BOOKTALK
Have you ever felt alone? Have you ever felt that you don't belong?
That is how Iona Sheehan has felt all of her life!
Iona grew up with indifferent parents craving devotion and acceptance. The only person she felt cared for her was her beloved grandmother, Nan. From Nan, Iona learns of Ireland and family that she has there. Iona decides to quit her job, sell all of her possessions, and move to Ireland to meet her cousins Brenna and Connor O'Dwyer. Once there, she not only finds love and acceptance, but hidden magic as well.
This novel Dark Witch by Nora Roberts is the first book in her newest trilogy, the Cousins O'Dwyer.
Iona moves to the County Mayo in Ireland to track down her cousins Brenna and Connor with nothing but her Nan's directions, an unfailing optimistic attitude, and an innate talent with horses. Not far from the luxurious castle where she is spending a week, she finds her cousins, and family being family, they invite her into their home and into their lives.
Soon after Iona learns a secret, Brenna and Connor are witches and Iona is one too!
The two O'Dwyer cousins delve right in and start helping Iona reach her untapped magical power. However, Iona soon learns that all power comes with a price.
Brenna, Connor, and Iona are the three descendents of the great witch Sorcha. Sorcha battled a powerful dark wizard in 1263 who wanted to possess her and combine their powers. Sorcha passes on her great power to her three children and sacrifices her self to save them from the dark wizard, Cabhan. Centuries later, Cabhan is back and wants the power that he was denied.
Meanwhile, Iona lands a job at the local horse stables where she meets the owner, Boyle McGrath. Boyle is the combination of cowboy, pirate, and tribal horseman and Iona finds herself weak around him. Will Iona find time for love and a life with Boyle while fighting for her life?
Read this all new novel from Nora Roberts to find out!!
BAKER COMMENTS
In the article by Baker, she states that you should only choose books that you have actually read and enjoyed. I do agree with this statement to an extent. It would be much easier to do a booktalk on a book that you have read because you will be prepared to answer questions about the book confidently. It would also be easier to do a booktalk on a book that you have enjoyed because the audience will be able to tell if you have negative feelings about a book and that might detour them from reading it themselves. However, we all know that librarians are stretched for time. You may not always have time to read a book beforehand or you may be thrown into it at the last moment. I personally do not think that I would do very well if I have not at least read the first few chapters. I do not like feeling unprepared and only reading an abstract or review of a book would not prepare me enough to present a booktalk.
I just checked how this book is cataloged in my library's catalog. It is with the fiction rather than the science fiction and fantasy. I've often wondered how one draws the line between such things as romance novels with magic added in and a modern fantasy novel with romantic elements. This sounds like it might be near that line from the description. In such cases, I wonder if the later books go where the earlier books for an author tend to congregate. (For Nora Roberts, in our system, that would be "regular" fiction.)
ReplyDeleteAll of Nora Roberts books are shelved withing regular fiction on our shelves as well. This is not the first book that Nora Roberts has written that had paranormal or fantasy elements and I am surprised that they stay in general fiction because they are crossing that line. Many Nora Roberts readers do not like these types of books but assume that if it is written by Nora Roberts that it is one of her typical romance novels because it is shelved with the others.
ReplyDeleteI used to read a lot of Nora Roberts, but I've joined the world of paranormal and really prefer books that have that fantasy aspect. I didn't realize she wrote books like this! I will definitely check this book out. It might be perfect for my spring break beach read :) I agree with you about time being stretched for librarians and that we can't read everything. I still think it would be too difficult to do a book talk on a book I haven't read, but we don't have to book talk everything. We should at least choose books we have read for a book talk. I admitted that I, of course, suggest books that I haven't read, but I would never book talk one that I haven't read.
ReplyDeleteNora Roberts is one of the most popular authors at the library where I work. One of my goals after finishing this class and graduating is to read one of her books! At my library, her books are also shelved in with the regular fiction.
ReplyDelete