Key of Knowledge

I have found that the second book in all of the trilogies that Nora Roberts writes are generally the weakest. In large part, it is simply the nature of the beast. There is not the heady rush in meeting all the new characters and learning about the adventure placed before them as in the first book. Nor is there a conclusion that satisfyingly wraps everyone and everything up as in the third. The Key trilogy is my favorite of all of Robertss series and the third book is one of my all time favorites. However, of the characters, Dana is closest in personality to me. In addition, by making the trilogy be about, essentially, three separate quests that resolve the entire plot, we get that satisfying conclusion. (The Guardians trilogy does the same.) All of that being said, this is a wonderful book that I thoroughly enjoyed. It is well-written The fact that there are sections that continue the story of the characters other than the two who are the primary focus of this portion of the overall plot helps to keep that feeling of discovery one has with the first in the trilogy. While it is impossible to recommend this book without recommending the entire trilogy, which I heartily do, this second novel in the trilogy is not the weak link. In this trilogy, none are.

As with the other book in this trilogy, I finished this in 2 days. I should be sleeping right now. I will say this before I move on…I love Nora but these ebooks shouldn’t be the same amount as paperback.

Back to the story. This picks up pretty much right after the last book so it was easy to follow along.unlike the character or Mallory, Dana annoyed the crap out of me in the beginning. I thought that she was extremely childish. You saw some of it in the last book but bbn it was heightened here.

I understand that some of this was to come across as the anger and hurt she felt from Jordan’s previous actions but it came across as petulant and distracted a bit from the story initially. But once you read some more and for a bit deeper in the story, you see the hurt and pain. You get to finally see and understand things from both their perspectives and appreciate how simple communication or lack of can derail and damage things. Love is such a fragile and complex thing. And this story boiled down amounts to the fact that love really conquers all.

While I was slightly annoyed by Dana, I liked Jordan and how he loves and understood every facet of Dana. While Dana hates it, both of them are connected and vital to solving this mystery. As Kane now continues to bend the rules, and do things that were taboo before, Dana will need all the help that she can get and more than anything, confront her past.

As mentioned in my last book, this is a typical NR trilogy and still just as interesting.

In the second book of the ‘Key trilogy’, it’s Dana’s turn to find the second key to free the demigoddesses. But she is not alone, not only she has her newest friends Malory (book 1) and Zoe, she also has her brother Flynn (book 1) and his best friends Brad and Jordan.

Unfortunately, she’s not in the best terms with the latter one. She and Jordan dated once. He broke her heart and left her. Since he returned in book 1, it was obvious Dana wasn’t happy to see him. She’s still hurting and angry over what he did. In this book, we get to see more of that pain and anger and it made the first stages of their relationship hard to read because I could feel Dana and Jordan’s pain.

But as they slowly progress and become lovers instead of “enemies”, I enjoyed their relationship even more so. It was obvious those two still loved each other. I especially loved how there was no BS and they communicated to accept the hurtful past and prepare for a future together.

Other things I enjoyed very much as well were:

*Seeing more of Malory and Flynn (really great news for them!)
*Getting to know more Zoe and Brad (and Brad and Simon). I cannot wait to read their book.
*The climax to the discovery of the key was thrilling and amazing! I did not see coming the development and absolutely loved it! Definitely more interesting than that of the first book.

Something I didn’t like were some sexist comments throughout the book. They definitely affected the rating (like they affected the rating from book 1). They didn’t lessen my interest on the main plot but they bothered me.

OVERALL:

‘Key of Knowledge’ is a great follow up. The quest to find the keys gets harder but more interesting. The relationships between the six of them (and between the six of them and Rowena and Pitte) keep developing and I’m loving every moment of it.

I cannot wait to see the end of the quest. The thing I am looking forward the most is seeing the conclusion to finding the keys and freeing the demigodesses. I need to see Rowena and Pitte have their HEA. They deserve it after centuries of being waiting.

I agree with the other reviewers that said this was the best of the three in this trilogy. I liked a good bit of this book which is more than I can say for many of Nora Roberts books in the past several years. I still found the sexual encounters to be completely overdone and distracting in the story. I get that her fans would probably protest if they were missing, but I have learned about where they will show up and how to skim them without getting into too many pages of her “heat” and his “need and soul pouring out of him, filling her,” etc. (*yawn*)

Dana was a mostly likable character which was a relief. I’m still a bit less enthused by the female characters being chased and fawned over and given into, regardless of their behavior. But at least there was some reason justifying Jordan’s apologetic behavior towards her.

So why four stars? She can write. I don’t enjoy most of her stories anymore and I find her writing redundant. But perhaps that’s the cost of having published 210 novels. These “fall back on” books will do if all else fails these days, but I’d still love to stumble across some new and fresh writers. If someone asked, I’d agree this was a good enough book.

Had to purchase this as was missing from a donated set! Have read before and as with all Nora Roberts books they follow the same formula! Three friend meet three friends of the opposite sex, overcome some form of adversity & all end up deliriously happy together! So although you know how it’s all going to end up, it’s an easy read to get there! If you’re looking for anything deeper then this isn’t the trilogy for you. I use these when I need to switch off, but not concentrate too hard! If you miss a couple of sentences when reading Nora, it doesn’t really matter as she tends to repeat ‘important’ sentences anyway!
Really expensive though – even the kindle version! Did not really expect to pay more than a pound, but needed the missing book & had little choice!

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