St. Martin's, 2020. 435 pages. Fantasy
When Breen Kelly was a girl, her father would tell her stories of magical places. Now she’s mired in student debt and working a job she hates, until she stumbles upon a shocking discovery: her mother has been hiding an investment account in her name, funded by her long-lost father — and worth nearly four million dollars. But little does Breen know that when she uses some of the money to journey to Ireland, it will unlock mysteries she couldn’t have imagined.
I've not read anything by Nora Roberts before (nor her pseudonym J.D. Robb), so I wasn't exactly sure what to expect. I was delighted by how easily I was swept away into the storyline, despite the somewhat relaxed pacing. I had expected more romantic elements, but I wasn't bothered that they were not the focus of the work. I do wish that the queer side characters were developed a bit further; some of them seemed a little like caricatures of stereotypes. The story definitely has an open ending, which makes sense considering the trilogy has an additional two volumes. Roberts's book makes me all the more excited to pack my bags and explore the British Isles this coming autumn.