Spellbound – Nora Roberts – Spellbound follows world-famous photographer Calin Farrell on his much-needed vacation in Ireland. While there, Calin becomes bewitched by the ravishingly beautiful Bryna Torrence, even if he refuses to believe in the spell that has brought them together-and could destroy them both.

I finished the book, all 1447 pages of it and I am unfortunately disappointed. I had high hopes for this book, it has magic, love, adventure and written by the famed Nora Roberts. I don’t want to be harsh but I found the book intolerably comical. I had very little to grasp onto or fall in love with. It was a poorly executed fairy tale. If you take the love scene out of the book it is more suited for my ten-year-old daughter then me.

The thought was nice, I really wanted to like it, I did! And to be honest I was okay until we met the heroine, Bryna.

Instead of making her a modern woman with a wonderful secret, she is depicted as an Irish lass living on the countryside, weaving rugs and sweaters by the fire. Potions and spells alike I am a witch lover, but the fact that this particular Witch hadn’t evolved past her ancestors thousands of years before was annoying, tedious and made my eyes roll.

Here is what I am talking about…
“She was lost without him, you see. Alasdair’s power spread like vultures wings. He would have her willing or not. But with the last of her strength, she stumbled into the circle where her lover’s blood stained the ground. There a vow she made and a spell she cast…”

Even though she was apparently born and lived in the same time and reality as the hero Calin, she acts walks and talks like Sorceress from the cartoon He-Man.

The dialog was simple and had little passion or intensity. I don’t want to go on a tirade and rip the book apart but needless to say I would not recommend it unless the person has a reading level of a fifth grader and is severely bored.

Okay, on to the next…

My next pick is The Offer by Catherine Coulter - A beautiful young woman is thrown together with a rakish Viscount by a twist of fate-and is caught off guard by her own yearning for love and passion... Sabrina Eversleigh's virtue has been compromised, and the only solution is for Philip Mercerault to marry her.