Old School

Teaching at your old high school is, in a word, surreal. The worst is when my students accost me
in the hallways, asking if I remember their older siblings/friends/etc. (This is awkward, as often the answer is "no," followed up by, "Well, he remembers you. He said you hung out all the time!" The super awkwardness, however, came when a student tried to place me in her brother's high school experience by mentioning my ex-boyfriend and the girl he dated after I left for college. Very weird. Check out my full accounting of the experience here.)

But thus far, I'm actually having a good year. It's early days yet, but I prefer to be an optimist. My 6th period class alone would give me a reason for optimism! Those honors sophomores kids are fabulous; not only are they hard-working and self-motivated, they're well-read! And by "well-read" I don't mean that they sit around debating Sophocles and Kant all day. No, they bring books like Twilight to class with them. And one of my students--after talking to my mother--even loaned me the new Nora Roberts, Morrigan's Cross.

Now, I haven't read Nora Roberts in years. This is partially because (a) most of her books now release to hardback (b) I don't always like all of her novels and (c) sometimes it feels like if you've read one Nora, you've read them all.

But then my delightful student loaned me Morrigan's Cross, and I was instantly reminded why Nora Roberts is the Queen of Book Sales, and why she makes such a great gateway drug to people dipping their toes into the genre. MC is the first book in a paranormal trilogy that involves time travel, vampires, prophecies, and Irish deities... a combination which could have made me hate it, but actually that wasn't the case at all.

I loved this book! Hoyt, the hero, was deliciously broody and somber. Glenna was his perfect counterpoint, and you'll love the secondary characters as well... some more than others, admittedly. The most fascinating part of the book is actually Hoyt's relationship with his family. We meet him as a medieval sorcerer whose twin brother just got vamped; then Morrigan charges him with a quest that sends him to the 21st century in the blink of an eye. He loses his whole family... and they were very important to him... except for his twin brother who, as a vampire, lives on. And this is the most interesting bit of all, because for Hoyt it's been merely a day since the last time he saw his brother and for Cian it's been a millenium. Oh, the awkwardness! The guilt! The ties that bind us through time! Yum.

I would suggest reading this book, if only so you can keep up with the reviews on this site... I get the sense that I'll be posting about the other two in the trilogy as well, though how they could top the opening remains to be seen.