Product Description

As a storm rages, the tale of a powerful vampire's lust for destruction-and of the circle of six charged by the goddess Morrigan to stop her-begins. One of the chosen is a medieval sorcerer whose quest will take him through time-and into the arms of a woman courageous enough to link her destiny to his own.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #35759 in Books
• Published on: 2006-08-29
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• 352 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780515141658
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. Romance institution Roberts dives into her first paranormal series with the first book in the Circle Trilogy. In 12th-century Ireland, sorcerer Hoyt Mac Cionaoith does battle with a centuries-old vampire named Lilith, who has turned Hoyt's twin brother, Cian, into a fellow bloodsucker. Unable to defeat her, Hoyt is visited by the goddess of battle, Morrigan, who charges him with the task of leading a battle, "the greatest ever waged," against Lilith and her demons. Hoyt must gather five others to fight alongside him: "the witch, the warrior, the scholar, the one of many forms, and the one you've lost." He travels in time to present-day New York, where he encounters his vampire brother, Cian, and Glenna, a beautiful red-haired witch. Two more warriors, Moira and Larkin, join them back in the Mac Cionaoith ancestral home. Romance ignites between Hoyt and Glenna as enemies emerge from the shadows, and the "circle of six" prepare for the big showdown with Lilith. This well-plotted, finely detailed paranormal adventure is driven by richly developed characters, making it a cut above others in this subgenre, and among Roberts's best. (Sept.)
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From Booklist
Another enticing paranormal trilogy from the ever-versatile, prolific, and much-loved queen of romance. Irish sorcerer Hoyt Mac Cionaoith tried but failed to destroy Demon Queen Lilith after she ruthlessly turned his twin brother, Cian, into a vampire. Lilith gradually recovered and immediately set about amassing an army of vampires with the intention of destroying all humans so that she could rule the world. The goddess Morrigan chooses Hoyt and five others to stop Lilith, sending Hoyt 1,000 years into the future. In twenty-first-century New York, he starts to build his team, enlisting Glenna Ward; his brother, Cian; and Cian's employee, King. Traveling back to Ireland, the three pick up new recruits Moira and her cousin Larkin, both of whom have traveled through space and time from the Kingdom of Geall. Demon-hunter Blair Murphy is the last to sign on to the circle of six. Now a sorcerer, a witch, a warrior, a scholar, a shape-shifter, and a lost soul must find some way of working together as a team if they are to have any hope of stopping darkness from overcoming all that is good and light in the world. Best-seller Roberts' Celtic-flavored Circle trilogy features superbly crafted characters, three passionate romances, and a bewitching blend of magic and myth. John Charles
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

About the Author
Nora Roberts is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of more than 150 novels. She is also the author of the bestselling futuristic suspense series written under the pen name J. D. Robb. With more than 280 million copies of her books in print and more than 100 New York Times bestsellers to date, Nora Roberts is indisputably the most celebrated and beloved women's fiction writer today.

Customer Reviews

unique story idea behind The Circle
Courtesy of CK2S Kwips and Kritiques

Please Note: I had the audio version of this book and not the paperback book. Therefore, I am not promising that all of my spellings are correct.

Hoyt MacCionaoith is a 12th century sorcerer tasked by the Goddess Morrigan with forming an army to fight the vampire queen Lilith and her legions of undead, of which his twin brother unwillingly became a member. Glenna is a modern day witch who finds Hoyt when he comes forward in time to find the people destined to become part of The Circle.

Hoyt and Glenna must prepare for the arrival of the rest of the Circle of Six and help everyone train for the biggest challenge of their lives, a battle to the death against Lilith on Samhain. As they learn to work together, neither Glenna nor Hoyt expected the love that develops between them.

While the concept of this vampire/fantasy trilogy appealed to me so much I actually bought the books in audio instead of waiting for it to arrive at the library, I was not overly impressed with Morrigan's Cross. This is a decent start, but is your typical Roberts fare, right down to her formulaic character appearances and personalities. We always find the exact same kinds of heroines and for me I don't even have the challenge of guessing who fits what Nora archetype since it's always glaringly obvious the moment they are introduced.

