Halloween Nora! This one definitely felt more Halloween-y and thriller-focused than romance-focused. It’s the third in a trilogy and I’m here to tell you that you don’t need to have read any of the others to understand what’s going on here (you’ll ‘spoil’ the ending to the other two in that a) all of the characters survive until this third book; and b) you’ll know which of the 6 main characters couple off together- but frankly those aren’t real spoilers in the Nora Roberts world).
The set up is that something evil has been haunting the small Maryland town of Hawkins Hollow for hundreds of years. We get the backstory early on- when the three main male characters, Cal, Gage and Fox, were young, a summer dare of cutting themselves with a special shard of stone (the bloodstone) and shaking hands simultaneously turned them into blood brothers and released the devil, alternately known as Twisse, from his semi-slumber in the woods. Twisse had been lying in wait for hundreds of years, caught in a limbo since his last battle with the good ancestor of the three boys. Now that Twisse has been released, every 7 years they have to have a big battle with him again. This being the last book in the series, with the men now in their early-30s, this summer is the big battle.
The book’s main male protagonist is Gage, the risk-taking professional gambler who is the only one to have left the Hollow to make a life elsewhere. He’s also the only single one of the three at the start of the book, making it apparent early on that he’ll pair up with Cybil, the only one of the three women left unattached in their little group of 6. Cybil is a free-spirited yoga-practicing hippie and she and Gage are clearly attracted to each other but determined that ‘their fate’ not determine whether they end up together.
This was not Nora’s strongest work. The thriller aspect was a bit ‘meh’- lots of similar run ins with similar demons causing havoc that the 6 easily outwitted. Because the thriller aspect took so much time, the romance both got short shrift and felt played out early on. The only tension came from Gage and Cybil ‘pushing against their fate’ (that was the only reason they couldn’t be together right away) and that reason felt unconvincing (and didn’t actually hold up- they started boning pretty quick, so then the only question was whether they’d hold off falling in love to spite fate. Unsurprisingly the answer there was also no, and boom! No more tension, so not particularly compelling reading).
Meh- this was a quick, light Halloween-y read. I’d say there are better paranormal romances out there that I would pick up instead, but felt right for the season and now its off my TBR pile.
