Started off strong but then got really bland, really fast. It's been awhile since I've put my hands on a Nora Roberts book and I was kind of excited to read this one, partially because it seemed to be stepping somewhat away from the romance genre and I'd really enjoyed her detective series. Unfortunately, while the story followed a handful of characters, they were all pretty much exactly the same personality-wise, and the plot follows a pretty predictable pace. I probably should've guessed it from the title of the book but the entirety of this novel felt like a set-up for later books. So many characters and plot threads and ideas were introduced only to suddenly go nowhere as Lana, in particular, removed herself from those areas and situations. It didn't feel like Roberts was dropping those characters or threads, only that she had been introducing them so that she could use them MUCH later down the road.
I listened to this via audiobook so I'm not sure about the grammatical structure, but I can say that a lot of the dialogue felt almost... ritualistic and unnatural. Like, everyone was reciting lines instead of a natural flow of conversation. Some characters stood out as a charming break, like Eddie and Fred, but I almost cringed every time Lana or Max were speaking. I didn't even feel a real difference between Lana's prophesies and the normal way she spoke. That should be saying something.
Finally, and I really should've expected it (no, really, I should've) but maybe I've been immersed in other books for too long, but Gods, was this incredibly heteronormative. There was a nod towards the LGBT+ community at the start that I think maybe raised my expectations a bit and I really started to wonder about Fred and Arlys, and even ship them a little bit, but of course we couldn't have even somewhat nice things. Nope, gotta pair them off with some other randos so that all the ladies got a nice man to protect them.
Aaaaand that's why I left this particular area of literature some time ago. Not really my cup of tea and I am signing out.