Blood Brothers by Nora Roberts

Title: Blood Brothers
Author: Nora Roberts
Series: Sign of the Seven book #1
# pages: 314
Date published: 2007
Genre: paranormal romance
Challenge(s): Winter reading challenge, Themed reading challenge, 2008 TBR challenge, Book Around the States (Maryland), 101 books in 1001 days (#11)

Setting: Hawkins Hollow, Maryland

First Sentence:

"It crawled along the air that hung heavy as wet wool over the glade."

Synopsis from Barnes & Noble.com:

In the small village of Hawkins Hollow, three best friends who share the same birthday sneak off into the woods for a sleepover the evening before turning 10. But a night of pre-pubescent celebration turns into a night of horror as their blood brother oath unleashes a three-hundred year curse.

Twenty-one years later, Cal Hawkins and his friends have seen their town plagued by a week of unexplainable evil events two more times - every seven years. With the clock winding down on the third set of seven years, someone else has taken an interest in the town's folklore. Quinn is a well known scholar of local legends, and despite Cal's protests, insists on delving in the mystery. But when the first signs of evil appear months early, it's not only the town Cal tries to protect, but also his heart.

Reason for Reading: Nora Roberts is one of my all-time favorite romance authors. I couldn’t possibly resist a new series from her.

Random Thoughts: I really liked this first book in Roberts’ new Sign of the Seven trilogy. Her last trilogy, the Circle (Morrigan’s Cross, Dance of the Gods, and Valley of Silence) trilogy was a little too paranormal for my tastes. It seems that I like a touch of real life mixed in with the paranormal and that’s exactly what Roberts delivers with Blood Brothers. As always, Roberts writes wonderfully snappy dialogue. Her heroines always seem to say just the right thing at the right time (unlike real life where you’re always out of the situation when you finally think of the perfect zinger ;>)).

Favorite scenes: When Cal is teaching Quinn to bowl and when Layla and Quinn meet for the first time.

Favorite quotes:
Description of Alice Hawbaker:

“…Mrs. Hawbaker ran the office like a Border collie ran a herd.

She looked sweet and pretty, and she’d bite your ankle if you didn’t fall in line.” (p. 36)

Description of Lump (Cal’s extremely lazy dog):

“Out of habit, Cal reached down, picked up a stick. There was no point in tossing it for Lump, that would only embarrass them both.” (p. 111)

Quinn:

“She had to just breathe for a moment, just breath her way through the beauty of it as she often did with a great work of art or a song that brought tears to her throat.” (p. 268)

Rating: 5 (very highly recommended)

Also reviewed by:
Melody's Reading Corner
Reading Adventures