Year One: Chronicles of The One, Book 1

I was hesitating on reading this at the first because so many reviewers claiming how dark & unlike Nora the writing was. But I broke down & paid the $15 & began reading it.I actually think it is very Nora. The detailed descriptions will have u in tears or fears, laughter or disgust. She makes u feel as you read. You can't help it.There are many characters & you will feel for nearly all & you will remember their stories. Flynn, Starr, Eddie, Katie, Arlys, Fred... I can't even begin to choose who will be the focus of the next in the series. And that was something different in this one. Turns out that there aren't obvious pairs that will survive. So you will cry. You will gasp. You will wonder why? How? This can't work. But by the end you will believe that it can & will turn out. Not sure how but ... WOW!The issue of the dark theme... Nora has written other books with magic & books with evil. I think the difference was that this one has more instances where it appears that darkness & evil triumph. But previous books have had rape, death, evil. We just could find comfort that they would not triumph in one book. This one holds that hope off literally until the epilogue. Until then you still ache & are unsure about good being able to pull it out of the bag.So block out 24 hours to read it (& it will be non stop) & make sure you not only have a box, or three, of Kleenex & take off the make up first, but also don't plan on letting anyone see your face for at least a day after you finish it.

I know this review will be one of many, but I have a few things to say. I have always been a huge fan of Nora Roberts and her alter ego, JD Robb. Roberts has a cadence to her writing that is very specific. Before this book I would have said that I could pick her books out of a crowd. Year One, however is very different. I'm sure I'm not the only one who read this to whom this applies, but I also have quite an obsession with apocalyptic fiction. Give me a good plague, weather event, nuclear war or zombie apocalypse and I'm in heaven. This book is a fabulous mixture of both Roberts' trademark magicks and apocalyptic fiction. What astounds me is that she has the structure, characters and cadence of that genre down pat. I imagine that she also reads a lot of it. And yet with the supernatural element, it's like no other plague book I've ever read. It is a brilliant hybrid. Some of Roberts' long time fans will hate this book, but I not only love it, I'm dying for the next book. Year Thirteen maybe?Mild Spoilers AheadOne aspect that Roberts did very well was the confluence of both events and characters. The plague part was over very quickly but the coming together and build up of the community and Lana's flight was very well done. Unlike other books, there isn't one central romantic couple but several. It is my guess that in later books, Fallon will connect with the other three babies - Duncan especially. I am really looking forward to what will follow this unique and awesome story.

SPOILER ALERT: this review contains information gained only from finishing the book.I'll give this one 3 stars for now. I'm still a bit undecided on how I view this one. I've read her books for years, and I typically enjoy the trilogies. But over the past few years, I feel they were pretty formulaic...3 men, 3 women, strangers coming together to fight so light can triumph over dark,etc. In most of these, the characters were interesting enough for me to enjoy reading the books even if they felt a bit lighter in content and a bit rushed, too, over the last couple of series.This was a big departure from that formula, and this book is decidedly darker. I don't mind darker content, and I expected it from the description so no worries there. But it was strange that the majority of the book spent so much time introducing characters and character interaction only to have the last part of the book completely eliminate those characters. I'll give the next one a shot and see if that changes. I usually disappear into a book and have enough imagination to feel I am living the story while I read. But I found I had absolutely no emotional investment in the story here, and that may not change with subsequent books. We'll see...Bottom line, if you like darker stories and don't mind characters disappearing suddenly--and you like Nora Roberts books--you may find this enjoyable.

Not at all what I expect from a Nora Roberts book. Her last two books now have not been something I would read again. I will not be reading any more books from this series. Characters vague. Not really likable. Hard to get into the book. I had to read certain paragraphs again because I couldn't understand who was talking...uh! I usually take less than a day to read a great book, but this book I started reading it the first day and read about 20 pages and put it down and didn't pick it up for 3 weeks. 3 weeks! When I picked it up again, I really didn't want to finish it. I did though. Took me another week to finish it. My recommendation if you want to read something that was like the better books of Nora Roberts, switch authors and read an author named Jill Shalvis. Jill's books are so much better and I am now a huge fan! No longer a Nora fan. Sorry.

