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The Sign of Seven Trilogy by Nora Roberts

Melly — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 04:38:54 +0000

Title: The Sign of Seven trilogy

Author(s): Nora Roberts

Grade: Overall Trilogy: B-; Blood Brothers: B +; The Hollow: A-; The Pagan Stone: C-

When it comes to Nora Roberts, she’s reliable in a number of ways. I can count on her to be releasing something near my birthday and Christmas, so I rarely have to purchase a book on my own. I can count on her to include something supernatural in just about everything and I can almost always count on her to be entertained, even if it is only mildly. She’s one of the few authors that I don’t pay attention to reviews about because her track record speaks for herself when it comes to me.

That being said, I wish this trilogy had been better. It had a wonderful premise, a strong set of characters and a lovely touch of my favorite hobby — genealogy. (Though I wish Ms. Roberts would do some research of her own — this is not the first book in which genealogy is used. In Black Rose a few years ago, she referenced the 1890 census which…doesn’t exist. It was burned in a fire and very few fragments are to be found — none of which include the portion she used. It’s a small thing but it’s something I always stumble on when I reread.) The elements were there, so why didn’t it work?

The element of surprise was gone — you knew from the moment Cybil entered the picture in Book #1 that the pairings were set in stone and there was little suspense there. When it comes to traditional romance novels, there is very little suspense. There will very nearly always be a happy ending and your characters are together. It’s the journey that keeps it satisfying, but when I know in Book #1 that the next two books will be Fox/Layla and Cybil/Gage, it left me with a little less eagerness to read it. Though this also happened in her In the Garden — I knew it would be Roz/Mitch and then Hayley/Harper, but it didn’t matter because I loved those characters so much by the end of the first book (even Mitch, who we barely knew) I wanted to see how they fell in love. In this set…I really couldn’t bring myself to care about Cybil and Gage because…I just didn’t see the chemistry between them. They were the odd people out — but I’ll get to Book #3.

So Book #1 started off with great promise. A wonderful brash heroine who obsessed about her weight and a sweet hometown boy with a great dog. They were perfect for each from the first moment and I very much enjoyed Quinn and Cal for much of the first book. Of course, their romance wasn’t the only plot. The set up of the Big Bad, which I didn’t find all that distracting. Until Roberts began to gather the main six characters and group conversations began. And continued through the next book. And the third. My God. I barely got through them with any sort of concentration on the first read and I now skip them when I reread because they just drag and I can feel my eyes start to roll back in my head.

There are some great suspenseful moments in the first entry — the Valentine’s Dance and the blizzard with Lump, and without those dreadful group moments, I probably would have rated it an A. The only reason The Hollow rates so highly with me is because I fell utterly in love with Fox O’Dell, the male lead and I found his romance with Layla unforced and very natural. It was sweet and he was utterly charming. The side plot with his sister Sage and her partner, Paula, was also wonderful and I liked seeing Roberts explore that connection, even if only briefly. David was one of my absolutely favorite characters from In the Garden, so I’m glad he wasn’t an aberration. There were more group moments in this second book, of course, and those moments dragged for me but unlike Blood Brothers, it never dragged me away from the center story — Fox and Layla.

So with those two books, I was interested in how the story would end. Where the Big Bad would go, and how Cybil and Gage were going to end up together and then as I got into the book, I found that I didn’t care. The group conversations were even more annoying. The romance was unbelievably forced and while I didn’t find the triple pregnancies very odd I found Cybil’s reaction incredibly annoying. Roberts is not an author who uses pregnancy as a device very often so it doesn’t bother me when she did the triple whammy. It made some sense, actually, and it added to the story. It just annoyed me that it was handled so…I’m not even sure how to describe it. The Pagan Stone is the only one of the three that I didn’t go back and read a second time, so perhaps my opinion will improve then.

I enjoy the trilogies — because I like to see old characters return and update, but I like it best when her trilogies work over time. The last two were compacted in a matter of months and it showed. The Circle trilogy handled it somewhat better. The first two romances were somewhat weak but the story felt somewhat strong and the third, Valley of Silence was so wonderful, it made up for them. I very much enjoyed the Three Sisters, which took place over a year and gave you a chance to see Ripley, Nell and Mia change over the books. It made that final book so much more pleasurable to read because the connection felt so real. In the Garden worked the same way for me. I adored Harper and Hayley so much that I was very eager to see their story conclude and it’s one of my favorite novels.

In the end, while this trilogy is better than a lot of romance novels I have read in my life (I can think of a few Johanna Lindsey books I’d like to clear from my mind in particular), it’s nowhere near the quality that I have read from Nora Roberts. It’s an enjoyable read, which is why I’ve rated it somewhat high, but it could have been so much more and that was the disappointment.

