The Mirror

Please note that this post may contain affiliate links, meaning I may make a small commission if you purchase through the links within this post at no additional cost to you. Please see my Full Disclosures + Privacy Policy for more details.

Synopsis

#1 New York Times bestselling author Nora Roberts continues the hauntingly spectacular Lost Bride Trilogy with book two, The Mirror.

When Sonya MacTavish inherits the huge Victorian mansion on the coast of Maine, she has no idea that the house is haunted. The footsteps she hears at night, the doors slamming, the music playing, are not figments of her imagination. In her dreams she sees glimpses of the past. In the present she finds portraits of brides. And when she has visions of an antique mirror, she is drawn to it, sensing it holds dark family secrets.

Then one night the mirror appears and Sonya glides through this looking glass, into the past—and sees a bride murdered on her wedding day, the circle of gold torn from her finger. It is a scene that will play out again and again—a centuries-old curse that must be broken—and a puzzle she must solve if there is any hope of breaking the curse.

Synopsis source: Goodreads

Review

Genre(s): Contemporary, Romance, Mystery/Thriller, Paranormal
HB&W Rating: 1 star, 2 flames
View on Goodreads
Buy on Barnes & Noble, Amazon

Oof, well, I think I’m done with this series and with this author, which makes me so sad. I credit Nora Roberts with kindling my love of reading and will always think of her with fondness, but in more recent years, her books have left me so underwhelmed and disappointed (read more about that in my review of the first book in this series, Inheritance). This book is no exception.

After reading Inheritance, which had me intrigued by the storyline but annoyed with the choppy dialogue and weird pacing, I was interested enough to request the ARC for this one, which is the second in her latest trilogy. The pacing wasn’t weird this time, just slow. Achingly, boringly slow. The choppy dialogue remained and continued to annoy me.

The perfection emulated in the relationships between Sonya and Cleo, Sonya and Trey, and Cleo and Owen felt too perfect and trite, and again, boring. There isn’t even any spice to make it interesting. One scene maybe and everything else is just alluding to spice. There was no conflict there and since the plot didn’t move forward much, this had me so close to DNFing this book because what’s the point? Sonya and Trey could at least have had words over his use of the nickname “cutie.” To quote my teenager: cringe.

Speaking of the plot, it was completely redundant in- and outside of itself. If you read the first book, you’ve read this one too. If your mind drifted through something while reading this one, don’t worry, they repeat it in a page or two. We did at least get to meet Cleo’s grandmother in this book, though even that was underwhelming. The most emotional I got with this book was when Sonya’s mom talked to Clover.

So, this book was definitely not for me and I won’t be reading the third, not even to see how it all ends.

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press for providing me with an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Until next time,

Be sure to subscribe to my blog so you never miss a review! You can also sign up for my newsletter for a recap of titles read, crochet patterns I’ve released, and more! I only send it out sporadically so that I don’t spam you, promise. 😉