Morrigan’s Cross is the first in The Circle Trilogy by Nora Roberts, and like all good beginnings, we’re introduced to the major characters. This set of books happens to have six, but the first and foremost is a gentleman named Hoyt. He is the central figure of the book, and is referred to as a “serious man” in earnest and in jokes. That’s a pretty accurate description of him. Hoyt is a sorcerer from 12th century Ireland, who gets pulled forward in time to battle Lilith, the vampire queen. This makes his character feel out of place for most of the book, some of which is to be expected, but I’m hoping that in the second book he will have become more comfortable in his own skin.
Hoyt is tasked with finding the other members that will make up the circle for the fight to come. We meet each of these characters, as they’re introduced throughout the book. Each of these six main characters has a part to play in the coming story. During this book they’re all trying to learn what that role is and how to interact with each other. As this progresses into the second book I expect we’ll see that they play larger parts than just the role initially assigned to them.
A lot happens in this first book; time travel, death, a wedding, fights, and with so many characters involved there’s the worry that the story will become overly complicated and lose the reader. That didn’t happen here. Even for all the action and interaction of the characters, it was easy to keep up with which made for an enjoyable read.
This is the first novel by Nora Roberts I’ve read, and I have to admit that I was originally a little biased towards her and thought I might not enjoy her work. In my mind Nora Roberts was pegged squarely in the romance category, and not in a good way. I can’t really explain where that notion came from, but I’m glad that I have the chance to revisit my opinion.
A friend of mine gave this trilogy to me as a Christmas present, and proved my initial conception wrong. It was definitely a good choice to spark my interest, as it falls into my favorite genres of books – fantasy and the supernatural. I was eager to know what would happen to the characters, and how the story would unfold. Yes, there’s still some romance in here, but the characters and the plot drive this book, not just the romantic interactions. I became invested in the book, and now I can’t wait to read the next two in the trilogy. I have another Nora Roberts trilogy that was given to me as well, and it’s now gotten a higher spot in my to read list.
Next up is The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi for the book club I’m in. After that I’ll be back to read the second book in The Circle Trilogy.
The first thing that struck me about the book was the odd writing style. The names of the cats and the places took some getting used to, but once I was able to not concentrate so much on the distinctive writing I was able to get sucked into the story.