I really love Nora Roberts’ PNR trilogies. Like a lot. There’s very little info about this book, and she tends to have a lot of duologies and anthologies of her own books so I sort of made an educated guess that this was 3 books in one. It mentioned The Fates a few times in the first few pages, and I was happy enough to think I was getting a ParaNora.
I was sort of right? More to the wrong side.
This is set up in 3 parts-one for each Fate I guess. But it’s not three separate books, it’s one. It’s not PNR at all. It is interwoven as if the Fates themselves wove the plot. See what I did there;)
Instead of 3 separate books in one, it’s really just one really long book. But we have 3 romances. It’s a little different from her typical trilogies in the sense that although it’s broken into 3 parts, they aren’t a separate romance for each couple. It’s more a section per Fate.
The main plot is that there was a set of statues, the Fates, that were broken up. One was taken on board the Lusitania and when she sank, the Fate went to the bottom of the ocean.
But someone believes she’s out there. And thinks her sisters are too. He thinks this because he has one. His ancestor stole it from the original owner. But someone else stole it. He’s gonna find the other two statues and steal his back.
Enter the first couple. Tia is a germaphobe, an introvert, a hypochondriac, and she’s brilliant. She’s convinced by her therapist that it would be good for her to go to Europe for a book tour for her latest book on mythology, when Malachi finds her. His goal is to wine her and dine her to see if she has a line on one of the statues. One of her ancestors was on the Lusitania with hers. But he falls hard for her.
Next the second couple. Malachi’s brother Gideon and a stripper in Prague. Malachi went asking if she knew about it, but she’s got an endgoal of making it back to the States. She may or may not know about the silver statue, but she’ll only help him if he takes her back to New York, nevermind he lives in Ireland. But before they can make much progress, two thugs turn up and try to kill them.
The third couple is Malachi and Gideon’s sister Rebecca, and she is in Ireland running their tour boat business while the brothers are off gallivanting around the world. Jack is the owner of a security company and he’s been brought into this by the villain of the piece. But what she doesn’t know is that he can’t be bought and he isn’t on her side. But I can honestly say I think he was my favorite character in the whole book. He took one look at Becca and that was it for him.
The six of them all gather together in Tia’s New York apartment and discuss how best to get the Fates and the mystery plus the weaving of the Fates throughout their lives is one thing Nora Roberts excels at.
The beginning is slow. I almost gave up on it because I was so bored. But once the pieces start to fall into place, I really enjoyed the story. It’s so funny to read a book from the early 2000s? I think? and read about Palm Pilots and email, but not have phones the way we have them now. It wasn’t all that long ago, but I instantly expected everyone to have a cell phone if not a smart phone. Side note: it’s so frustrating to read a romantic suspense from before smart phones. You want to shake the characters and shout “take a picture and text it to someone!” not realizing they didn’t have them back then.
But the book was enjoyable and I liked the direction it went. I think one of the best things about a Nora Roberts book is that you really know what you’re going to get. You get a happy ending for everyone.
***This was a library book