Round Up: Favorite Authors

Melly — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 17:28:27 +0000

I read like some people breathe. When I get my hands on the family digital camera, I’ll take photos of the two full book cases and the three shelves of books in my room alone so you might get an idea of how much I read. My favorite two genres are romance and history. The following are the authors I read in alphabetical order:

Liz Carlyle: Her novels are incredibly moody and tend to be very dark. They’ve dealt with themes I’ve rarely found in romance novels such as incest and adultery (the latter is found more than the former but Carlyle has a special way of making it very fresh). My favorite thing about her books is that they are all connected, mostly through her character of George Kemble whom I believe appeared in every single novel from My False Heart to Never Deceive a Duke.

Jennifer Crusie: I don’t think I can describe quite how much I love Jennifer Crusie. Her novels are fast-paced, with quick wit and the most fabulous dialogue I’ve ever read. I’ll buy anything she writes, no matter how old and she writes one of the best author blogs I’ve ever read. She’s incredible. Welcome to Temptation and Faking It are my two favorite novels. Her secondary characters are almost as awesome as her main characters and she pays such awesome attention to detail. Her partnership with Bob Mayer gave me Agnes and the Hitman, which was just…there are no words.

Suzanne Enoch: I adore her. She writes one the best contemporary series I’ve ever read — the Samantha Jellicoe books. They’re so much fun and I usually have them on preorder. They’re sincerely my favorite contemporary set of books. Her historical books are also incredible. I definitely recommend.

Lisa Kleypas: Her books are always unique, which is so refreshing to read in the regency genre. I enjoy each and every one of them, but hands down I think the Wallflower quartet she published recently is my favorite out of her books. Devil in Winter has one of my favorite pairings of Evie and Sebastian. I’m in love with them. Her new contemporary Sugar Daddy was spectacular. As soon as it’s sequel ends up in paperback, I’ll picking it up.

Stephanie Laurens: I have weird relationship with my Stephanie Laurens books. She was one of the first historical romance authors I discovered and I get all of her books when they come out (if my budget calls for it) but I don’t reread them as often as I do my other books. When I get in a mood, I could go through all of my Crusies and my Quinns and my Roberts books, but Stephanie Laurens’s heroes tend to be similiar so I never really get back into the books as much as I do through the first reading. She makes the list though because I do enjoy her plots. They’re always very cool to read.

Cathy Maxwell: One my recent finds. She was an author featured in a few anthologies I picked up and I enjoyed her small features enough to pick up one of her novels. After reading Temptation of a Proper Governess, I simply had to continue reading and I devoured her collection thanks to BooksFree, which allowed me to read very fast and get another book the next week.

Susan Elizabeth Phillips: A very recent addition to my list of favorites. I had heard quite a bit about her Chicago Stars series and Dream A Little Dream was on sale at my local CVS pharmacy so I picked it up. About five seconds after I had finished the book, I went to Ereader and I think I have her entire collection in ebooks now. I could reread her novels over and over (and I honestly do) and never get bored. I never thought I’d like football stars as my romantic heroes, but well, I was proved wrong.
Julia Quinn: She’s been called the modern day Jane Austen and I can’t really disagree. When I got my first job and had my own money to finally spend on my book collection, I bought a copy of To Sir Phillip, With Love. As I was reading it, I realized I had to find Anthony’s book. And Colin’s. I immediately went out and stocked up on more. When I checked out the Julia Quinn books on Amazon recently for the fanlisting I have, all my purchases of JQ books are in March 2005. I literally bought her entire catalog in about a month, heh. She’s got an incredible sense of dialogue, which is my favorite part. I always felt dialogue was my strongest part in my own writing, so I love when I find an author who has great snappy dialogue. Crusie has an awesome sense of dialogue as well.

Nora Roberts: I think she’s at the top of everyone’s lists or at least in the top ten. She’s incredibly prolific, her books never feel the same to me and I buy everything she writes as soon as I can get my hands on them. That goes for her JD Robb series “In Death” as well.

Honorable Mentions: Karen Ranney, Karen Hawkins, Eloisa James, Amanda Quick/Jayne Ann Krentz, Catherine Anderson and Victoria Alexander.

An Employed Person!

Melly — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 05:32:56 +0000

I got the call on Tuesday that I got the job! It’s a little less than I had anticipated and it’s a full $2 less than I was making at Comcast, but it should still be enough to get my bills paid and after six months, I’ll get a raise. Plus, the hours are just enough that I’ll make some decent money but it works out that I have three full weekdays and two mornings clear for classes next fall, so it’s really the best work schedule I could have hoped for.

I took my drug test today and I get fingerprinted on Friday. I’m kind of excited to work at a bank, I wonder how much different it will be than Comcast and GGB, the only other places I’ve really worked. I’m just so thrilled to be able to work again and still come out with a lot of free time. I won’t have to give up my Trenton trips during the week! Very awesome news.

