I don’t very often review romance novels, but I was out of town all weekend and this was the only book I read in four days. (My apologies for how late it is.) In any case, it’s a paranormal/fantasy romance, so I’m claiming it. Nora Roberts, as a lot of people know, is one of the dominant forces in romance novels. She’s written a little bit of everything (except, I think, historicals) — suspense, fantasy, sf, southern, northern, eastern, western, etc. She’s famed for her strong storytelling and excellent dialogue. Her online persona is also a genuinely nice person, as evidenced by the boards at Dear Author and the Smart B*tches (see sidebar for links).

In this book 1 of 3, Malory Price is an art dealer/gallery manager in small-town Pennsylvania. Unfortunately, she and the boss’s new wife have issues, and she’s on the verge of losing her job when she gets invited to a reception at an amazing historical house in the area. When she gets there, only two other people — both women — have been invited. She, Dana, and Zoe were invited specifically by the couple who has rented the house because they are linked. The three of them are the only women alive who have a chance of finding three specific keys which can save three women from the fairy-tale hell they’ve been trapped in. This is literal, not metaphorical: actual physical keys to unlock the box that contains their souls, or something like that, so the young women can be awakened like Snow White or Sleeping Beauty. Unfortunately, there are a few things working against her, primarily lack of information and, oh yeah, the guy who put them there in the first place . . .

In this first book, we have Malory’s quest for the first of the three keys. Of course, since it was written by Nora Roberts, it’s also a romance novel, and therefore we also have a love story. Early on in the book, while walking home, our fair heroine is knocked over by a large dog. Astute readers will realize that the owner of this dog, who goes by Flynn, will have something to do with this romantic plot. (He also, conveniently, has two best friends from high school and college. Malory has two friends, albeit recent ones. Get where this is going?) The dog, named Moe, is described as a cross between a cocker spaniel and a woolly mammoth, by the way.

As a fantasy novel, it’s definitely light fare. Fantasy readers supposedly look for worldbuilding, consistency of magical systems, and strong characters, and this novel certainly has all that. Ms. Roberts’s worldbuilding is small-town Pennsylvania rather than a different world, but it works. It’s perhaps not as well-described as some of her other novels (I’ve read two), but she had a lot more to pack into fewer pages. The magical system is fairly consistent, but she cobbled together a few different traditions, including Celts, Ouija boards, and traditional sorcery (such as it is; I mean more like Tolkein than anything else). I had not heard of the supposed legend she used, and I couldn’t find anything on Google, but that I looked does tell you how convincing it is.

Malory, Dana, and Zoe are all strong characters. Flynn is not quite so strong or round; as much as I did enjoy his internal conflict over his job, he really didn’t exist other than that, his dog, and his relationship with Malory. Malory, Dana, and Zoe are all struggling with different aspects of their life and work. Zoe is recently fired, and Dana can’t stand her job. That, and their nascent friendship, form the most interesting part of the novel for me. I loved watching Zoe and her son, and Dana and her brother (Flynn, by the way), and the way all those relationships played into Malory’s search. Another thing that separates it from a ‘regular’ fantasy novel, is that in most fantasy novels, Malory would be doing the entire search herself, with no interaction from the other two women. I quite enjoyed that this didn’t happen.

As a romance novel, parts of the romance are a tad rushed to support the fantasy. The ending, certainly. However, there are two more books to form the complete trilogy, so more may happen. If a reader is interested in one-third fantasy and two-thirds romance novels, I’d recommend this one. How can one go wrong with Nora Roberts? 4/5 stars.