Three Fates

Rating:
Summary: Excellent Romance Suspense Novel
Review: This is one of my favorite Nora Roberts books. It's also one of the best books I've ever read. I truly enjoyed the characters and how they interacted with one another, and following the exciting plot with it's twists and turns. This book is a page-turner and well worth the read.

Rating:
Summary: Too much of the same thing...
Review: I'll have to admit the book cover sounded interesting enough, but it seems NR gets into everything by threes, and it gets to be a bit much. I thought the women in this book were as goofy as all get-out, as well as an embarrassment to the female gender. And I never cared much for that. She had all the couples climbing into bed together too soon. The plot surrounding the Three Fates was a great idea, but the prose failed to follow through. I still think NR's first books were some of her best, and I still believe she's one of the greatest romance writers of all times. I'm just not big on this book. I've read much better with NR's name on the cover.

Rating:
Summary: Not worth the work
Review: I could not get through this book which for me is very disappointing. I am an avid Nora Roberts fan. To me this book started okay but was too boring to keep going. It is rare that I will stop reading a book before the end. My time is valuable and I felt it was being wasted . I hope others do not judge Nora Roberts based on this book.
My favorites of hers are:
The Three Sisters Island trilogy
The Irish Trilogy
The Donovan Legacy
Midnight Bayou

Rating:
Summary: No more Nora for me
Review: This is the second Nora Roberts book that I have read and it will probably be my last. This decision is prompted in great part by the fact that I am not a fan of romance novels. (Excuse me; the cover calls Ms. Roberts a write of women's fiction. And please, get another photo that makes you look less like a .... well makes you look a bit more plesant.) At any rate, for me to read a work of "women's fiction" there needs to be more there than a love story. Well in the case of this book, it's three love stories; and amazingly, between three siblings. And of course they are all trying to unite the three fates. The trilogy thing gets overworked, as does the analogies to the three fates.

The three fates are three women from mythology. The first spins the thread, the second measures it, and the third cuts it. By the middle of the book, whenever one of the characters, usually Tia, went into another one of their soliloquies about "weaving-the-thread-into-a-tapestry-and-we're-all-destined-to-be-together" rants, I just skipped to where the story actually started again.

At any rate, Ms. Roberts' attempts at injecting some form of meaning or depth into her fiction are shallow and contrived.

As another reader pointed out the Prologue was good, and then, the book falls flat on it's face. I have always been amazed at how in "women's fiction" people manage to fall in love at first sight. In reality, I just don't think that happens. We have six people in this book, three of which are related, and they all fall madly, head over heals in love within hours of meeting their soon to be partners. The chances of that happening are slim to none. And the pairings are so bizarre. We're to believe that a healthy Irishman who runs a boat tour company in Ireland is going to fall for a neurotic, wealthy PHD; that his younger brother is going to fall for a rebel, ex-exotic dancer, who is also rich but has had a falling out with her family; and that their sister falls for a wealthy self made man in the security business. Of all the romances, the last was to me the most believable.

Bottom line: not really believable, not literary, not worth your time.

My star ratings:

One star - couldn't finish the book
Two stars - read the book, but did a lot of skipping or scanning. Wouldn't add the book to my permanent collection or search out other books by the author
Three stars - enjoyable read. Wouldn't add the book to my permanent collection. Would judge other books by the author individually.
Four stars - Liked the book. Would keep the book or would look for others by the same author.
Five start - One of my all time favorites. Will get a copy in hardback to keep and will actively search out others by the same author.


Rating:
Summary: Not Nora's best book
Review: I began to read Nora Roberts back in the early 1990's. Back then I always looked forward to her books. In the two or three years I haven't read any of her books because I thought that she was not writing at her best. Well, I got a copy of the "Three Fates" hoping that she had improved. Well, she hadn't.
The "Three Fates" tell the story of the Sullivan Family how a past family member came to posession of a small statue after the sinking of the Lusitania. After having it stolen from them, The Sulllivans will stop at nothing to bring the Three Fates back together again.
This was a slow book, that had simple characters, who had a hard time holding my interest. The only reason that I finished it so I got it off of my bookshelf and into my used bookstore bag.