Dance of the Gods

the Not-Buffy, Blair Murphy, is from a long line of vampire hunters. With a dispassionate father and an ex-boyfriend who couldn't cope with her other life she's a toughn fighter but relationships aren't a strong point.
Larkin is a shapeshifter who flirts with every woman he meets but Blair sparks a certain something in him.
The battle between the good guys and the evil vampires moves to Larkin and Moira's homeworld and the have to mobilise the Geall to fight Lilith's Vampire army.

A fun vampire romp even if Nora Roberts takes a lot of liberty with motives and Irish spelling and pronounciation. Please ignore the pronounciation guide in the back as it would get you laughed at. Also, dammit, it's spelt CLADDAGH, lose that "U"

The circle of 6 has been gathered and is preparing for the war against the vampires for the future of humankind. The witch and the sorcerer have paired up in book #1 and this book focuses on the warrior, Blair Murphy, and the shape shifter, Larkin of Geall. Blair is a modern day demon hunter, a tough straight-forward personality who strikes sparks off of the free spirited, fantasy world shifter who becomes a variety of species when needed; horse, mouse, hawk, and dragon. This book continues the training with intermittent skirmishes with the vampires. More of the back-story on the characters, good and bad is revealed and at the end they pass between worlds to Geall where the final battle will be fought. This series is not Roberts’ show more best; it’s talky, the characters arrogant, the magic preachy and the lore just what is needed when it is needed. show less

This is the 2nd book in the Circle trilogy, and I liked it both more and less than the first, Morrigan's Cross.

The focus this time is on Blair and Larkin. The Six are stepping up the pace, and preparing to go to Geall, and Lilith, the evil vampire, is targeting demon hunter Blair.

Actually, this is just Blair's story. Everyone assured me when I expressed doubts after reading Morrigan's Cross that Moira and Larkin would grow on me, and that they'd be more developed in the next two books. Well, Moira did grow on me once I saw her in her element as Queen-to-be of Geall, but Larkin never did.

First, why does he sound Irish? Isn't Ireland a foreign place to him? He comes from Geall. (I'm also pretty confused about why Moira ended up speaking show more Gaelic when she was disoriented. Maybe it was a typo, and it was supposed to be Geallic?) Worse, though, is that the entire extent of his character is that he's always hungry, he doesn't take anything seriously, and he's very naive and impetuous. In other words, he has the personality of a stereotypical teenage boy. I live with two (okay, one and an almost-teen) teenage boys. This is not a romantic fantasy.

Oooh, he can turn into any sort of animal he wants... but that skill/gift is curiously underplayed. We're told that all he has to do is envision the animal in his mind, and that if he turns too frequently, he'll get tired. But that's really never a problem. At one point, the other characters are concerned that he won't be able to make it back to the house and sanctuary, but there's a distinct lack of tension there.

Ironically, we get told over and over again what Larkin sees in Blair, which was unnecessary--it's obvious that she's admirable and desirable, etc. In fact, there's a little aside where Cian says that he sees his sister in her, which is supposed to explain why Cian doesn't go for her, because otherwise, they'd have been a much better match. Plenty of conflict, etc. What we don't get told, and I couldn't see, is what Blair sees in Larkin, other than that he accepts her because the one boyfriend she had before couldn't accept what she was. That's a really flimsy foundation on which to build a relationship, and unless he grows up soon, I picture the novelty of acceptance wearing off really fast. Same with the lightheartedness. I can accept that she could use some light in her life, but Larkin's all surface and no substance.

But Blair, that's good story. Trained from a very young age to be a demon hunter by her cold father, who was disappointed that she'd inherited the ability instead of her brother, and then left on her own at the age of 18, she's got some issues. She grows and develops through the course of the book and confronts her demons, both real and emotional. Maybe that's my real objection to Larkin--that he doesn't grow at all.

Anyway, my sense from these first two books is that it would have been vastly better as a duo than a trilogy. Larkin and Moira, even though I'm warming up to Moira just a tad, are less well-developed than the other four, and putting Cian and Blair together would have made much more sense. show less

From my Amazon review:
"Dance of the Gods" continues the excellent Circle Trilogy. Since there are already many recaps of plot, I will skip over that. Although this book would be a fine read on its own, I think that these three novels should be treated as one long book issued in three installments, instead of a trilogy. There is so much character development in the first novel, that jumping straight into this book will have you missing out on a lot of the subtle nuances that make this book not just a good read, but a great story.

I loved the character of Blair. While there are bound to Buffy comparisons, I think that Nora Roberts did a good job of creating a demon hunter in her own vision of what one should be. Just because Buffy existed, show more doesn't mean that demon/vampire hunters aren't an interesting concept and Roberts' twist on this is just fantastic. Vampire/demon hunter stories existed long before Buffy did, and not all of them need to be compared to each other.

Blair is a great heroine. She is strong and heroic. She doesn't shy away from the darker aspects of her job or the hard decisions her job brings. Larkin is also a great character, although he did annoy me a couple of times in his over emotional reactions to the situations they were in. However, he annoyed me as a person would annoy me, which means he was very well drawn. Roberts does a marvelous job of creating a strong female character who is genuinely strong and not the typical "feisty but weak" you see in so many other books. Blair isn't weak, she's human. Larkin isn't so insecure in his masculinity that he needs her to be something she isn't. It is a great pairing.

I am glad that these three books were released so closely together. They are difficult to put down once you start reading them. Even with Blair and Larkin's story being wrapped up, the Circle Trilogy is far from over, and that has me eagerly anticipating reading the next book in the series.

Read these books in order. The first two were both fantastic and you really do have much more depth to the situation and the people involved if you have the complete picture instead of the summary in the beginning.

These books are going on my keep shelf, and I am certain that I will reread them often as they are simply fantastic! show less

Pretty similar to the first book, I'm not blown away by any of the characters and I'm still leery on how this small bit of plot can stretch out for three books.

I'm really enjoying this series of books...a sorcerer, a witch, vampires, a scholar princess, a shapeshifter, a vampire hunter and Ireland. What is there not to love? Though I am a bit baffled by this part of the series... Each book begins and ends from the perspective of an older gentleman telling a wonderful tale to a group of children by a fire while sipping wine. There is a good deal of sex and lovemaking in these books, so is it just assumed he isn't actually telling that part to the children? :)

I have been a Nora Roberts fan for quite some time now, but I must say I find this series to be disappointing. I haven't read the last book in the series yet, but I feel as if these first two books are just dragging their literary feet in order to fill up 600 pages before the big battle at Samhain, or whatever. It's dull to read 600 pages in which nothing really exciting happens. Yes, there's a skirmish here and there, but there's nothing exciting to keep me going because, well, we all know Roberts won't kill of anyone in the circle of 6. We also all know that the protagonists will get over their psychological baggage and whatnot during the course of the book and end up with each other. Yaawn. I am slightly looking forward to the third show more book because Cian and Moira will finally get it on. Now that's an interesting conflict. The first two of the trilogy, so far, are so so. show less