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 Blah... I hate to give Nora a less-than-great review, but I think she's really just phoning it in with this trilogy. I've read her for 15-20 years and have definitely noticed a slide in the last 3-4 years. I know she's very prolific, I know that I'm not going to love every book she writes, but I am actually not sure I'm even going to finish this trilogy, which is a huge disappointment for me. The characters are repeats and not all that interesting or likable. In previous trilogies, she would give each couple it's "own" book, but here the story is more concurrent and often confusing because I don't feel like I know any of the characters well and so I'm not getting the jokes or comments. And I don't *mind* paranormal stuff, but that's just about all she writes anymore. What happened to a good, old-fashioned story without the gimmicks? All in all, blah is the best I can do... I wish it were better.  Much better effort I was as harsh I can bring myself to be to Nora about the first book of this trilogy. I felt that the first one really shortchanged Quinn & Cal by getting bogged down in the history and set up of all three couples. (See my review for a full explanation.) Now that the set up is out of the way, lo and behold, we have a full story about Layla & Fox! Hooray! We barely even get foreshadowing for the third book - an even bigger HOORAY! This really focused entirely on the current couple, which I dearly appreciate. Even with the first book, I praised her normal (for her) excellence in dialogue and likeable characters, but I was annoyed by the lack of a full story for the opening characters. I still don't feel like her heart must be in the trilogy paperbacks anymore. The hardbacks and JD Robbs give us much better and "full" stories. But, this was much better than the first in that respect. I will continue to read any and every new book she puts out, but I'm glad that this was more vintage Nora. Don't give up if you were with me on the first of this trilogy. I think you'll be rewarded by sticking with it. Not bad This book was a good read, great continuance of the Hollow series. I can't wait for Gage's book in December! I would have rated the book 5 stars except for the following issues: the romance between Layla and Fox just wasn't all that exciting. It was lukewarm. It took until the middle of the book before they even got together. No steaminess, no excitement. But that might have also been partly because of the figurate descriptions of the love scenes, not sure. I really couldn't figure what they were doing due to the figurative descriptions and then it's all over. Is this the new trend? I read Nora Robert's books primarily for the romance, but in this case, the whole Hawkin's Hollow curse story and all the evil events that ensued was the primary focus. I really don't care about Ann's diary which consisted of nothing helpful, just a bunch of fluff and nonsense. So why would we want to read it? The author could have just summed it up in a sentence. The other thing that bothered me was the weirdness of Fox donating sperm to his sister's girlfriend so they could have a baby. So that would make him the father and the uncle? How weird is that. And it kind of bugged me that he would become a father to someone else's baby first before his own with Layla. Maybe it's just me, but that whole situation was just too strange to be taken seriously.  The Same-Old, Same-Old-Again! I don't like giving Nora Roberts a negative review, but I think it is only fair to let other readers know that this book is just not a very good read. It is basically a waste of time for anyone wanting to read a truly good, entertaining novel. I think I can say this fairly since I have read everything I could ever get my hands on of Roberts. She has written some great stories and I especially love her trilogies, but this one-even though I had been excited for it to come out-is so dull. The story lacks care and heart. The first in the series set us up so nicely for what I thought would be an interesting story, but the two main characters in this book take away from the overall story. They are so boring and zerox copies of a million other of Roberts characters (to the tee) and I actually have no feeling for them-I kind of dislike them actually which really puts a damper on the book, obviously. I like the other characters much more and really think this one is nothing but filler to continue the story, which could have been told in one book and done much better, I think. I think that this will be the last time I get excited for a Roberts book, maybe the last time I read her because all of her work has become the same story with the same characters. | |||||||||||||