia Devlin is a bookstore owner, Ripley Todd is the town's deputy sheriff and Nell Channing is a woman who runs from her abusive husband. I liked the idea of making the story unique by including magic. I will review the three books one by one.
1. DANCE UPON THE AIR tells the story of Nelll Channing, a woman who is running from her abusive husband. Her husband, who is a celebrity lawyer, assumes that she is dead because of her staged death a few months ago. With little money, Nell arrives in Three Sisters Island. She thinks about looking for work, and walks into the Island's bookstore owned by resident witch Mia Devlin. Coincidentally, teh cook at the bookstore's cafe is leaving. Nell offers to be the chef and Mia employs her because of the circumstances. Nell works very hard and impressed by her work, Mia employs her permanently. From here, she meets the town's sheriff and falls in love with him. She also discovers that she is a witch and with Mia's help, tries to hone her skills. Everything goes well but her abusive husband finds out that she is alive and chases after her.
The story was pretty original for Nora Roberts's standard but teh romance was slow and didn't seem special enough. At times, it doesn't even appear as if the two are in love. The villian is unrealistically obsessed with his ex-wife. Overall, not bad.
Ratings
Plot-3
Story-4
Characters-2.8
Style-4.5
Pros
Good setting
Concept of witches was creative
Writing style
Cons
Romance seems half hearted
Weak antagonist
2. HEAVEN AND EARTH- is the second book is the Three Sisters Island Trilogy. Dr. MacAllister Booke is a scientist who researches on the supernatural and moves to three sisters Island after he discovers that there are witches here. Here he meets the town's deputy sheriff Ripley Todd who is also a witch and controls earth (hence the name Heaven and Earth). He is attracted to her rebellious and outspoken character. But Ripley is afraid of her own powers and cannot acknowledge the fact that she is a witch. Gradually, she gains understanding of her powers through the course of the novel.
The hero was pretty good but Ripley was not a good heroine. I love bold and outspoken heroines but she was outspoken to the point of being insensitive and insulting. She cannot differentiate between good and bad intentions and seems to be too rigid for her own good (or rather, the novel's)
Ratings
Story-2
Characters-3
Plot-2
Style-4.5
Pros
Interesting hero
Magical element, so it is more creative than Nora's usual novels
Style of writing
Cons
Unlikeable heroine
Many useless scenes and page wasting by writing about unimportant things.
I would have adviced you to skip this book altogether, but since it is part of teh trilogy and the other two are not that bad, maybe you should read it to maintain teh continuity.
3. FACE THE FIRE- Is the story of the final witch of Fire- Mia Devlin who acccording to me, was the best character in this trilogy and I had been waiting to read her story. Also, the idea of her long-time lover who leaves her coming back was intriguing. Sam Logan, however is pretty much the standard slick talking, good looking, hard-working hero. There is nothing special about him and at some time, I began to wonder why someone like Mia would actually love a guy like him.
The events in the story are interesting as the realtionship grows and Mia gradually accepts Sam back.
I strongly felt that this book could have been better if the hero had been more interesting. I couldn't help feeling that McAllister and Mia would make a better pair.
Rating
Story-3
Characters-3
Plot-2
Style-4.6
Pros
Interesting setting
Heroine is a witch
Strong female lead
Cons
Hero was too stereotypical to be interesting
He lacked a 'third dimension' which would have made him real.
Unrealistic at some points
Mia took too long to trust him (it was only in the end of the book)
Well, the trilogy as a whole was pretty interesting and unique. Nora Roberts's stories are never so unique. Worth trying if you like romance and Nora Roberts.
No comments:
Post a Comment