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Blood Brothers (Sign of Seven, #1)

Nora Roberts

Start date: October 1, 2021

Finish date: October 31, 2021

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What Members Thought

Apr 23, 2008 jenjn79 rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: author-nora-roberts, stars-5, 2008, z2008-july-dec, genre-romance-fiction, reviewed, info-full

For me, it was pretty much a given that I'd like this book because with maybe one exception, I've enjoyed every Nora Roberts book I read (and I've read almost every single one). And I did like this book. Actually, I loved it. There were maybe one or two things that could have been done a little better, but it didn't ruin the book. I still loved it.

Blood Brothers is the first book in NR's Sign of Seven trilogy. The series focuses on the quaint town of Hawkins Hollow where twenty one years earlier For me, it was pretty much a given that I'd like this book because with maybe one exception, I've enjoyed every Nora Roberts book I read (and I've read almost every single one). And I did like this book. Actually, I loved it. There were maybe one or two things that could have been done a little better, but it didn't ruin the book. I still loved it.

Blood Brothers is the first book in NR's Sign of Seven trilogy. The series focuses on the quaint town of Hawkins Hollow where twenty one years earlier, three young boys went into the woods on their birthday and unwittingly unleashed something evil upon the town. Now, every seven years, for seven days, people go crazy, bad things happen, and then it's like no one remembers. Caleb, Fox, and Gage have never forgotten what they did, or stopped trying to find a way to end the evil.

Now paranormal non-fiction author Quinn Black has come to town, and it's immediately obvious to Caleb that Quinn's not just some woman writer. She's a part of it somehow. And with the additional arrivals of stranger Layla, and Quinn's friend Cybil, the pieces start to fall together. Because this time, it's a showdown between good and evil and it will require all six of them if they hope to succeed.

Maybe I'm a bit biased because I'm a self-proclaimed Nora slut, but this was a great book. And I loved the whole premise for this trilogy - much better than I have the last 3 series she's put out (Circle trilogy, In the Garden trilogy, and Key trilogy). It reminds me a bit of the Three Sisters Island trilogy (which is a favorite of mine); it's got a similar flavor, but the stories are very different.

Roberts really draws you into this story/series with the vivid details of the setting, the people, the situation. It makes you feel like your right there with the characters. Plus there's the romance angle. I could really feel the chemistry between Cal and Quinn. I enjoyed the simple, easy progression of their relationship; a simple fall into love. It's nice to read a romance that way every so often - one that's not based on pure lust or angst.

But one of the things I love most about NR trilogies, this one included, is that all six of the main characters of the series are actively involved in each book in the series. In many trilogies, authors focus on one couple, one set of characters at a time and move on. But NR uses all six characters liberally in all three books of her trilogies. I love that. It gives you a much greater sense of everyone, and really builds the relationships to a deeper level. So that's another reason I really enjoyed this story. All the characters were there and actively involved. Cal and Quinn where the focus, but you got to know the others, at least to a certain degree.

Anyway, this was a great start to the Sign of Seven series. It's a creepy yet interesting tale about good and evil, about family, and about love. I was thoroughly hooked from the beginning. There were maybe two things that I thought could have been done a little better. One was Cybil's arrival in the story and inclusion in the group. She's arriving supposedly as Quinn's friend who is really good at research, but once she arrives, it's like she's suddenly part of what's going on, and has precognitive abilities that were never mentioned before. There was just a leap of logic there that didn't quite work for me. I thought there needed to be a little more build-up to her role in it all, not a flying leap without any precursor.

And the other thing that lacked a little was the end. It came off a smidge rushed and...I don't know, maybe a little out of place. Something about it was just a little off, but I can't really say why.

But both of those were just little things because neither kept me from loving the book. I can't wait to get started on Book 2, The Hollow, which I plan to do very shortly. ...more

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May 02, 2010 Suzanne rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Three boys who are best friends find out that they were born on the same day and in the same year. On the eve of their tenth birthday, they decide to take a hike and spend the night in the woods.

They do not realize that what happens on this night will change their lives forever. Wherever the men travel during the course of their days, they return every seven years and figure out what happened on that dreadful night.

Roberts' trilogies always leaves a 'cliffhanger' at the end of her books. Thank ...more

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Sep 11, 2013 Sara ♥ rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: audiobook, challenge-audio-2500-2019, 2015, contemporary, 2019, suspense, romance, paranormal, 2016, challenge-audio-500-2016

July 25-26, 2019

Man, this one is kinda crazy. Caleb and Quinn are sort of the opposite of Mac and Ripley (Heaven and Earth)... She's the writer and he's the small-town guy. Quinn is really a fun personality! This book has some creepy stuff in it... The bad guy is just.... ick. But overall, it's a really great book! For more, read below!

June 12-13, 2016

Oh, it's only been a year since I read this? Huh! I would have thought longer than that! And I think I'll just say DITTO again to what I said belo July 25-26, 2019

Man, this one is kinda crazy. Caleb and Quinn are sort of the opposite of Mac and Ripley (Heaven and Earth)... She's the writer and he's the small-town guy. Quinn is really a fun personality! This book has some creepy stuff in it... The bad guy is just.... ick. But overall, it's a really great book! For more, read below!

June 12-13, 2016

Oh, it's only been a year since I read this? Huh! I would have thought longer than that! And I think I'll just say DITTO again to what I said below....

March 5-6, 2015

Man! I forget how much I love Nora Roberts trilogies! They flow together like one big story cut into thirds... and THREE romances! They're fantastic! :)

This is book 1... about Caleb and Quinn. They're super cute together. Caleb's the straight-laced home-town boy who manages his family's business alongside his father... the social hub of the town: the local bowling alley.... I mean family entertainment center. And Quinn writes books about paranormal phenomenon... which is what brings her to Hawkins Hollow.

21 years ago, on the three boys' shared 10th birthday, in the midst of becoming official blood brothers, they unwittingly unleashed some sort of great evil that terrorizes the town for a week every 7 years. They also unleashed a good force that is split between the three of them... a sort of past-/present-/future-seeing power that is somehow supposed to help them defeat the evil. Caleb is the past guy and Quinn is a past girl. (I can't really say why, cuz that's a spoiler.) They see visions of things that came before that, things that through the book, help them to understand what it is they're fighting and what the stakes are, sort of. Fox and Layla are the present two, and Gage and Cybil are the future two. (And the books go in that order.)

So now that we sort of understand what happened before (by the end of the book), we hand the story over to Fox and Layla to pick up to figure out what's going on in the now, I'm guessing!

I rated it 4 stars because I couldn't really relate much to Quinn (more to Caleb, actually...), and because it's still pretty confusing. I can't wait for book 3. Gage and Cybil are gonna be hilarious together. REALLY stubborn, strong personalities, plus Gage's darker past and father issues... And the finale? It's gonna be a great one. In the meantime, Fox and Layla. I like him a lot. Her? She's harder to get a read on..... ...more

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Jan 16, 2009 Megan Robinette rated it it was ok · review of another edition

I'm pretty sure I finished this book once before, but when I started the second book I was too afraid to keep going. Some of the images were just too easy to see when the lights were off late at night. I'm going to be brave and try to reread this book since the third one is now out. I will put on my big-girl panties and get through all three.

I made it the whole way through this book. It pulled me in, like all NR's books. ...more

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