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A review by la_xu
Dance of the Gods by Nora Roberts
4.0
I haven’t had access to a computer in the past few days so this review will be shorter than others, as I’ve already blurred parts of the Dance with the Valley of Silence (which I’m almost done reading).
Either way, I’d give the romance 3 stars and the story itself 4 stars.
I’d like to speak generally about the series at first:
While it’s commendable that Roberts attempts to keep all characters throughout the trilogy, and thus helping us connect to their relationships, the novels still run as standalone romances, but connected storylines. For example, each new relationship seems to almost start at the beginning of the novel. There is minimal build up in the prior novels. But say, I liked Cian and Moira, and did not want to read about Larkin and Blair, I would not be able to skip the second novel, or else the plot would be completely messed up. If the plot line ties so closely together, so should have the romances. But this is a difficult task, so I didn’t actually expect too much more.
One thing I constantly complain about is the timeline and how quickly and deeply they all fall in love. The fault is just the fact this whole series takes place in 3 months and each love story takes place in one month. This technically means that Hoyt and Glenna should have been stripped of a good romance, while Blair and Larkin had 2 months, and Cain and Moira should have had the most in depth and believable courting. But it seems that each book gives each couple one month to fall in love, fight, and figure out what they’re going to do after the war.
Okay… other than that rant, onto the novel specifically:
Blair:
I didn’t like her at first. But I’m glad I read this book because you really get to know her better, and grow with her as a person. I didn’t really have anything in particular I liked or disliked about her by the end. I guess at the end of it, she’s just really badass and her and Larkin ended up being a great pair.
Larkin:
I think he’s easy-going, fun, and definitely helps bring out Blair’s playful edge. I thought it was adorable how he didn’t know the modern world and would constantly ask Blair to explain how things worked or what things meant. Even with that kind of dopey curiosity, there were still parts of dialogue that just seemed so weird to me. While, on paper, he seems great, when I tried to think of a real person saying that stuff to me, I would definitely have been put off. Such as his random perverted remarks about seeing Blair naked before they really had a relationship (pg 109 ebook). Besides the shady dialogue, I absolutely LOVE his shapeshifting power. It’s super unique and definitely helps balance out the witch vs vampire characters.
In general, this was really just the middle book. The one that gets you from beginning to end. And it did its job. It kept me hooked and I literally ripped through the last book because of how excited I was at the end of this one.
Again, rating each novel separately is a bit unfair for this series. It’s difficult to truly love and believe and invest in a group of people when so much of the first book was made to set up for the rest of the novels. This one had much more going for it, and I can only expect the last book to be even better.
About the writing:
Two things that bother me about the reading of this novel:
1. The dialogue. Very often, Roberts goes on this list of dialogue after dialogue with no prose to suggest who is saying the dialogue. While I’m sure she intended it to be obvious, there were many parts I had to reread, or backtrack, to fully understand who was saying what.
2. The change of POV. While this whole novel is written in 3rd person, it’s written in 3rd person limited so that we only get the POV of one person at a time. It’s ridiculously confusing when she switches from Blair’s POV to Larkin’s POV and vise versa. This may just be my ebook not having correct spacing, but there are times I’m not sure whose head I’m in. Again, just a distraction to the story.
Either way, I’d give the romance 3 stars and the story itself 4 stars.
I’d like to speak generally about the series at first:
While it’s commendable that Roberts attempts to keep all characters throughout the trilogy, and thus helping us connect to their relationships, the novels still run as standalone romances, but connected storylines. For example, each new relationship seems to almost start at the beginning of the novel. There is minimal build up in the prior novels. But say, I liked Cian and Moira, and did not want to read about Larkin and Blair, I would not be able to skip the second novel, or else the plot would be completely messed up. If the plot line ties so closely together, so should have the romances. But this is a difficult task, so I didn’t actually expect too much more.
One thing I constantly complain about is the timeline and how quickly and deeply they all fall in love. The fault is just the fact this whole series takes place in 3 months and each love story takes place in one month. This technically means that Hoyt and Glenna should have been stripped of a good romance, while Blair and Larkin had 2 months, and Cain and Moira should have had the most in depth and believable courting. But it seems that each book gives each couple one month to fall in love, fight, and figure out what they’re going to do after the war.
Okay… other than that rant, onto the novel specifically:
Blair:
I didn’t like her at first. But I’m glad I read this book because you really get to know her better, and grow with her as a person. I didn’t really have anything in particular I liked or disliked about her by the end. I guess at the end of it, she’s just really badass and her and Larkin ended up being a great pair.
Larkin:
I think he’s easy-going, fun, and definitely helps bring out Blair’s playful edge. I thought it was adorable how he didn’t know the modern world and would constantly ask Blair to explain how things worked or what things meant. Even with that kind of dopey curiosity, there were still parts of dialogue that just seemed so weird to me. While, on paper, he seems great, when I tried to think of a real person saying that stuff to me, I would definitely have been put off. Such as his random perverted remarks about seeing Blair naked before they really had a relationship (pg 109 ebook). Besides the shady dialogue, I absolutely LOVE his shapeshifting power. It’s super unique and definitely helps balance out the witch vs vampire characters.
In general, this was really just the middle book. The one that gets you from beginning to end. And it did its job. It kept me hooked and I literally ripped through the last book because of how excited I was at the end of this one.
Again, rating each novel separately is a bit unfair for this series. It’s difficult to truly love and believe and invest in a group of people when so much of the first book was made to set up for the rest of the novels. This one had much more going for it, and I can only expect the last book to be even better.
About the writing:
Two things that bother me about the reading of this novel:
1. The dialogue. Very often, Roberts goes on this list of dialogue after dialogue with no prose to suggest who is saying the dialogue. While I’m sure she intended it to be obvious, there were many parts I had to reread, or backtrack, to fully understand who was saying what.
2. The change of POV. While this whole novel is written in 3rd person, it’s written in 3rd person limited so that we only get the POV of one person at a time. It’s ridiculously confusing when she switches from Blair’s POV to Larkin’s POV and vise versa. This may just be my ebook not having correct spacing, but there are times I’m not sure whose head I’m in. Again, just a distraction to the story.