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If you missed the last TGON Reads article on Sin of the Father, you can find it here. If you missed Book 2 in the Circle Trilogy, Dance of the Gods, you can find it here.
I finally got done with Valley of Silence by Nora Roberts! It’s the third book in the Circle Trilogy with Glenna, Hoyt, Cian, Blair, Larkin, and Moira. In Morrigan’s Cross, the focus was on Glenna and Hoyt, and in Dance of the Gods, it was on Blair and Larkin. This time, the focus is on Moira and Cian, at least, couple-wise. Story-wise, it is time for battle and Lilith is cracking.
So, at the end of Valley of Silence, Blair was healing after getting ambushed by Lora and a crew of vampires and almost dying. Don’t misunderstand, Blair took out several vampires before Lora got there so it isn’t like Blair just rolled over and let herself get beat up. She even got blessed water all over Lora’s face on her way down. That was a severe blow, especially to Lora, but and Lilith, too, by extension. Obviously, Blair pulled through but it did cause Larkin to panic about her a bit. Blair was in good spirits about it though, she didn’t die, nor is she killing for blood right now. She may not have taken out Lora but Blair hurt Lora in the best possible way: her pride, vanity, and body all in one fight.
At the beginning of this book, it marks moving into the third month, the time of knowing, and the circle must start making the final moves to leave and get into position for the battle. I don’t think we were told in any way I would understand how far from Castle Geall the Valley of Silence is. All but Moira and Cian have flown from the castle to the battleground but flying on the back of a dragon and marching there and back is quite different in how long it takes but even then it was a journey. I coaxed out my husband’s inner math nerd and gave him the info I thought was pertinent (I wasn’t far off) and we reasoned the valley is about a hundred miles away, give or take twenty miles. That won’t get you from Yuma, Arizona to Phoenix, Arizona. It does remind me of how different Geall is from this world though. What is, what I am guessing a week’s march there is an hour and a half drive here. It’s wild.
Lilith brought her son Davey to Geall with her for the final battle. He is just as cramped here as in the caves and he is getting impatient. You see, Davey is a literal child vampire, and his temper tantrums are horrible. He like any child needs room to run a play. Added to that is Lora’s healing, trying to wrangle an army, deserters, and the circle chipping right back at her. Midir said he saw her victorious in her campaign. It makes her not take this whole situation as seriously as she should it seems. Or she is just so sure of vampiric superiority that she isn’t as bothered by the humans as she should be as she has shown through the books. It’s always, “It’s ok because they will be dead by Samhain.”
Lilith is good at sending heart-wrenching blows though. There is the one with King, who is mostly towards Cian because King was his and Moira’s parents. This leg of the conflict is no exception. No, I will not tell you what it is.
Cian plays the part of disinterested and unaffected well. He is hiding it from everyone and himself for a while but he is helplessly in love with Moira. It isn’t until he passionately kisses her that she has an inkling. Suddenly we find out how closely he has been watching her and falling in love. When they decide to move forward with things, it is with the understanding that things are temporary because of who and what they are individually. I must say though, Larkin is cute.
You gotta wonder, if Lilith knew enough about Hoyt and his circle to know they would be a force that could stop her from achieving the dominating of worlds, why did she only recently try to take Moira out? Did she not know about them until recently? She’s had nearly a thousand years to break the first circle before it started. There’s even evidence she knew about them over twenty years ago because it looks like she tried to take out Moira then. And why go for a princess? Glenna and Larkin seem like the two better bets. While Larkin is of royal blood, he isn’t in the most direct line of ascension, that’s Moira, he would have had less protection. Glenna was the most vulnerable one out of all of them and Lilith did nothing to her until she was already drawn into the conflict. She must have been wanting a dirt nap and was just too proud to take herself out.
Overall, the characters in the trilogy were well-written. Each of them was given a good amount of room to grow and they took advantage of it. I think either Cian or Blair had the most growth in the books. Moira was the most improved. Even Lilith had room to help me understand her, it didn’t change how I felt about her but I had the information to do so if I wanted to. I agreed with Glenna, though. I got to see Davey’s point of view and could hear echoes of my son when he was younger but I was glad when he was dead. Each of the three books made me laugh and cry.
Nora Roberts has a very specific formula that she uses, at least in the trilogies I have read by her, and this one was no exception. The pov moves as the characters interact and move away from each other or we need to see what is going on over there. Each of the books centers on a specific couple while moving the story forward. Nora’s books are much lower on the spicy scale than the books I have been reading in the past few years but still enjoyable because it is not all about the spice for me. They have to be well-written too. I highly recommend this trilogy.
Have you read the Circle Trilogy: Morrigan’s Cross, Dance of the Gods, and Valley of Silence, by Nora Roberts? Or any of her other works? Let me know in the comments below. I have also covered the Cousin O’Dwyer Trilogy: Dark Witch, Shadow Spell, and Blood Magick here if you want to check those out. They can also be found on Amazon. Until next time, have fun storming the castle!
