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read in May, 2008
Eviltwinjen said:
"Ah, Nora Roberts. The Queen of Romance (did that used to be Barbara Cartland? So maybe Roberts is the President of Romance? The Prime Minister?) has written, what, 1,000,000 books in almost every possible subgenre of romance (suspense, the not-too-di...more
Ah, Nora Roberts. The Queen of Romance (did that used to be Barbara Cartland? So maybe Roberts is the President of Romance? The Prime Minister?) has written, what, 1,000,000 books in almost every possible subgenre of romance (suspense, the not-too-distant future, fantasy, western, historical, contemporary)? In the Sign of 7 trilogy, she tries her hand at horror just to keep things interesting. The results aren't that creepy by horror standards, but pretty darn creepy for most romance readers. In The Hollow, she really pulls out all the stops. Snakes, spiders, blood, suicide, sexual assault...one feels she's having fun thinking of new ways to torment her characters. But of course, readers still get the formula they know and love: three men and three women get together to fight evil. Book by book, they pair off. Personality conflicts must be found to prevent them from getting together too quickly. There's some hot sex, a significant though not climactic victory over the Big Bad, and the next book is set up (I'm looking forward to book 3, because Cybil kind of rocks, and at least she and her destined dude acknowledge the weirdness of the invevitable pairing-off).
As far as our hero and heroine go, they're likeable. Layla is believeably un-thrilled about being plunked down in the middle of a demon-fighting situation for which her background in retail has not prepared her. Fox (conjuring up images of David Duchovny) is the child of hippies with a lesbian sister to whom he donates sperm so she and her wife can conceive. How can you not love that? Perhaps they're needlessly slow to get into bed, and the sex is sparse (though hot), but there's a lot of demony stuff to deal with.
Overall, Roberts is still one of the best at what she does. Her women are strong, her men are sensitive and love their moms, and she keeps you turning the pages. Sign me up for whatever she does next...three couples fight evil in space? ...less
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