karinapplesauce 's review for:

Year One by Nora Roberts

2.0

---

I was a little surprised to see this book on so many to read lists, since I assumed that Nora Roberts was exclusive to romance. That being said, I don’t think I’ve ever read a single Nora Roberts book. But I have a penchant for post-apocalyptic novels and waited patiently for this to become available on the library website (and there was quite the wait--good thing there were lots of copies).

The set up and the execution of the world succumbing to the unknown sickness--solid. However, with the introduction of the magic (Uncanny) elements, it felt a little bit shaky...like there were two different books she was attempted to write--both a fantasy and a post apocalyptic, and they didn’t fuse very well together. It seemed more like a fight to see which element was going to win for attention.

Another thing that bothered me was the clunky writing, especially with dialogue. I could have overlooked it but they totally lost me with their baby talk since I just went through it all. (Why would the mom have “plenty of milk” when she just had her babies??? Maybe I’m being overly sensitive to this.) Perhaps I’d be willing to overlook the flaws but I’ve read other, better post apocalyptic works and this wasn’t quite there for me.

I didn’t hate it. But it wasn’t for me. I thought about how great others have been for me so I’m settling on a 2.5 stars. Good effort though.