A fitting finish to the trilogy…
I came late to reading Nora Roberts “as Nora Roberts”, although I’ve long enjoyed her In Death mystery series, which she has written using a different pen name, JD Robb. And even now, the three-book Lost Bride series is the only trilogy of Roberts’ that I’ve read – so I am happy that it was a good one. (See my reviews of the previous two books here and here.)
The ostensible focus of the books is the haunted cliff-top mansion, officially called Poole Manor, but known locally as Lost Bride Manor, that Sonya MacTavish inherits unexpectedly from her uncle, together with its thoroughly nasty resident ghost, the shade of the 1790s-era witch, Hestor Dobbs. And a good chunk of the overall story details Sonya’s efforts to figure out who Dobbs was, how to first contain and then eject her, and how to provide relief to the ghosts of the seven previous brides, Sonya’s ancestors, that Dobbs killed over the centuries. Dobbs doesn’t go quietly and I had some good shivers as she fought back. (As a side-note: it might not be a great idea to read The Seven Rings late at night, during a thunderstorm, with the power off and the wind howling.) But in the end, Sonya and her small band of companions do some a$$-kicking.
If you get right down to it, though, I liked other elements of the story even more. Watching Sonya and her best friend Cleo, both grow professionally – Sonya with her own start-up business, and Cleo with some great painting and illustration projects – was a treat. And they each developed a solid relationship with a new partner: Trey for Sonya and Owen for Cleo. By the time of The Seven Rings, the four together were much better equipped to deal with Dobbs than Sonya would have been on her own.
It’s also impossible to overstate how much fun some of the other decidedly-not-nasty ghosts inhabiting Lost Bride Manor added to the storyline. Clover’s narration by song-title was a treat, and had me digging some old tunes out of my collection to listen to again. And Jack’s eagerness to play with Sonya’s dog, Yoda, gave me more than a few chuckles. I was a little bit sad not to see more of Cleo’s grand-mère, Imogene Bea LaRue Tamura, in The Seven Rings, but you can’t get everything you want. Personally, I think Grand-mère could – and should – star in her own trilogy.
In the end, The Seven Rings was a fitting finish to the series, and now I’ll be hoping for another series to come along soon. Which, at the rate Roberts writes books, is sure to happen soon! And my thanks go to St Martin’s Press and NetGalley for my review copy.
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