Sasha Riggs is a reclusive artist, haunted by dreams and nightmares that she turns into extraordinary paintings. Her visions lead her to the Greek island of Corfu, where five others have been lured to seek the legendary fire star, part of an ancient prophecy. Sasha recognizes them, because she has drawn them: a magician, an archaeologist, a wanderer, a fighter, a loner. All on a quest. All with secrets.
Sasha is the one who holds them together—the seer. And in the magician, Bran Killian, she sees a man of immense power and compassion. As Sasha struggles with her rare ability, Bran is there to support her, challenge her, and believe in her.
When a dark threat looms, the six must use their combined powers—including trust, unity, and love—to find the fire star and keep the world on course.
I picked this up completely by chance. Never having read anything by Nora Roberts, I only know what I've heard from friends and family (who read her almost religiously) and the fact that her books are literally everywhere. Honestly, I was more interested in reading her new dragons series, but as that is still a series-in-progress, I decided to try another of her semi-recent completed fantasy series as my official introduction to the bestselling romance genre. Plus it fulfills one of the prompts for this year's reading challenge, so even if I didn't like it it's still a win.
Unfortunately, I think this book was at a disadvantage as soon as I picked it up. Nora Roberts has been a household name for me and my family since I was young, so I came into this book with thirty-some years of author hype and reputation riding on it. I wanted to love it, I wanted to be wowed, be awed by this woman who's published over 200 romances, mysteries, novels. Yeah, my expectations were definitely too high to ever be satisfied, and they were quick to come crashing down.
It started with the prologue, in which we're given the setup for the fantasy storyline and lore around the titular stars, which I found almost unreadable. The syntax was so choppy and hard to comprehend at times that I had to continually double-back and reread to figure out what I'd just read. I think Roberts was trying to make their speech and the narration in general read more like ye olden prophecy, so I get not wanting them to sound like three New York socialites meeting for mimosas while they picked out a baby gift, or what have you. But there comes a point when the content still has to be legible, which lines like these did not make easy:
“If even one falls into her hands, or one like her . . .” Celene closed her eyes, opened herself. “Many will seek the stars, the power, the fortune, which is the same. And the fate. It is all one. And we, reflected light, must send of us on the quest.” [p. 5]And after the scant 7 pages of prologue which felt like a slog, we're plunged into the story proper where we meet our main protagonist, Sasha, and learn nothing about her. Okay, that's not really fair. We learn that she's a reclusive artist haunted by dreams/visions (which we could read in the summary blurb) of people she doesn't know, magic, battles, and sex. Then she suddenly decides that she's going to take a trip to one of these locations she's dreamed about and sketched, the Greek island of Corfu. Once there, she finds herself drawn to meet one of the people she's dreamed about, and then immediately spills out everything she knows about her dreams, their party, this quest for the stars.
And that's where she lost me. The Sasha we're introduced to is a recluse, lives alone in the woods of North Carolina, hates being around people (we later learn it's because she can sorta kinda read their minds), "only wanted solitude again" after being crowded on the plane, at the airport, and checking into her hotel. We get more of her backstory throughout the book, how her dad left when she was twelve because he "couldn't handle" her future visions and/or mind reading, how she's 28 and still a virgin because her boyfriends always backed away or obsessed about her powers, how she's always struggled to suppress her prophetic episodes, push people away, build walls around herself. But she walks right up to someone she's never met and opens with, "I've dreamed about you," really?
I mean, I guess her story is all about how she needs to stop repressing herself, come into her powers, and accept herself for who she is, but pulling a full 180 about 6 pages into her story is a little much. And then, like I said, there's all this backstory to explain how far she's come, how much she's changing, but you can't have it both ways there. Either we see her as a shy, mousey recluse who is afraid to step into any relationships and tries to hide her powers, or she's immediately confident enough to walk over and tell a stranger that she has prophetic dreams and they're destined to team up. And all these other "changes" she makes throughout the book each have to be explained in the moment because they weren't set up at the beginning. We don't see a change, we're literally told she's changed. I'm all for empowerment and accepting yourself, but I just couldn't buy what Sasha was supposed to be selling.
Which brings me to the romance. Sasha has had these prophetic dreams concerning this quest for a few months, but one of the party members in particular has made quite the impression due to their participation in multiple make-outs and sex dreams. And he wields lightning, too. But yeah, focus on the sex. Well, I guess she is a virgin, so that probably does stand out... Anyway, we meet this literal dream guy, the Irishman Bran, and he is immediately into Sasha. But it's okay, he's a gentleman about it, not doing anything untoward when she's dream-walking, not answering her questions when she wakes up and he's in her bed, telling her to accept something that's brought her only pain and suffering all her life, kissing her multiple times without asking her consent...
And that's where he lost me. Admittedly, I'm still fairly new to the whole romance genre, mostly only dabbling a little in YA and mixed genres, but I found Bran to be more overbearing than gentlemanly in his courtship. Even the first time he kisses Sasha is followed by this:
It hadn’t been a lover’s kiss, she told herself, as she traced a finger over her own lips. Not brotherly either. It was more . . . making a point.Yeah, she's partly trying to deny that he'd ever be attracted to her, but her reading his kiss as "making a point" to "keep her in line" wasn't very reassuring to me. And that's not even counting a later scene of "unhinged," rough sex where he's muffling her screams and she's not sure she could have stopped him even if she'd wanted. Even though Sasha is mostly happy with all her interactions with Bran, whether sexual or merely romantic, it was hard for me to be as enthused when there was such a clear power imbalance always in his favor. Sure, he let her steer the ship sometimes, like when he found out she was a virgin, but I never felt like she had any chance to say no to the relationship. I mean, why would she when she'd already dreamed about all the love and sex they'd share? Is Fate really a cruel mistress if she forces you into something you like?
That’s what she needed to remember.
He wasn’t attracted to her. They were teammates, and he was trying to keep her in line.
[p. 88]
Needless to say, I'm hoping the two other undeclared pairs will take up the story from here. Not just because I didn't fully jive with our main couple, but because I think each of them offer a lot yet to be explored. Sure, we get a cursory explanation of each of their pasts and powers, but only insomuch as it not being a secret to the group. I'm especially interested in Riley and Doyle, both because they seem to have darker, more interesting pasts and their personalities are pretty fiery, plus I think their romance (which is not yet confirmed) will be more balanced in the long run. Not to mention that their powers (which I won't spoil) were definitely up my alley.
To end on a more positive note, I did have some fun with this book. The writing style (after the prologue) was very cinematic, leaning heavily into dialog and a smattering of description here and there when they hit new locations. The third-person-limited narration helped with the cinematic feel, especially when it shifted off of Sasha for a scene or two to add essential information but still focusing on her story overall. Sometimes the speech read a bit choppy, but it was still natural-sounding and easy to understand, just a little distracting where I thought dashes could have been used to tie thoughts together better than periods. I also enjoyed the fantasy elements—the quest, the creatures, and especially the surprising variety this book brought together. I don't know how everything will pan out, but I'm certainly interested to see where it goes.
Overall, this was definitely a mixed bag for me. On the one hand I enjoyed the setting, the quest, the wide variety of fantasy staples, and most of the characters, including the villain; but on the other hand I was disappointed by the primary draw of the story, it's main romantic couple and their relationship. I guess the best I can do is continue on with the second book in the trilogy and hope my expectations have been sufficiently tempered to better gauge the series as a whole. Despite my disappointment, I'm still looking forward to exploring these characters' relationships and seeing where this quest ends off. So until then, in these dark times may the light keep us and bless us all.
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