Tag: Chronicles of The One

Review: Of Blood and Bone by Nora Roberts

Posted December 26, 2018 by Casee in Reviews | 2 Comments

Review: Of Blood and Bone by Nora RobertsReviewer: Casee
Of Blood and Bone (Chronicles of The One, #2) by Nora Roberts
Series: Chronicles of The One #2
Also in this series: Year One (Chronicles of The One #1)
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Publication Date: December 4, 2018
Format: eBook
Source: Purchased
Point-of-View: Alternating Third
Genres: Post Apocalyptic
Pages: 453
Add It: Goodreads
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | The Ripped Bodice | Google Play Books
two-half-stars
Series Rating: three-stars

The #1 New York Times bestselling author of the epic Year One returns with a new tale of terror and magic in a brand new world.

They look like an everyday family living an ordinary life. But beyond the edges of this peaceful farm, unimaginable forces of light and dark have been unleashed.

Fallon Swift, approaching her thirteenth birthday, barely knows the world that existed before—the city where her parents lived, now in ruins and reclaimed by nature since the Doom sickened and killed billions. Traveling anywhere is a danger, as vicious gangs of Raiders and fanatics called Purity Warriors search for their next victim. Those like Fallon, in possession of gifts, are hunted—and the time is coming when her true nature, her identity as The One, can no longer be hidden.

In a mysterious shelter in the forest, her training is about to begin under the guidance of Mallick, whose skills have been honed over centuries. She will learn the old ways of healing; study and spar; encounter faeries and elves and shifters; and find powers within herself she never imagined. And when the time is right, she will take up the sword, and fight. For until she grows into the woman she was born to be, the world outside will never be whole again.

I don’t even know where to start with this one. This book was like hump day. You just had to get through it to get to the next one, which you just know will be better than the current one.

Fallon Swift has always known on some level that she is The One. The One that is going to bring order to the world. The Doom swept death, destruction, and chaos all over the world. If you would like to read my review of Year One, it would help you understand how we got where we are in this book. At the end of Year One, Mallick appears at Fallon’s house on the day she was born. She tells Lana and Simon, Fallon’s parents, that he will be back on her thirteenth birthday. At that time she will be with him for two years. Two years he will train her and teach her everything she needs to know as The One.

That’s what was so boring, y’all. Like snooze-fest boring. At first it was interesting. The entire purpose of Mallick’s life was to serve The One. Yet he didn’t “serve” her. He taught her. Still, a good chunk of the book was just boring. It was about training and learning. The action didn’t come until almost 90% into the book. I don’t need constant action, but I need some sort of something that doesn’t revolve around a thirteen year old girl. It was just too YA for my taste this time around. I respected Fallon immensely. The burden she must bear is huge. Any mistakes she makes have a ripple effect. Still, the info dump from the time she left her family to the time she arrived in New Hope was really just too much.

The ending was the best. The action. When Fallon realizes how strong her mother really is. Fallon and Duncan. Too bad it took so long to get to the goods. Even so, I’ll be reading the third book.

Rating: 2.5 out of 5.

Chronicles of The One

two-half-stars


Tagged: , , , , , ,

Review: Year One by Nora Roberts

Posted February 8, 2018 by Casee in Reviews | 11 Comments

Review: Year One by Nora RobertsReviewer: Casee
Year One (Chronicles of The One #1) by Nora Roberts
Series: Chronicles of The One #1
Also in this series: Of Blood and Bone (Chronicles of The One, #2)
Publisher: Macmillan, St. Martin's Press
Publication Date: December 5th 2017
Genres: Paranormal Romance
Pages: 419
Add It: Goodreads
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | The Ripped Bodice | Google Play Books
three-half-stars
Series Rating: three-stars

A stunning new novel from the number-one New York Times best-selling author - an epic of hope and horror, chaos and magic, and a journey that will unite a desperate group of people to fight the battle of their lives...

It began on New Year’s Eve.

The sickness came on suddenly, and spread quickly. The fear spread even faster. Within weeks, everything people counted on began to fail them. The electrical grid sputtered; law and government collapsed—and more than half of the world’s population was decimated.

