A review by dlarain
Year One by Nora Roberts

3.0

Surprisingly, I could not put this book down. It lacked a lot of qualities that I adore in my stories and yet I felt compelled to keep reading anyway. The third person perspective very rarely let us get more than a glimpse or two into the minds of our main characters which is usually not my preference, but I knew enough about each character to still feel attached to them and invested in their storyline.

That being said, this book could have emotionally wrecked me if we had spent more time with Lana, Max, Arlys, etc in detail. If the book had been twice as long and went more into depth into the backstory and history of the characters, their trials and woes would have devastated me. That is one of my criticisms that still stands. I always crave more detail and more information. For example, within the first few chapters the reader is plopped into modern day New York where apparently magic is faintly real. This is never really explained much. The storyline moves just fine without the explanation, but I'm left feeling unfulfilled and questioning how witches/magic existed prior to the apocalypse that makes magic grow strong and wild.

That being said, I did get the sense though that Year One is really just acting as a prequel to the bigger story that will be told in the coming books. And I doubt we would want a huge book that serves only as an explanation to the main storyline that is yet to come. So part of me understands why some things were rushed/not detailed fully, and I appreciate what the writer did. However, the other part of me demands like an entire series dedicated solely to Lana, Max and company, followed by another series that finally tackles the exploits of The One. Obviously I ask so little :D