Editor Reviews:

Product Description:
In the town of Hawkins Hollow, it's called The Seven. Every seven years, on the seventh day of the seventh month, strange things happen. It began when three young boys-Caleb, Fox, and Gage-went on a camping trip to The Pagan Stone. And twenty-one years later, it will end in a showdown between evil and the boys who have become men-and the women who love them.

Rating : - emotionally invested in Blood Brothers and enjoyed this first installment in Nora's latest trilogy
Courtesy of CK2S Kwips and Kritiques

On their 10th birthday, unbeknownst to them, three best friends - Caleb, Fox, Gage - made a blood pact on the Pagan Stone and released demonic evil that had been imprisoned for hundreds of years.

Now, every 7 years, on the 7th day of the 7th month, 7 days of terror plague their home town of Hawkins Hollow and no one in town really remembers what happened during that time. No one except the reluctant heroes who made a pact to do everything they could to protect their twon from this evil.

Now 21 years after the demon was first unleashed, fear attacks the town early and Caleb, Fox, and Gage, and three woman drawn to the town for unknown reasons - Quinn, Layla, Cybill - must find courage and hidden strength to defeat the monster once and for all. And maybe even find love in the midst of terror, if only they can survive.

Caleb Hawkins, owner of the small town's bowling alley, feels the strongest responsibility of the three men to protect the town since his ancestors were the town's founders. He fears what will happen if they can't defeat the evil demon before it's too late. Quinn Black is a writer famous for her books on modern urban legends. The stories surrounding Hawkin's Hollow lure her into town and she stays upon feeling a strange bond to the town, and to Caleb. These two are drawn to one another in spite of all the odds stacked against them, and the visions they experience about along dead couple from Hawkins Hollow bind them even closer.

However, all the signs of typical Nora trilogy fare are present here, same formula, same personalities. Three single men we meet immediately, each attracted to one of the three also single women. As usual, quite a bit of time was spent setting up all three couples, which cuts in to the time I would have liked to spend with Blood Brothers' couple. Even the standard physical appearance found in every single Roberts trilogy are present here. I'd sure like to see Roberts venture away from her typical formula and give us a new crew of characters.

I was quite emotionally invested in Blood Brothers and enjoyed this first installment in Nora's latest trilogy much more than most of her other trilogies I have read. Romance is found, as to be expected for Nora, but this book is evenly split between the romance story and the horror/suspense story. We have a whole variety of things here, psychic gifts, demons, ghosts, reincarnation (maybe) and several other interesting elements. I was so disappointed in her previous paranormal trilogy, The Circle, so I was happy to see that The Sign of Seven was far better.

Phil Gigante does an impressive job narrating Blood Brothers. He is fantastic using voices perfect for each individual character. The only fault I found in his performance was that he tends to overdo the falsetto used to portray the women and after a while, that grated on my nerves quite a bit.

© Kelley A. Hartsell, April 2008. All rights reserved.