Quick Review: Morrigan’s Cross by Nora Roberts

Morrigan’s Cross is the first book in The Circle Trilogy by Nora Roberts.

Summary (from back of book):

Standing on the cliffs of 12th century Ireland following the disappearance of his twin, Hoyt Mac Cionaoith is visited by the goddess Morrigan and is charged with the ultimate of tasks: saving his and all future worlds. His enemy – the beautiful but deadly vampire queen Lilith – has had over two thousand years’ experience in cruelly killing and changing humans into her own kind – including Hoyt’s brother, Cian. Now, Hoyt, a sorcerer, must travel across the world and through time to find and train the five others Morrigan has foretold will join him as a circle and do battle against Lilith’s army of vampires.

Fate brings him first to Glenna Ward – a modern witch who can make her own kind of magic. Hoyt and Glenna find themselves drawn together, but is their love strong enough to survive not just the battle ahead but the centuries that separate them?

My Thoughts:

First off, I did enjoy this book. It was engaging, entertaining and interesting enough to keep my attention to the end, although I will say that I didn’t feel the need to race through this one. I thought the change in the timeline was handled well and Hoyt’s reactions to the modern world authentic.

I liked most of the characters most of the time, but sometimes I felt like stereotypes crept in. Cian was my favourite character by a country mile – who isn’t fond of a complex, moody vampire?

However, there is a lot going on in this story, and at certain points it felt there was a little too much. I’m not going to go into detail about this for fear of spoilers, but I think there were too many fantasy elements at play.

Needless to say, a book by Nora Roberts is going to be well-written and it was. I found the writing easy to read, but the pacing was perhaps a little too slow for my personal preference.

Do I intend to read the other two books of The Circle Trilogy? I do. I would like to see how the story ends but with my shelves burdening under the weight of the many books I have crammed on them, I fear it won’t be any time soon.

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