I recently read Spellbound by Nora Roberts. Having not read any of her work, I thought this novella would be a way to dip my toe in the pool without overcommitting. The book got high ratings at Amazon.com, but I thought it was overrated.
Spellbound is the story of a famous, overworked photographer, Calin Farrell, who has a special gift. He dreams of a battle and a beautiful, red-haired Irish woman waiting for him, a woman he can’t help but love with all his heart. Or are they visions, the result of a bewitching spell?
Bestselling author Nora Robert starts there and twists and turns sometimes so fast I didn’t know which direction I was facing. That can be a good thing, but not when I have to read the same paragraph several times to figure out what it means.
The most egregious thing she does is to switch viewpoint, right in the middle of a scene, right in the middle of a paragraph. The first time it happened, I thought, “Ooh! A great example for my “Stupid Story Mistakes” podcast. But then she did it again, and again, and again. Maybe I should’ve used it as a stupid story mistake anyway. I think I may have a new pet peeve.
He brought his hands to her shoulders, torn for a staggering instant as to whether to pull her closer or push her away. In the end he eased back, held her at arm’s length.
She was beautiful. She was aroused. And she was, he assured himself, a stranger. He angled his head, determined to handle the situation.
“Well, it’s certainly a friendly country.”
He saw the flicker in her eyes, the dimming of disappointment, a flash of frustration. But he couldn’t know just how deeply that disappointment, that frustration cut into her heart.
He’s here, she told herself. He’s come. That’s what matters most now. “It is, yes.” She gave him a smile, let her fingers linger in his hair just another second, then dropped them to her sides. “Welcome to Ireland and the Castle of Secrets.”
Do you see how the viewpoint changes from his to hers somewhere between “He saw the flicker” and “cut into her heart”? I’m not sure exactly where. The text inbetween could work from either point of view. At this point, I felt like a disembodied spirit wafting through the story. Now, this is a story about magic, but I still don’t think that’s what the author intended.
From Amazon.com’s Book Description: Leave it to number-one bestselling author Nora Roberts to spin a tale that blurs the boundaries between reality and fantasy, modern-day mishaps and ancient curses, obsession and undying passion. She’ll have you cheering for love to win the day as a man and woman discover just how deep their bond lies-and how some dreams are meant to be.
But in the final analysis, I simply didn’t understand the characters. I didn’t understand Calin, why he changed his mind. Extraordinary changes require extraordinary forces. And once it was established how he felt and what he thought, I needed something remarkable to persuade him before he changed his mind. And nothing did. And without this convincing conflict, I couldn’t identify with the character, and the story fell flat.
It’s the same problem we saw in The Mask of Zorro, but I’ll save that for another day.
-TimK
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