Morrigan's Cross (Circle Trilogy, #1)

by Nora Roberts

The Circle Trilogy begins with an epic tale that breaks down the boundaries between reality and the otherworldly, while forging together the passions of the men and women caught in a battle for the fate of humanity…

In the last days of high summer, with lightning striking blue in a black sky, the sorcerer stood on a high cliff overlooking the raging sea…        

Belting out his grief into the storm, Hoyt Mac Cionaoith rails against the evil that has torn his twin brother from their family’s embrace. Her name is Lilith. Existing for over a thousand years, she has lured countless men to an immortal doom with her soul-stealing kiss. But now, this woman known as vampire will stop at nothing until she rules this world—and those beyond it…

Hoyt is no match for the dark siren. But his powers come from the goddess Morrigan, and it is through her that he will get his chance at vengeance. At Morrigan’s charge, he must gather five others to form a ring of power strong enough to overcome Lilith. A circle of six: himself, the witch, the warrior, the scholar, the one of many forms, and the one he’s lost. And it is in this circle, hundreds of years in the future, where Hoyt will learn how strong his spirit—and his heart—have become…

Don’t miss the other books in the Circle Trilogy
Dance of the Gods
Valley of Silence

• ISBN10: 0515141658
• ISBN13: 9780515141658
• Publish Date: 29 August 2006 (first published 9 June 2006)
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Publisher: Penguin Putnam Inc
• Imprint: Jove Publications
• Format: Paperback (US Mass Market)
• Pages: 352
• Language: English
• URL: https://penguinrandomhouse.com/books/isbn/9780515141658

Reviews

[Leigha]

A twelfth century sorcerer must unite with his twenty-first century vampire brother and four strangers in order to defeat the first vampire ever created, Lilith.

My second reading of the Circle Trilogy is just as wonderful as the first time around. Vampires, time travel, and alternate dimensions are new elements for Roberts, and yet she seamlessly intertwines them into an interesting world. The romance between Hoyt and Gleena is the least interesting quality to the novel despite all the attention spent developing it. Honestly, their romance suffers from timing. If they had more time together building their relationship (such as Moira and Cian) then perhaps their romance would have been more interesting.

Lilith is an intriguing villain, although I would have liked a bit more development on her motivation. Why is she developing an army to take over the world and, in particular, Geall? Perhaps the future novels address this question, but it would have been nice to have some sense of her motivation in this first installment. Additionally, Morrigan shows Gleena other worlds which could be affected by the coming war. Why are none of those worlds creatures helping out? Why is it only up to Earth and Geall to solve a problem that could effect multiple alternate realities? Inquiring minds would like to know...

tl;dr Despite an instant love romance between the main characters, Roberts crafts an intriguing world full of several fantasy elements.

[celinenyx]

The blandest bland of bland bland. Sheesh. When a writer writes as many books as Ms Roberts does, it can go two ways. They can either be all unique and great (of course there'll be some bad apples, but they all have the same amount of spirit) or they just turn into each other. It seems that Morrigan's Cross is one of the same-samey books. There is absolutely nothing interesting the book to me. It's the most boring paranormal book I have ever tried to read. Stopped at about eighty pages in when the lead female almost had an orgasm because a dude spoke Irish. I like accents just as much as any other girl, but not that much.

[ibeforem]

I’m not the greatest fan of Nora Roberts’ romances with a supernatural twist, but I thought I’d give this a try. It was just okay. I felt like the set-up was really weird. Everyone just falls together and shows up where they are supposed to be, and making the reason be "because the goddess said so" is just a little too convenient. Overall, I guess I was a little bored with it. No one character stands out as anything other than a stereotype. I might read the other two books, just to complete the story, but I won’t rush to do it.

[wyvernfriend]

I have a sneaking suspicion that Nora Roberts saw one too many Buffy episodes. There's a witch with red hair, a vampire who resists the urge to feed off humans, and eventually a hereditary slayer. With the plot there was a "big Bad", a coming apocalypse and a fated group of fighters. Some minor differences between Buffy and this, particularly the love interests. Not a series I would rush out and buy but I would look for more of them to see what happens. I'm sometimes drawn to train wrecks.

Hoyt is a celtic sorcerer who loses his brother, Cian to Lilith the Vampire queen. He pleads to the Morrigan for his brothers life, she tells him that he has to travel in time to find a circle of six to fight Lilith as she is going to amass power and bring forward the end of the worlds. "The witch, the warrior, the scholar, the one of many forms, and the one you've lost." are who he's told he will gather and will be drawn to him.
Some of the issues I had were varied. The Claddagh Ring is named after a part of Galway city, a city I lived near for years, it is not spelt Claddaugh, trust me, no matter how you look at it. There is no Y in old, middle or modern Irish, so a character with the name Hoyt as your time-traveller is just plain ludicrous. The Morrigan is a WAR GODDESS not a goodness and light goddess, in fact if you want fire and a goddess why not Bridgid? Eternal flame and all that? Last but not least, a celtic goddess giving crosses? Ah now, please do a little more research than that. I'm not going to even start on the pronounciation guide, cause it almost got ripped out of the book.
It wasn't the worst I've read, some of the scenes were interesting but it failed to impress me.