I do like the unique story idea behind The Circle and look forward to seeing where their adventures will take them, even though it's wasn't very hard to figure out who all the couples would be. It is apparent from the first page that Morrigan's Cross is the introduction to a storyline overarching all three books and as such, much time is spent setting up the world and introducing the players. The pacing fluctuates between slow and steady where information is being revealed and high intensity action when the battles rage. For the bulk of the story though, it falls somewhere in the middle, smooth enough to keep me reading but not fast enough to make me want to stay up late listening for what is next to come.

Hoyt is a medieval man with medieval beliefs of a woman's place in the world. Glenna is a thoroughly modern city woman who is not one to sit on the sidelines for a big strong man to protect her. As a result, the fireworks between these two are incendiary as they learn to accept each other's strengths. One especially amusing aspect of their relationship is that Hoyt has such a low opinion of witches who need such complicated rituals to get anything done. This opinion of his adds a touch more conflict to their growing relationship as he has to learn that complicated rituals aside, Glenna is every bit as powerful as he is. The fact they are preparing for a war at the same time they are nursing a growing love adds a sense of immediacy and makes their passion more intense.

While I enjoyed Dick Hill's performance in Morrigan's Cross, I did struggle a bit with his interpretation. He has a tendency to overdo the female voices, making them sound a little too wimpy. There were also some inconsistencies in the voices he gives to each character. Several times the voices were so similar, I think he forgot whose lines he was reading and as a result, I had a hard time figuring out who was talking. Even so, I enjoyed him enough to want to see how he does in the next two books of The Circle and I caught enough of his intonations that I know I would recognize him immediately in other books I choose to listen to in the future.

© Kelley A. Hartsell, October 2007. All rights reserved.

A bleed out....
As a Nora Roberts fan, I of course look forward to new books by her. However, this one totally missed in terms of a worthwhile read. That said, I would personally have preferred that she had made Angels Falls a paperback and taken this trilogy and put more effort into it and made it a hardcover. Books one and two of the trilogy were rather boring in my humble opinion. You could see a relationship building between the tortured Cian and the future queen Moira--the development made the third book satisfying, but one and two were not. The pairings (Hoyt/Glenna, Larkin/Blair) seemed forced and there wasn't enough foundation to want to see these folks succeed as couples. The teasers were there to make the pairings powerful, but the reality was that the books were too short, too much of a fluff adventure to allow it to happen.
I also would have liked to have seen more information about vampires--historical and "factual" (whatever that means). It seemed like Ms. Roberts was trying to combine the vampire, time travel, romance and general fiction genres all in this trilogy.
If you gave up the series at this book, my advice would be to read all three with your focus on Cian and Moira. Both characters develop well in the trilogy. The other two pairings do not. You can see glimpses of development, but suddenly Hoyt and Glenna are a pair and you think "Did I miss something here?" How and why did they suddenly with weeks fall madly in love in the "I can't live without you as you complete me" framework. Just wasn't enough information in the book.
Again, I think this would have made a far better hardcover with some additional writing and depth in it and a focus on Cian and Moira who to me are the most interesting of the six major characters.

Not her best, but good
First book in Roberts' new Circle Trilogy, we enter the world of ancient Celtic magic and vampires. When his twin brother is made into a vampire, powerful sorcerer Hoyt Mac Cionaoith is sent on a quest by the goddess Morrigan, to save the world from vampires - but not in his own time. He is to find Cian, his brother, and form a band of 6 warriors to start the war against Lilith, the vampire who turned Cian. Glenna is the witch in the group, and they are then joined by two cousins from Gael who were victims of vampires in their own world. They travel back to Ireland, present day, to prepare for the coming battle, in the Mac Cionaoith ancestral home which Cian has bought and maintained. The circle of six is completed there, and the magic between Hoyt and Glenna is more than just out of this world. I kind of had a hard time with Roberts' writing this type of magic - I am more accustomed to her other type of paranormal abilities, and vampires didn't quite sit with me. Other than that it is a genuinely interesting story with a lot of humor and action.