I was at the library tonight for the historical society meeting and it struck me that I had never checked out their Internet section so I popped over to see if they had anything about web design. They had a few books so I picked up on about HTML and XML (I expect to get a rehash of what I already know) and one that’s just a general resource on web design. I’m sure I know a portion of the material but it never hurts to brush up.

I’ve been working on the Nora Roberts site. I gave up Wordpress and came up with another idea that I’ll be hoping to launch sometime in February. I’m actually excited about the new layout for the site. It’s incorporating a lot of what I’m learning from the CSS book I bought last week.

2008 Might Actually Be My Year

Melly — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 05:42:56 +0000

I got a call today from the HR recruiter at Commerce Bank to set up my second interview. It’s on Monday. I really wanted an extra day so I could hit the salon and get my hair cut and maybe talk myself into the expense of getting my nails done. It’s until 1:30 so maybe I could swing it. Hmm…will have to check the schedule at P&B. Maybe Mondays are still $3 haircut days down there.

I’m seriously so anxious to get back to work. I need to earn some money so I can get back on track financially and put money away for things I really want. Like more design books. I’m obsessed with them. I think I’m going back out and picking up one of those Wordpress books. I keep spending half my time Googling some for some specific code and never finding it.

I really have to get back to the Nora site but I’m beginning to think that Wordpress and Enthusiast were not meant to be together and I really hate that I’d have to abandon my ideas for that and the new concept for my Jennifer Cruise fanlisting (which has been woefully neglected since I launched it, I feel awful). I’m going to dig back into that tomorrow. I also still have solve my Codesort problem. I’m thinking of just uploading another installation to each domain, use the database and hope that solves it.

I bit the bullet today and posted for a beta for my little fanfiction project. I tend to write better and faster if I know some sort of feedback is forthcoming and the idea of no one seeing these pages (and I’ve written like 15 pages four days. Might be nothing compared to the fifty I used to churn out, but after a year of nothing, it’s a fabulous thing) drives me nuts so a beta might keep me going.

I also want to dig back into my original novel. I was very gung-ho about it after I was laid off but as usual it fell to the back burner. At the rate I’m going, the only published writing I’m going to do is the letter to Soap Opera Digest that got printed about Lucky and Elizabeth in 1998.

And that would be a shame.

Google Is Taking Over The World

Melly — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 21:48:53 +0000

I was doing a Google search for some new plugins for Wordpress when I stumbled over this: More Google Products. Good grief, I don’t even think I could come up with a reason to use all those services but I’ve been browsing through them just the same.

I especially like GoogleDocs because it’s a lovely idea to be able to share my documents and spreadsheets with others, especially if I’m collaborating on a fanfiction (though I’ve only attempted this once or twice and I suck at it) and even better, it would be great to be able to take certain documents anywhere to be able to work on them instead of having to rely on my forums, which is what I’ve been doing this last year. I just wish it supported Microsoft Office 2007 (or at least Excel 2007).

WebAccelerator is also fabulous. Once it’s installed, it speeds up your site and you can even find out how much time you’ve saved by a little monitor on the browser. After three hours, I’ve saved 5.4 minutes. I know that’s not a lot but every less second something takes me the more time I have for myself later. It adds up

I would definitely recommend checking them out.

I’m finally getting a chance to catch up on my laundry and clean out my closet. I had to wait a week for my brother to finish his. He’s such a pain. I would rather have done this earlier in the week since I have a job interview tomorrow and I didn’t feel like doing this today but you have to do what you have to so things get done. I’m going to be doing that and working on my genealogy blog. I’m taking a break from my Nora Roberts site because the combination of Enthusiast and Wordpress is making my head hurt.

Happy New Year :)

Melly — Tue, 01 Jan 2008 06:34:53 +0000

Happy New Year I hope 2008 is a much better year for my family and my friends.

I spent the first hour of the new year arguing with Wordpress and Enthusiast. I’ve finally started to work on the Nora Roberts fan site and using Wordpress (I’m so obsessed with it, it’s sad) seemed like the best way to create the site quickly, efficiently and thoroughly. But of course, it’s never that easy. I had to do some creative work with Enthusiast, rename a function that I thought was supposed to fixed in the last upgrade, but eh. Enth is freaking fabulous otherwise, I’ll take what I can get.

It just struck me how thoroughly people have to design these scripts. In the three years I’ve been using Enthusiast, this was the first real script I’d had so I think that’s great kudos to Angela for designing it. I don’t know where I’d be without it.

I was watching another episode of 48 Hours Mystery on the Discovery Times Channel and I realized that I’ve got some weird television habits. My favorite channels are Discovery Times, History Channel, International History, and A&E. I love to watch all the true crime shows (and read the books) — and one of my absolute top ten television favorites is HBO’s Oz. Do you think that makes me just a bit twisted?

Anyway, I’m off to finagle with Wordpress a little more than head to bed. Happy New Year again