Where there had been order, there was now chaos. And as the power of science and technology receded, magic rose up in its place. Some of it is good, like the witchcraft worked by Lana Bingham, practicing in the loft apartment she shares with her lover, Max. Some of it is unimaginably evil, and it can lurk anywhere, around a corner, in fetid tunnels beneath the river—or in the ones you know and love the most.

As word spreads that neither the immune nor the gifted are safe from the authorities who patrol the ravaged streets, and with nothing left to count on but each other, Lana and Max make their way out of a wrecked New York City. At the same time, other travelers are heading west too, into a new frontier. Chuck, a tech genius trying to hack his way through a world gone offline. Arlys, a journalist who has lost her audience but uses pen and paper to record the truth. Fred, her young colleague, possessed of burgeoning abilities and an optimism that seems out of place in this bleak landscape. And Rachel and Jonah, a resourceful doctor and a paramedic who fend off despair with their determination to keep a young mother and three infants in their care alive.

In a world of survivors where every stranger encountered could be either a savage or a savior, none of them knows exactly where they are heading, or why. But a purpose awaits them that will shape their lives and the lives of all those who remain.

The end has come. The beginning comes next.

Where do I even begin with this book? I feel like it has plagued me since it was first released, followed me through Christmas and into the new year. I thought that if I could just sit down and get into it, I would have no problem finishing it. That was true and not true. It was really hard to put this book into the “paranormal romance” category because it’s not really a romance, but it is paranormal. It has more of a “post-apocalypse” vibe, yet there was no apocalypse. You could go either way. I went with paranormal romance because there is romance in it. Maybe a “paranormal almost post-apocalypse romance”?

It was not easy for me to get into this book and this had nothing to do with the time I had or didn’t have to read. This is a new world for Roberts and I think it might be a series that’s going to go on for a little while (don’t quote me on that). My reasons are 1) the series is called the Chronicles. That’s it. That’s my reason. Plus there is no way that she went through everything she did in this first book for a trilogy. I am known to be wrong. So there was a lot, a lot of time spent getting to know this world, these characters and how The One was going to be important. Maybe too much time? It is also incredibly hard to bring you a good review because there was so much going on and so many characters.

The book began in Scotland as these books usually do. Or Ireland. From all the information that I was trying to take in, I gathered that it all began at a stone circle in Scotland. Ross MacLeod didn’t know that going hunting for pheasant was going to end his life, the lives of his family, and billions of others. That’s what happened and all because of the bird landing in the stone circle that has been talked about in whispers within his family. Poor guy. The MacLeod family seemed to just be a family on the peripheral, but their daughter ended up being an important part of the book. Ross and his wife, Angie, went home to New York and spread what was going to become known as the “Doom” from Scotland to New York and everywhere in between.

At the same time the Doom started spreading, anyone with any magical ability had their existing ability enhanced. Some that didn’t know they were magical found out they were faeries or elves. Anyone with magical abilities became known as the “Uncanny”. Not everyone was crazy about the Uncannys, which is putting it lightly. The Uncanny’s learned to hide their powers because some people would kill them on sight.

I really want to tell you about every single character, but that would be so boring. I’ll just try to break it down as simple as I can.

First we have Lana and Max, witches from New York who add human Eddie and canine Joe to their caravan. Then you have Jonah, Rachel, Katie (MacLeod’s daughter) and her three newborn babies. You also have Arlys, Fred, and Chuck. So everyone from New York on a mission. They each have their own journeys that eventually lead them to each other, but it wasn’t an easy one. And who is The One? Well, I’m not going to spoil that.

Once I got into it a little more, I finished it in a day and a half. I found myself really enjoying it. There was something I didn’t see coming which I adjusted to, but the ending? Good Lord help me. It was such a rushed ending that I felt ripped off. Not that the ending didn’t need to come, but it was all tied up in such a nice little bow. Nothankyouverymuch. Still, I’ll read the next one.

Grade: 3.5 out of 5

Chronicles of The One

three-half-stars


Tagged: , , , , , ,