I first heard this book about 10 years ago, when I bought the trilogy on tape. This is my first time to actually read it, and I can hear the story teller in my head with their Irish accents. I love when Nora writes more than one book about the characters, it gives you time to get to know them, and when one book ends the friends you made will show up in the next book and you can say hi again. This particular trilogy is set in Ireland in a charming village where everyone knows everyone, and they all welcome insecure, scared Jude to their midst. Jude comes to her own in this book making a journey I myself made. From insecure, scared, and unsure of her place in life to a loved happy and very much at home we watch Jude grow. The second book centers on two friends we met in the first book and how they journey from lifelong friends to lovers. The third is for the sister, and how she changes from romantic matchmaker for everyone else to in love herself, all the while dreaming of a glamorous life anywhere but Ardmore.
As an extra treat, woven through all three books is a Faerie Prince hoping these three couples will declare their love and end the curse that has separated him from his “one true love.” I personally think Nora does a wonderful job of taking the usual romance book to a new level by adding a touch of the magic, after all if we are to believe in happily ever after, why not a Faerie Prince as well?
The descriptions of the characters and the places make you believe you are there in Ardmore on a beautiful faerie hill, just out of sight of a Pub in Ireland named Gallagher’s.
As a bit of trivia, in her Chesapeake Bay Saga in the fourth book Seth is listening to a bit of music he picked up in Ardmore by Darcy Gallagher. You would enjoy that set of books as well if you enjoy this one as much as I do.