My Trilogy Time gets off to a fiery start with Nora Roberts

 

As some of you may know, I have been doing a book challenge for some time now called Series-ous Reading, where I would talk about books in certain genre series such as cozy mystery or historical fiction.

Well, for this year I decided to change things up a bit and try something new that I’m calling Trilogy Time; reading three sets of trilogy novels that each follow a different prompt. Also, this is a seasonal challenge so my blog updates won’t be every single month(which can make this whole thing much easier to enjoy).

So, for the winter/early spring start of this project, my prompt was “Read an author that’s new to you “ and while Nora Roberts is rather well known, I had never tried  her works until now. At the last rummage sale I went to, I impulsively picked up her Irish Born trio and figured that was a good place to set off from.

The first book, Born In Fire,is set in Ireland and introduces us to the Concannon sisters, namely Margaret May,aka Maggie, the oldest daughter whose talents with glass blown sculptures catch the attention of art curator Rogan Sweeney. It’s a passion of hers that was encouraged by her late father and has steadily improved over the years with some local interest but not much more than that until now:

Rogan plans to open a gallery featuring Irish artists and wants Maggie to be under contract with him. She, however, is less than thrilled with anyone trying to control her or her work, even though the money would greatly help out her younger sister Brianna, who runs a bed and breakfast out of her house while taking care of  their angrily demanding mother Maeve.

Eventually, Maggie and Rogan come to terms but their relationship quickly goes beyond business. With both of them sharing a stubborn determination to have their own way in certain situations, this love connection is fraught with issues indeed!

One of the top strengths of Roberts ‘ writing that I noticed right off the bat is her keen sense of characterization; she knows how to create realistic people who make understandable errors and can be compelling without overdoing the drama.

While Rogan annoyed me at times, he eventually became less of a domineering figure as the story went on and Maggie’s stubbornness is not just a quirk- her deep connection to her late father(a rather flawed yet lovable fellow who we briefly met in the introduction) and her mother’s bitter resentment regarding her own life choices being taken out on Maggie go a long way towards adding nuance to the character.

Another good thing here is that supporting players are given subplots that don’t wholly rely on what the main characters do or don’t do(one romantic story line in particular) resolved nicely. 

Granted, some of the man/female dynamics here are a touch dated(the books were written in the 1990s) but not so much that you wince upon reading it, not to mention heated debates about the use of phone answering machines. I never was a fan of those so I’m Team Maggie on that issue:

All in all, Born In Fire was certainly engaging enough that I am reading book two in this trio and looking forward to the third one. For a long time, I was a snob about Nora Roberts and other romance writers but fortunately, maturity and expanding my literary horizons have helped me get over such nonsense.

Nora Roberts seems to be a lovely person who champions the causes of her sister authors and artistic freedom to boot from what I have seen online and I am finally glad to be reading some of her books. I doubt that I’ll be reading all of Roberts as one of my favorite Booktubers (Mara. of BookslikeWhoa ) has been doing but this trilogy is definitely opening that particular door for me.

Born in Fire has certainly kindled a bookish flame that hopefully won’t burn out any time soon:

Meanwhile, I am well into Born In Ice, which focuses on Brianna who has a handsome American writer staying at her B&B for a month. He’s planning on getting some inspiration for his next book and Brianna is his instant muse for sure here!

Having read book one, this second volume is much more relaxed  in its storytelling yet some interesting secrets and lies are popping up that will enhance the plot points and character development along the way.

My next update probably won’t be until I get to Born In Shame, which should be interesting to say the least. Nora Roberts is quite the author that I am pleased to add to my home library collection and to share that pleasure with others is a true bookish bonus: