Nora Roberts wraps up her Irish Born trilogy, the stories of three sisters, with the mystical Born in Shame. Born in Fire was the story of Maggie Concannon, the oldest sister, a tempestuous glass artist. In Born in Ice, she tells the story of Brianna, the quiet sister who longed for home and peace. But, this story closes the circle as Roberts intended when she introduces the American sister, Shannon Bodine.

When Tom Concannon died, he was staring out to sea, and whispered a name Maggie never heard before. On her deathbed, Shannon’s mother, Amanda, told her she was the daughter of an Irishman, Tom Concannon, not the man she knew as her father. And, when a private detective shows up, sent from Ireland, an angry Shannon travels to Ireland to meet the sisters she never knew she had. She finds Maggie confrontational, Brianna eager to be friends, and she’s the only one strong enough to go toe-to-toe with Maggie and Brianna’s unforgiving mother, Maeve. But, she doesn’t know how to handle her dreams of the past in Ireland or Murphy Muldoon. Murphy may be a successful farmer who feels like a brother to Maggie and Brianna. But, from the moment Shannon and Murphy meet, they feel as if they’ve loved, and parted, before.

How does Nora Roberts do it? How does she make all of her characters strong individuals who can carry a story? In this case, it’s a story out of time, a story of two people who recognize they have a history. While one is eager to accept it, the other fights against change and magic and history. Roberts beautifully handles sisterhood and family issues, romance and magic, in a powerful conclusion to the series.

And Ireland. It comes alive in this book even more than the others, as seen through the eyes of an American. It’s green and stormy and cold. It’s farmland and Dublin. And, it’s music and family and that Irish lilt. Roberts makes any reader eager to find the beauty of the country.

Born in Shame is a successful, satisfying culmination to a wonderful series. It’s just hard to let go of Nora Roberts’ characters, characters who become living people through her skillful, gifted writing.

Nora Roberts’ website is www.noraroberts.com

Born in Shame by Nora Roberts. Berkley Books. ISBN 9780425266113 (paperback), 351p.

*****
FTC Full Disclosure – I bought my copy of the book.