I bought this because I enjoy a good apocalypse novel and the reviews were good. It starts off well, but after a few promising pages we are introduced to our our cast of characters who appear to be quite young, beautiful and not particularly bright. Despite it being the end of life as we know it, everyone eats well, has regular hot showers and after removing inconvenient dead bodies, everything is very cosy and I'm wondering why the toilets are still flushing and nobody's doing much about stockpiling fuel or canned food. We've got a random bit of wizard and witch action, but it doesn't mesh well with the virus theme, and there's a serious lack of sensible science. Disappointing and I won't be bothering with book 2.

This book really confused me and that's no easily done.I read about two books per week, mainly fantasy and dramas. But this book has two different stories going on that are two completely different styles that just don't work well together.It's like it was set to be an end of the world story but with the rebirth of magic, except the magic contains elves and with craft magic but the story is written in two different styles to support the two different plots. I just hated it personally and only managed to get through 60% of the book, and it's rare I'll stop reading a book even if it is a bit crap.This book personally isn't for me but other people may like it.

My first piece of advice would be to avoid reading the rest of the blurb which is far too chatty and gives away more plot than necessary. That said, this one doesn’t hang about, though the first section is grim as the world we know and enjoy falls apart. Amongst the swathe of characters that we meet only to watch them die, are a handful that keep going despite the odds. While Roberts doesn’t indulge in any gratuitous violence, there are inevitably some scenes where horrible things happen and as has been noted in other reviews, she doesn’t flinch from those events, either.I particularly enjoyed the twist where a proportion of the survivors find they have a magical ability awakening. Max and Lana both have this ability and though Max has possessed a magical talent before the Doom strikes, his power becomes stronger. The storyline involving these two is the engine that powers the narrative arc forward as they are essentially the principle protagonists, although there are a few other characters in a supporting role. There is a price to pay – normal survivors are starting to turn on the Uncanny, as they are termed, and not without reason. Though there are many like Max and Lana who use their powers only to defend themselves and help others, there are others whose magical abilities are far darker. And without any law and order, they are running amok.As might be expected by a storyteller with Roberts’ experience, the pacing and narrative are ably handled – I had more or less expected certain events to unspool in a particular way. But just when I was settling into the rhythm of what I thought would happen – Roberts throws a massive wrench into the story and it suddenly takes a left turn into a very different direction that left me scrambling to catch up – I love it when that happens. The ending is strong with Roberts tying up all the plotlines so the story arc has a satisfying conclusion, yet leaving a couple of dangling plot points waving in the wind so we want to return to discover what happens next. Which I certainly want to do as this was a thoroughly enjoyable experience.9/10

If you're expecting to read an apocalypse novel then this might let you down. The apocalypse seems to be more of an after thought in this story. The characters are rather bland. I dislike characters with no flaws tbh because they never ring true and bcome pretty dull to be frank.The writing was okay, but for some reason i couldnt keep track with what was going on. At some points a character will just make some mundane, out of context comment which just always threw me and had me reading back to check i'd not missed something.I would have read the 2nd novel but not for £9.99. That's just too expensive for this.Majority seem to really like this book though so please dont let my review put you off.

I have been an avid Nora Roberts fan for many decades and believed that she could not possibly write a bad book.....UNTIL NOW! I found this book to be so boring, mixed up, incongruous and disjointed, that all in all was an absolute waste of my time in reading it.The so called apocolypse was secondary to gratuitous mess and mayhem which mostly did not make any sense to me.For the first time ever, I have put a Nora Roberts book down and cannot make myself go back to it! It's almost as if some other person wrote this and simply added Nora's name.Very disappointed in so many ways...I will not be reading Year Two if there is one !