#BookReview The Awakening by Nora Roberts

Summary from Amazon

#1 New York Times bestselling author Nora Roberts begins a new trilogy of adventure, romance, and magick in The Awakening.

In the realm of Talamh, a teenage warrior named Keegan emerges from a lake holding a sword―representing both power and the terrifying responsibility to protect the Fey. In another realm known as Philadelphia, a young woman has just discovered she possesses a treasure of her own…

When Breen Kelly was a girl, her father would tell her stories of magical places. Now she’s an anxious twentysomething mired in student debt and working a job she hates. But one day she stumbles upon a shocking discovery: her mother has been hiding an investment account in her name. It has been funded by her long-lost father―and it’s worth nearly four million dollars.

This newfound fortune would be life-changing for anyone. But little does Breen know that when she uses some of the money to journey to Ireland, it will unlock mysteries she couldn’t have imagined. Here, she will begin to understand why she kept seeing that silver-haired, elusive man, why she imagined his voice in her head saying Come home, Breen Siobhan. It’s time you came home. Why she dreamed of dragons. And where her true destiny lies―through a portal in Galway that takes her to a land of faeries and mermaids, to a man named Keegan, and to the courage in her own heart that will guide her through a powerful, dangerous destiny…

Review

I have read so many books from Nora Roberts and I always have the same criticism. Her characters are always less developed than they could be. Breen has good grounding but falls short of fully materializing in my head. There were so many opportunities to fill her out but Roberts just kept repeating the same themes again and again instead of going deeper. Marco and Keegan fare the same. I’ll be on the brink of loving them and starting to understand them when Roberts just circles back and keeps them shallow and unfinished. I know this is a series and I am holding on to the hope that she will develop them further in subsequent books.

Roberts gayborhood is lovely. I wish Sally’s was real because that’s exactly what the world needs right now. Sally as a sub-character added a lot to the story. He’s one of those characters that actually don’t need a ton of development to come alive. His love for Breen and Marco shines brightly with every page he’s on. Especially a certain scene where a certain someone is due a bit of grilling. Hard to grill someone who says all the right things. That was one of the best scenes in the book for me. It did a lot for every character involved and is one of the reasons I’m giving this the four stars instead of three.

Beyond the characters, the story is solid. I really enjoyed the parallels between Talamh and Ireland. The plot is solid. I’m looking forward to getting deeper into this world with future books. I would like to see Roberts give us more development with the whole cast of characters. I would also like to get deeper into how the different worlds work. There isn’t a lot of information on that entire situation and it’s one of the things I’m most interested in the book for.

The story ends on a cliffhanger which I can’t say came as a surprise but I was happy with the turn it’s taken.

I’m rating this with four stars because if I really stop and look beyond the character shortcomings I enjoyed reading the book and plan to buy the next.

The Technical Data: 

Title: The Awakening | Author(s): Nora Roberts | Publisher: St. Martin’s Press  / Publication Date: 11-24-2020 |Pages: 448 (Print) | ISBN: 978-1250272614 | Genre(s): Fantasy Romance / Paranormal  |Language: English |
Rating: 4 out of 5 |  Date Read: 12-28-2020 | Source: Copy from personal collection.

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