I don't think I have really read other books by Nora Roberts but if her other books can keep me immersed like this one did than call me a new Nora Roberts fan. I loved her writing style, she gives you just enough information about the characters and what is going on that I seriously zoned everything else out around me.
I loved Breen and her friendships and how she comes to term on who she is. It's a well paced story in my opinion and finally a fantasy telling that is not boggle down with crazy amounts of spice and unnecessary sex scenes, don't get me wrong, I love a good spice in books here and there but it seems a lot of books that are being overly hyped on booktok or whatever all seem to be all about the spice... correction smut but you will not find this here.
The Awakening is a good fantasy telling, that gives you the chance to get to know the characters and fall in love with them all the same. My oldest daughter recommended this to me and now I highly recommend to anyone that likes fantasy, friendship, and someone getting to know she is from a world she had no clue truly existed. ( )

It was a pretty book, but much too slow. I loved the very beginning, the toxic mother was great. But then our heroine goes to Ireland and nothing happens. She just walks around, having dreams. I don't understand what was the point of this part of the book, we could easily go straight to the cottage. Where still nothing happens for a long time, our heroine starts gardening and she has more dreams. Finally she gets to the land of elves and - nothing happens again! She just keeps learning how to fight or ride a horse and I was bored to tears. Three stars and I'm not sure if I want to continue on with this series. ( )

A fun, quick, enjoyable read - Roberts is good at world building. ( )

I usually enjoy Nora Robert's romantic fantasies, and this one is no exception. They're usually set in Ireland, and I love the descriptions of the country and the way she uses Irish myths in the stories. I think they've been all portal fantasies, and there's a combination of modern and a more folkloric world in the books. This one is a bit of a slow burn, the first book setting up Breen and her friends as she discovers her heritage and delves into the world of Talamh.
While I love the world of Talamh and its story, I was less enthused about the contemporary part of the book. I kept getting thrown out of the story there: how did Breen get all that money, how did she just sell her books so easily, why did she suddenly stand up to her mother because money? and other stuff like that. I felt like there was too much telling in those sections and insufficient showing.
Her life in the fantasy world is much better written and shown. The descriptions of learning spells, healing, fighting, and so on made me feel I was there with her as she learned and drew out those aspects of her being.
The book is all setup and that's okay because I still want to see what happens next. I'm giving this 3 1/2 stars rounded up. ( )

I am baffled by the incredibly good ratings of this.

It's not exactly bad but there is little that differentiates it from the herd.

The writing, while somewhat slow, was very enjoyable. It conjures the very much a typical atmosphere I've come to associate with Nora Roberts.

The actual content is just so very shallow and clichée. I have no clue how this is not marked as YA. Maybe there is explicit sex or extreme violence later on but so far this was a perfect example of several bad YA clichées. While the MC is an adult, she doesn't come across as one at all. This in itself makes sense considering her circumstances but the author is just disguising a corny coming of age story with this pretense. There is nothing adult about this book beyond the age of the characters on paper.

It feels like a retelling of the meta-story of all "modern MC travels to fantastical fantasy land and has YA adventures and saves the world". But there is nothing original about it. No new twist to old concepts, nothing. It's not building on all these tropes to create something new. It's just a rehashing of old ideas.

As I already said, Nora Roberts has an incredible talent for engaging writing that apparently made a lot of people lose awareness of what they were actually reading and it just drew them in with the typical great and mysterious atmosphere this author can create so well.

I made it half-way through the book before I decided to drop it.
It's shallow, it's heavy-handed and it's uninspired. And because of that, the incredibly slow pacing kept getting on my nerves as well. The pacing itself wouldn't have been a problem if there was something interesting there. But it's entirely hollow as well.
I think I could summarize the first 250 pages on a single page without leaving anything relevant out.

So, if you are a sucker for Nora Roberts atmosphere you might still enjoy this a lot but if you want actually interesting thoughts and ideas you'd better look somewhere else. ( )