Blood Brothers by Nora Roberts

Caleb, Fox and Gage, best friends, sneak off to Pagan Stone, a forbidden spot in the woods to celebrate their shared tenth birthday. They will soon discover why it was forbidden to visit this terrible place, as an innocent oath meant to bond them as blood brothers calls up a great evil. An evil that will plague their town of Hawkins Hollow every seven years on the seventh day of the seventh month.

Now as they approach their 31^st birthdays, they realize that the evil grows more powerful upon each return and this is their last chance to stop it.

First in a new trilogy by Nora Roberts, Blood Brothers grips you and won’t let you go. I would say it won’t let you go until the end of the book, but I’m still feeling its clawing grip as I impatiently await The Hollow coming out in May.

I love it when Roberts delves into the paranormal and spooky. Even though it’s billed as a romance, I felt the romantic aspect played a somewhat supporting role in this book. The romance gave the reader some much needed break from the delicious tension of the supernatural and was decadently palpable in and of itself. The relationship between Caleb and Quinn simmered until it sizzled.

The town of Hawkins Hollow is more a character in the story than a place setting. The deep history of the town takes us back to the Puritans and its founders, providing centuries of back-story to play with. Small towns with a deep past are my favorite background for a book like this. There are so many layers and possibilities as this trilogy unfolds.

As I’ve come to expect from Nora Roberts, her female characters are strong and multi-dimensional. That’s not to say the ladies don’t have their struggles or weaknesses, but each of them shows courage and it’s always a pleasure to read a story with women who work through their fears and support one another.

I also appreciated how well developed the characters were in this book as a whole, considering there were so many that played an important role.

My only complaint is that it ended too soon. Unlike any of the author’s other trilogies the conclusion of this book had a more unfinished feel to it. Almost as if it was merely pause in the story. I was hungry for more. I definitely wouldn’t have been satisfied by it on its own.

Reviewed By: Terri

Email: Terri@ck2skwipsandkritiques.com