With the enemy cast out and the portal sealed, this is a time to rest and to prepare. Breen spreads her wings and realizes a power she's never experienced before. It's also a time for celebrations--of her first Christmas in both Talamh and Ireland, of solstice and weddings and births--and daring to find joy again in the wake of sorrow. She rededicates herself to writing her stories, and when his duties as taoiseach permit, she is together with Keegan, who has trained her as a warrior and whom she has grown to love.
It's Keegan who's at her side when the enemy's witches, traitorous and power-mad, appear to her in her sleep, practicing black magick, sacrificing the innocent, and plotting a brutal destruction for Breen. And soon, united with him and with all of Talamh, she will seek out those in desperate need of rescue, and confront the darkness with every weapon she has: her sword, her magicks--and her courage...
Comment: This is the third and final installment in the Dragon Heart Legacy by Nora Roberts. I think it was a very predictable conclusion to the main story.
In this final installment, Breen and the others are still dealing with the shock of what happened during the battle at the end of the previous installment. Now it's time to mourn and to pay homages, but also to move forward and plan what will be necessary to fight Odran. Everyone knows he will try to do things in unfair and uncaring ways, but Breen happens to discover something during one of her visions and she now believes she might know what to do to defeat him. The question is, will she manage or will the price be too high to pay?
I gave this book a positive grade and I think of it as a good one, simply because I am a fan of the author, I know what to expect of her, but to be really honest, this story was too slow and too predictable. I say this knowing her books are always formulaic, yes, but as mrs Roberts likes to say, one simply must work on "one's craft" and I came to expect to always appreciate hers. However, perhaps in an attempt to go outside of the norm when it comes to her usual trilogies' strategies, I think the end of this one was a little too bland.
The first book was quiet promising and I think it was developed in a way I expected but there were still some elements which I felt could be both better and more surprising. In the second book there were a few scenes which surprised me, and I thought this had to be a great sign for what would come next, but now this story delivers what was promised, yes, but in a very unassuming way. I did expect the final battle between Breen and the villain to be more interesting, or for things which would lead to it to be more engaging, but everything takes a long time to happen and, then, the end is in one chapter or two! It makes it seem as if things build up and up and then deflated quickly, like a balloon.
Usually, the authors' trilogies are divided into three main couples, one to each book. This trilogy wasn't like that, we have Breen as the main character and there's a male counterpart, and then perhaps I can think of two other couples who have some attention, but are clearly meant to be secondary. I really can't say if I like or dislike one method more than the other, both offer different types of development, but the center of attention being on Breen and on her learning means the romance also took a secondary role.
This said, it was also more than obvious how things would progress for them, and at first Breen wasn't impressed with Keegan. I admit I was surprised they started being intimate before anything had been agreed between them, even though it was clear they would go on to become a couple and to join forces to defeat the villain. I have read many books, older and newer, by this author, both in series and in standalone, where the romance was just so special, almost as magical as the magic included in those types of stories, but here I need to say I was not convinced.
Breen and Keegan are good teammates, they work well enough when needed, and Breen has a lot to learn about this new world, and Keegan is often a teacher figure. That they wanted to be intimate and that it would develop into being a couple was expected, but it was not magical. This book ends, they win the fight and they exchange some loving words but I can only accept that they will be happy because I know this is the goal of the story and the author's style. Nothing among them besides some hints here and there suggests at how deep their emotions are. We need to infer that.
I suppose, in part, my slight disappointment is due to the writing itself. The author is certainly amazing, experienced, has written so many books, and for me the majority so great!... it feels as if now, the dialogues are so unnatural, the characters go through the motions, the situations are always the same, everyone is so perfect or so evil... the magic of her writing is still there but feels it's underwater... I know I might not be explaining myself properly, but it feels this story could have been epic and it wasn't.
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