Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.83 AVERAGE
3.83 AVERAGE
My first Nora Roberts - which I hear isn't like ANY of her others - but I really enjoyed it. And that's saying something because I don't love dystopian books - but this one had enough of the present to make it one I could relate to. It's an illness that takes to killing off millions of people - the immune flee to find each other and safety from marauders and those trying to hunt them down. Lana and Max find each other - and flee together - Lana is pregnant and she is being hunted because people want to kill her baby because she is "the light". Intriguing and really pulled me in - I'll be curious for the sequel.
adventurous
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Love Nora Roberts writing style and this did not disappoint. Eager to jump into the 2nd book in the series.
adventurous
dark
emotional
sad
tense
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Nora knows how to write magic! Her fantasy stuff is by far my favourite out of her many many books. This one sucked me in right away and kept me invested to last page. There are a lot of characters and sometimes I had trouble remembering all of them.
I wasn’t prepared for the supernatural twist it took since I’ve been in the habit of just reading books without knowing anything about them this year. It was a relatively captivating read and it was easy to get through
Let’s be honest, I only bought this (in hardback) because I wanted to see how writing queen Nora Roberts handled Apocalyptic and Urban Fantasy. Could the queen of romance pull off dark UF? My answer to that question is possibly.
Year One had really interesting aspects, and I’m definitely intrigued by where this story is going and the intricate plot Ms Roberts imagined. Unfortunately I think the pacing and plotting wasn’t executed well, which I get into below.
There are a LOT of characters in this story. We switch narrators pretty frequently, which didn’t really bother me. I liked reading what was happening to each of them and getting the differing character’s perspective as they slowly came together into one group. There weren’t any characters I was attached too, but there also weren’t any characters I didn’t want to read about. They were a well rounded cast, each with individualistic personalities.
Nora Roberts usually writes romance, but Year One is not a romance. There are romantic relationships. There are romantic feelings, however ‘coupling’ does not have any bearing on the plot at all. The count for intimate scenes is 0. Instead, Year One is heavy on The Doom and the birth of magickal abilities in those who are ‘special’, or as they’re called in the story, The Uncanny. While I always like a story more when there is some kind of romance, I definitely liked how Year One was romance lite. That was definitely one point in Birdie’s plus column.
Really there was only one negative, and that was how I feel like this story would have been so much better if Year One had been split two books. I’d say 90% of the story was all about Lana’s group, Arlys’ group, and Jonah’s group all getting out of New York and surviving. It was about their trials on the road, and the building of New Hope… and it was good. If only it had stopped there. What came next, that last 10%, should have been an entirely new book. I loved where Year One went, but oh my gosh could it have been spectacular had it all been written in a second book, with the page time to really delve into it. It was too much. It was a poor pacing choice. I felt how much the end could have mattered to me, but because it was so rushed it just didn’t.
Anyway, despite my timing complaint, I know I’ll be continuing the series. Year One ended leaving a lot of characters in a perilous situation, and I want to know everyone’s okay. Plus, there was enough meat to this story to keep me invested. If only Nora Roberts would slow things down a bit. This is not an instant gratification genre. This is a take your time and make us absorb it, feel it, and live it genre. That’s what makes an epic apocalyptic story.
Like this review? Read more like it on Birdie Bookworm!
Year One had really interesting aspects, and I’m definitely intrigued by where this story is going and the intricate plot Ms Roberts imagined. Unfortunately I think the pacing and plotting wasn’t executed well, which I get into below.
There are a LOT of characters in this story. We switch narrators pretty frequently, which didn’t really bother me. I liked reading what was happening to each of them and getting the differing character’s perspective as they slowly came together into one group. There weren’t any characters I was attached too, but there also weren’t any characters I didn’t want to read about. They were a well rounded cast, each with individualistic personalities.
Nora Roberts usually writes romance, but Year One is not a romance. There are romantic relationships. There are romantic feelings, however ‘coupling’ does not have any bearing on the plot at all. The count for intimate scenes is 0. Instead, Year One is heavy on The Doom and the birth of magickal abilities in those who are ‘special’, or as they’re called in the story, The Uncanny. While I always like a story more when there is some kind of romance, I definitely liked how Year One was romance lite. That was definitely one point in Birdie’s plus column.
Really there was only one negative, and that was how I feel like this story would have been so much better if Year One had been split two books. I’d say 90% of the story was all about Lana’s group, Arlys’ group, and Jonah’s group all getting out of New York and surviving. It was about their trials on the road, and the building of New Hope… and it was good. If only it had stopped there. What came next, that last 10%, should have been an entirely new book. I loved where Year One went, but oh my gosh could it have been spectacular had it all been written in a second book, with the page time to really delve into it.
Spoiler
How amazing would it have been if Year One had ended with Max’s death and Lana leaving New Hope. Then, everything that happened next, (her journey alone, finding Simon and their time at the farm house) had been given the page time needed for us to really fall in love with them as a couple… instead, we got 90% of a story all about Max and Lana’s love for each other, and 10% to swallow and accept her moving on with another man.Anyway, despite my timing complaint, I know I’ll be continuing the series. Year One ended leaving a lot of characters in a perilous situation, and I want to know everyone’s okay. Plus, there was enough meat to this story to keep me invested. If only Nora Roberts would slow things down a bit. This is not an instant gratification genre. This is a take your time and make us absorb it, feel it, and live it genre. That’s what makes an epic apocalyptic story.
Like this review? Read more like it on Birdie Bookworm!
I'm not adding a rating to this book because I'm going to DNF at chapter 14 or page 223. I was enjoying this book a lot at the beginning, liked the concept and the setting and loved the fact that it started with patient zero. However, that's where this book took a turn for the worst for me. I found the main characters we follow throughout the story to be very black and white. In a post-apocalyptic story I want to see those moral struggles. I also found most of what I read to be extremely boring. The last thing I have to say is that I did not enjoy the supernatural elements of this story. Some of this may be my fault in not knowing anything about the story before going in besides the fact that it's a post-apocalyptic world brought on by a disease. However, most of the books I ready are fantasy or have supernatural elements to them, so I was excited when it was first introduced. Roberts uses the supernatural elements as a crutch in this story. No explanation about what started the Doom beyond some vague reference to these supernatural elements. The main characters didn't have problems keeping to their morals because of their "supernatural" sixth sense. At one point some of the main characters just know how to use magic and cleanse the ground with no training, no trial and error. I wanted more info about how their were people who were simply immune vs the Uncanny. Maybe if I had finished the book a lot of the problems I had would have been addressed but after reading over half the book and everything slowly becoming more vague I decided to put it down.
Nora Roberts is not an author I ever thought I would read... her books just aren't my cup of tea. I work in a bookstore so I get to go to these publisher events and I got an advanced copy of year one. The first thing that caught my attention was that part of the book was set in the "Scottish countryside" and Scotland is in my top 3 of places I want to visit. Also fantasy is my favourite genre so I decided to give it a go and boy was I surprised. This novel read so well, I couldn't put it down. The world building is phenomenal, I could see the world so vividly and I honestly think this would make a great tv show! Basically the premise of the book is that there has been a virus outbreak which has killed billions of people and those that have survived are either normal or have developed these supernatural abilities. I love the multiple p.o.v's and how their stories intertwined. The next installment can't get here soon enough, if you like fantasy then this one is for you.
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No