Review – Face the Fire (Three Sisters Island Trilogy, Book 3) by Nora Roberts (4/5 stars)
Reading Level:Adult
Genre: Paranormal
Length: 364 pages
Publisher: Berkley
Release Date: May 28, 2002
ASIN: B000QFCFFC
Stand Alone or Series: 3rd book in the Three Sisters Island Trilogy
Source: Borrowed ebook from library
Rating: 4/5 stars
“Mia Devlin knows what it’s like to love with your whole heart—and then watch your love walk away. Years ago, she and Sam Logan shared an incredible bond built on passion, legend, and fate. But then one day he fled Three Sisters Island, leaving her lost in memories of the magic they shared—and determined to live on her own…
As the new owner of the island’s only hotel, Sam has returned to Three Sisters with hopes of winning back Mia’s affections. He is puzzled when she greets him with icy indifference—for the chemistry between them is still sizzling and true. Angry, hurt, and deeply confused, Mia refuses to admit that a desire for Sam still burns in her heart. But she’ll need his help—and his powers—to face her greatest, most terrifying challenge. And as the deadline for breaking a centuries-old curse draws near, they must take the first step toward destiny—and come together to turn back the dark…”
Series Info/Source: This is third (and final) book in the Three Sisters Island Trilogy. I borrowed this on ebook from the library.
Thoughts: I enjoyed this book final book in the Three Sisters Island trilogy. There were some things I enjoyed more about this book and a couple things I enjoyed less about this book when compared to the first two
This is the book that finally follows Mia. When she was a young adult the love of her life, Sam, left the island…and now he is returning in hopes of winning back Mia’s affections. Meanwhile the evil curse of the island is becoming much more aggressive and actively attacking both Mia and those she loves.
I continue to enjoy the cozy, small town community on Three Sisters Island and really love the relationship that these three witchy women develop. We get to see a lot more dark magic and witch magic in this book and things definitely get a bit more dire and dangerous than they were in the previous two books. I really enjoyed a lot of the dark magic around the curse and liked how that part of the story wrapped up.
I did however feel like this book was the most dated of the books in this series. Mia is a pretty girly girl and there is a lot of oh, boys will be boys, attitude that I rolled my eyes at. Sam is a very pushy guy and there was one sex scene in particular that was a bit violent for my liking….and having Mia say she liked it like that was pretty uncomfortable. I think Sam is by far the most alpha male in this series and I would have liked him to lean in to his magic a bit more. Also I never feel like we get a very satisfying explanation for why Sam was gone for 8 years. I guess this is all to say that I didn’t really enjoy Sam and Mia as characters or their relationship as much as I enjoyed Nell and Ripley’s stories.
My Summary (4/5): Overall I liked this. It was both my favorite and least favorite book of the series depending on which aspect I think about. I liked the story around the curse and all the magic that was included. I did not like Mia and Sam and how they treated each other or how there was all of this “hee, hee, giggle, giggle I guess boys will just do these things”. This is the first Nora Roberts series I have read and I liked it but didn’t love it. A lot of the story feels a bit formulaic. I will probably read another series by her because she has so much out there. I am curious to see if all of her books follow the same types of patterns.
