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Book Review of Morrigan's Cross (Circle, Bk 1)

Morrigan's Cross (Circle, Bk 1)
Tesstarosa avatar reviewed on + 151 more book reviews


The first in another trilogy from Nora Roberts. Of course, it follows her normal formula of three female and three male characters that come together and each couples up.

Our cast of characters for this trilogy:
Hoyt Mac Cionaoith/McKenna a 12th century Irish sorcerer and descendant of Morrigan, the faerie queen. He seeks to avenge the death of his brother, Cian.
Cian (Cane) Mc Cionaoith/McKenna Hoyts neer-do-well twin brother, his partying and womanizing has caused him to become a victim of Lilith, the vampire queen, who has turned him into a vampire. In the 21st century, he owns a popular and successful New York night club.
Glenna Ward a hereditary witch and artist from the 21st century. She has visions and joins forces with the McKenna brothers to defeat Lilith.
Moira of Geall the future queen of Gaell, an ancient Irish land. Her mother has been killed by Liliths vampires and she will also join forces with the Hoyt, Cian and Glenna to defeat Lilith and return to the Gaell to seek her crown.
Larkin of Gaell cousin of Moira and a shape-shifter, he too comes with Moira to join forces against Lilith.
Blair Nola Bridget Murphy a 21st century demon hunter and a descendant of Hoyt and Cians sister, Nola. Sent to Ireland by Morrigan to join the hunt.

The story opens with a grandfather telling stories to his grandchildren . . .

We meet Hoyt as he fights Lilith and Cian after she has turned Cian into a vampire. Using his sorcerers powers he is able to defeat them. He is then sent by Morrigan to the dance to go forward to the 21st century to defeat Lilith and save his family. He asks Morrigan to protect his family that he leaves behind and she creates for him seven crosses for each of his surviving family members.

His trip through the dance takes him to modern day New York City where his brother Cian runs a successful and popular night club. He is very wealthy and has not sought humans to feed off for years. He has a man named King who works as his body guard. He finds Cian, who is now going by the name Cane, and convinces him that he needs to join him in Ireland to defeat Lilith.

Glenna Ward is an artist and photographer working in New York City. She is also a hereditary witch. One day she is given messages to find the man in a portrait she has drawn, Hoyt McKenna. She goes out into the city and eventually finds Cian, Hoyt and his security guard, King.

They form the first four members of the circle to defeat Lilith: Hoyt, Cian, a witch, Glenna; and a warrior, King. They fly to Ireland and Cians home ther where they hope to meet the other two members of their circle there -- a scholar and one with many shapes.

At the same time, in the mythical land of Gaell, Moiras mother, the queen, has been viciously killed by vampires. Despite her grief, she follows the command she receives from Morrigan to go to The Dance and fight Lilith. She leaves the people of Gaell with no leader, as she refuses to attempt to remove the sword from the stone to determine if she is the next ruler of Gaell until Lilith has been defeated. Her cousin, Larkin, a shape-shifter, insists on travelling with her. The two go to the Dance and travel to modern day Ireland.

They meet up with the circle members from New York and begin training to defeat the vampires while living at Cians home. A romance between Hoyt and Glenna develops as this book is their love story.

Through a sad turn of events, they learn that King is not the warrior of the circle and they meet Blair Murphy, a demon hunter from Chicago. She joins the team, although somewhat skeptically as she does not trust Cian since its her lifes mission to kill and destroy vampires.

An enjoyable story but somewhat predictable as it is a Nora Roberts trilogy. One of the things that does kind of bother me is that the story is obviously taking place in County Clare (she specifically says that Hoyt lives in An Clar which is County Clare) but makes many references to things being in Chiarrai (County Kerry.) Which is geographically close to County Clare, but in the 12th century and the Gaell times, it would have been a place someone from Clar probably would not have traveled often.