If you missed my review of book one, Dark Witch, you can find it here.
I’m back with another Nora Roberts book. As the title said, this is book two in the trilogy. For a quick recap, the Dark Witch, Sorcha, sacrificed herself so her children, Brannaugh, Eamon, and Teagan, could run and survive. An evil sorcerer, Cabhan, wanted Sorcha’s power and her body. So she divided her power between the three of them. The power would pass from the three to their children. Three from each generation, in the direct descendant line of each sibling, would be chosen to defeat Cabhan, and each of them would have to choose if they would accept the responsibility. Finally, it came to Iona, Branna, and Connor. Branna and Connor are brother and sister, and Iona is a cousin. They are the ones chosen this generation to stop him, and they have gotten further than any others. They also started receiving visits from the original three siblings starting with Iona and her counterpart, Teagan.
The first book was about Iona and Boyle her journey. This one is about Connor and Meara and his journey. Connor’s counterpart is Eamon, and their animal guide is the hawk. Connor works with Boyle, Iona, and Fin as Fin owns both the horse part and the falcon parts of the business Connor, Boyle, Iona, and Meara work for. As I said, Branna and Connor are sister and brother. Meara has been Branna’s best friend since diapers, so Connor and Mera have been around each other their whole lives. They have never pursued each other romanticly because though each one found the other attractive, they each talked themselves out of romantic love for each other independently. Branna just happened to be a factor in that for both of them.
As Cabhan did in the first one, he went after both of them. I noticed he didn’t go after Connor as much or as hard as he went after Meara. That was true in the first book too. He went after Iona harder than he went after Boyle. He only ever went after Boyle to hurt Iona. Cabhan bullies and hurts women most because he feels superior to them it looks like. Cabhan is still healing from their fight on the Midsummer Solstice (generally celebrated on June 21st or 22nd), and so he was batting at them, while not exactly lightly, without full power. Their next fight is at Samhain (Halloween for the non-witches).
Iona continues to master her magick with Branna mainly, and with Meara, she is learning swordsmanship. Meara is an excellent swordswoman. We find out, too, that Meara is connected to the circle, not only by Branna and Connor, Fin and Boyle but also because her ancestor had dealings with the original three. Her great whatever grandmother was named Aine. Funny enough, the female horse Fin bought at the same time as Iona’s horse, Aleistor, to be his first breeding partner is called Aine.
Unlike the first one, Meara was included in the dreams with Connor and Eamon. Boyle was not included in Iona’s. Also, the dreams involving Connor and Eamon were longer, and there was more interaction between the first and the current three. It is possible that with everything needed to do with Iona, like bringing her up to speed on what magick is or isn’t, the joys and potential follies, bringing her current with the situation with Cabhan, and everything else that to include more involved scenes in the first book, Ms. Roberts would have had to cut something else or the book would have been much longer.
I very much enjoyed the book. Then again, I just really like Nora Roberts. It is hard to find authors that hand witch magick in a well-balanced way. Nora handles it well. The mix of spell-building and potion work with a physical representation of magick is just right. I love Connor in these books. Connor is so generous and sweet it gives me a toothache in the best way. Even with that toothache, I want him to kiss me senseless. That wasn’t so with Boyle.
Have you read the trilogy? Let me know in the comments below. I hope, if you haven’t yet, that maybe I have enticed you to at least take a peek. Let me know that, too, in the comments below. Until next time, have fun storming the castle!
