Nora Roberts was born in Silver Spring, MD and currently lives up in the northwestern part of the state. And so this book, Dark Witch, fills the Home Something Home slot on my bingo card. I am not impressed. I mean, kissing books are not my favorite genre and unfortunately this one follows the plot beats with drumming regularity. I think if you’re fond of a particular genre, then this type of drumming to the story beats will appeal to you. I know that I have forgiven many a stereotypical fantasy novel it’s wizards and mcguffins simply because of what they were. However, as I said, romance novels really aren’t my favorite type of book (and this book, despite some fantastic elements is a romance novel not a fantasy novel). I enjoy kissing books on occasion but ones that follow to closely to the romance novel formula tend to put me off. With this particular book I could see the beats coming a mile away and I just ended up rolling my eyes. Add in some cliched notions about Ireland and witches and my patience had worn super thin by the time the book was over.
Iona Sheehan is the only daughter of two Americans who doesn’t quite know where she belongs. The stories of her grandmother inspired her to take a trip to Ireland, where most of her family is from, and look into the truth behind those stories. Turns out, Iona is one of the powerful Dark Witches along with her two cousins. She settles in Ireland, finds a job, meets a guy and faces an ancient evil with her cousins. Will she find true love? And will they defeat the evil? (hint on that last one, there are two more books to follow so…. probably not)
I’m going to take a break here and rant about one of the kissing book beats that just really bothers me. It’s the big fight trope. You know the one, after the couple has come together there must be a big fight or misunderstanding so that they can realize that just how much they mean to each other. When it’s well done, it’s a good element. But most of the time this particular plot point comes out of nowhere and makes no sense. And the fight ends up annoying me so much that I stop reading. I continued with this one only because I had a bingo to complete.
I don’t know, maybe Roberts has better books out there, but this one didn’t inspire me to seek her out. I definitely won’t be reading the other two books in this series. I mean, I already know, from reading this one book, which romances they’re going to feature and exactly how those romances will play out, so why bother. This book does get two stars because despite the tropey plot beats, I though Roberts had a deft way with her words. I can see that she’s probably a better writer then this book, but I’m not really excited to see what she has to offer either.
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