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If you missed my last TGON Reads review on Shadow and Bone, you can find it here.

Hey, how about that? Two TGON Reads in two weeks. I am on a roll. This time, we have Morrigan’s Cross by Nora Roberts. If you don’t know, Nora Roberts is a very successful romance writer. She is so not a spicy writer, but she makes you root for the couple. Ms. Roberts follows a predictable format, at least in the trilogies I have read. You meet all six couples to be in the first book as the call to action happens, and each book is about a different couple. She does it well, though. For another example, look at my reviews for Ms. Roberts’s Cousins O’Dwyer Trilogy: Dark Witch, Shadow Spell, and Blood Magick. Anyway, back to Morrigan’s Cross. We meet Hoyt (who was in my Best Book Boyfriends article) in the middle of a storm that reflects his pain. His twin brother, Cian, died at the hands of a vampire, Lilith, to be exact. Hoyt is a sorcerer of great power, and the storm’s violence shows that. He is bent on destroying Lilith, and he does hurt her, but before he can do more, his twin attacks him as a newborn vampire. When Hoyt stabs Cian, he thinks he has finished what Lilith started in Cian.

Back at his place, As he nurses his wounds, he is visited by the goddess Morrigan. She charges him to gather those for a circle to save worlds. Yeah, I meant to say worlds. He is to gather the one he lost, the warrior, the witch, the one of many shapes, and the scholar. The witch gives him the most pause, for which I am offended. He must use the Dance of the Gods and leave his family and this time and place to search for his brother, both shocking and causing Hoyt to bargain with a goddess. She offers her protection and a way to protect his line, a cross for each from the blood of a goddess and Hoyt.

Source Goodreads

When Hoyt leaves, he is not healed from the wounds he sustained from Lilith and Cian and almost succumbs to them had it not been for Glenna, the witch. Once through the dance, he comes face to face with Cian, the vampire who currently goes by Cain. He’s creative, eh? Needless to say, it was a bit of a shock for Hoyt. He left the year 1128 and came to 2006, so, yeah, quite a shock, but he takes it like a champ. Very quickly, Glenna finds Hoyt at his brother’s club. Yeah, Glenna is from 2006 also, and it was magick that brought her to him to heal him. They find Moria, the scholar, and her cousin Larkin, the shapeshifter, in Ireland, but they are actually from Geall, which is a different world altogether. Blair, the warrior, is technically a vampire hunter and a descendant of Hoyt and Cian’s family, specifically, their sister Nora.

They are all charged by Morrigan to fight a war against Lilith, the seeming queen of vampires. From what Cian says, ancient doesn’t cover it. He is almost one thousand years old, and she was ancient when she made him. She has an army of vampires, and we all know vampires are physically superior to humans. How can any mortal human army hope to win against an army of vampires, even if the mortal army is headed by these six? Even with vampire knowledge on their side?

Nora Roberts is excellent at giving her characters different voices. They are clearly defined by their speech, their wardrobe, and everything that makes a character a character. I love that Glenna is kind and caring but has no problems hurting your feelings if you deserve it. I don’t know what Cian was like before, but he is a jerk now. You can tell how angry Blair is and see Larkin loving to have fun just to irritate her into joining him.

The land of Geall looks very much like Ireland, but the technology is behind us, and it isn’t without its charm. It’s a slower pace. You can see the stars and people are more friendly. Seeing a New York club through Hoyt’s eyes and ears was fun, but I enjoyed that for all the marvels of 2006, it was books that Hoyt fell asleep with.

Would I recommend this book? I own this trilogy in both physical books, and I have it on my Kindle, though the Kindle version is quite recent, so yeah, I recommend this book. Have you read this book, trilogy, or anything else by Nora Roberts? What are your thoughts on any of it? Let me know in the comments below. Until next time, have fun storming the castle!