The New Yorker describes Nora Roberts as “America’s favorite author” and I definitely understand why. The title ‘Stars of Fortune’ tells you what the story is about loud and clear. No ambiguity in that. Stars that can make or break fortune. It is the first of a trilogy.
The prologue is well written and descriptive enough. The author introduces four characters in the prologue itself. Celene, Luna and Arianrhod- three goddesses, divine and pure and good at heart. The fourth character Nerezza, who is also the antagonist is portrayed as evil, power hungry and self centered. The author successfully manages to instill fear in the readers pertaining to Nerezza.
The book includes six main characters. But mainly revolves around two- Sasha Riggs and Bran Killian. Sasha- a Seer, beautiful, trustworthy but lacking in self esteem. Nora Roberts takes us through Sasha’s journey of finding self worth and opening the doors of her heart to love. Which girl hasn’t felt hesitations and fear while actually meeting “the one”. Sasha’s emotions are not foreign and definitely something that the audiences can understand and empathize with. Nora Roberts manages to portray her female characters as strong feminists without letting them be misunderstood by readers as femnazists.
Bran, on the other hand, is confident, protective, sensitive and every woman’s dream man. But he also has a journey of his own. The journey of trusting and believing in the power of love. Bran and Sasha are a great couple and complement each other. The author has kept a beautiful balance without letting any of them overshadow the other. Though sometimes Bran’s constant assurance to Sasha regarding her inner strength seems like a tirade.
I would definitely recommend this book to every non-fiction reader out there. It has a great mix of magic, evil, love, friendship and action. The book is available at amazon.com for $10.27. It is published by Berkeley and has 336 pages with an ISBN 978-0425280102. I would love to hear your comments once you have read the book yourself.