Irish Hearts by Nora Roberts

Irish Hearts set is made up three books
Irish Thoroughbred
Irish Rose
Irish Rebel


Irish Throroughbred

The Irish Thoroughbred is Nora's first published Novel and i have to say it doesnt disappoint! I love the characters and the romance and the pull of the wonderful scene she sets in this book and I cannot wait to start reading Irish Rose.

Adelia is a beautiful Irish lass with a strong and powerful personality, she is small and looks very pixie like but she has got a wickedly sharp tongue on her.
I loved the background story of Adelia almost as much as i loved her, she had a tough life and up to now never really lived. Her parent died and her aunt who sounds horrible raised her along with the farm. Adelia is very grateful person but you can tell that she had led a somewhat niave life up to her moving to America.

Adelia's uncle Paddy is a fantastic character and the love they have for each other in totally unconditional, he brings her to America to live after the aunt dies and Adelia is treated very well.
She cannot believe her luck at the life she has landed into and soon becomes a member of the family on the stables that Travis Grant owns.
She loves the horses and is a bot of a horse whisperer, which i think adds to the mystical Irish personality she undoubtably has.
Travis is obviously taken with her and they start a little love affair, he only kisses herwhich drives not only her but the reader insane!! I wanted him to throw her down in the hay and have his way with her, something i feel Nora would may have written if the book was to be written now?

I was sad and shocked that Paddy might die and leave her alone and was a little confused by the whole ordeal. It went from a passionate love happening to a man almost dying and a marriage to please him? I wasnt really sure what direction i was going to take and was a bit disappointed by the change in direction.

I felt sorry for Adelia and wanted her so much to have a happy ending, as the book fast approached the end and Travis was different and cold and i actually was really starting to not like him, things changed.
A fight and subsequent heart felt outrage that came from both Adelia and Travis shined a light on how each were feeling and that neither one knew it. The ending was happy i fnot a little abrupt however it is not the usual length of Nora's books so the story was only 10 chapters.
I would have very much like to read a littel more about the character and am sure i will be meeting them again in the next book.

overall a good book and i give it a 5/10.

Irish Rose

Irish Rose is a strange book for me, i dont really know why but it didnt flow as well as i hoped and was a little confused at times.
There was no denying the strength of the character and the supporting ones, giving you a lovely taste of Adelia and her youth and then the racing circle and how that all works BUT i wasnt as connected to the story this time and i really wanted to be.

Erin is a fantastic woman and a great read, as is Burke but they didn tmesh as well as i hoped and although the steamy kisses left nothing to the imagination i was left feeling a lilttle confused. Burke was hot and cold and i understand his characters past played in that and Erin was totally smack bang in love with him but he couldnt see it. I suppose the word i am looking for was frustrating!! Even after Erin had been kidnapped and nearly killed Burke was oblivious to how Erin felt about him and i wanted to smack him around the chops!

Nora has written another great book but it really got me going this one and I wasnt as happy with it. It was set about 7 years after Adelia and Travis. They have three kids and twins in the way, so much has moved on and reading straight off from that book into this i hadnt left a big enough gap between and had to adjust to the time.

This i fear will be the same case in the last book as it is focused around a young man and his relationship with Adelia's daughter who in this book is about 5 years old. It was adjusting like i had for the Chesapeake Bay saga and the last book, being written 10 years later and all of the loved characters were older and everything had changed.

Again there is a strong supporting cast and at times it is funny and heartwarming. Burke and Erin are very firery and it is lovely to read. The kidnapping was really well written and it was darka nd scary and you were worried for Erin but the rescue and the days after were a disappointment and i was left feeling a little sad for Erin and how she felt.
I ached for her when she said he didnt love her and was ok with that, i felt for her when she overheard people slagging off her relationship and the reasons that she married him. She realised he thought that as well and no matter what she did he didnt believe her.

He infuriates me so much and i was happy when the book ended. I always love love love the male characters in the book and Nora writes them so wonderfully male and strong and sexy and the person reading the book falls in love with them right along with the women. However Burke didnt do it for me and i didnt really find him alluring. He was arrogant and sexist and just a little bit sleezy in my eyes so i could nt fall for him like have all the others.

I enjoyed the story but by far my worst one to date. My score is 4/10.

Irish Rebel

mmmm what can i say about this book? I actually really loved it.
Keely Grant being the eldest daughter of Adelia and Travis from the first book was obviously beautiful and now in her mid 20's has a life and career of her own.
She is a fabulously confident and firery character to read and feel, she is a lot like her mother in the first book but with a little more confidence.
Brian is a new horse trainer hired after Paddy leaves to go home to Ireland, he is a tough hard man but a soft gooey centre!
He is very rugged and handsome and is full of pride, so full of pride that he rubs Keely up the wrong way. Its funny and emotional reading the blossoming romance and the turmoil that goes along with it.

Keely knows what she wants and she goes for it, and that being Brian. He is totally helpless and cannot help but fall hard.
The book is short as are all of Nora's first books and i am finding the books are 2 in 1. I do have a Kindle but the earlier books are not available on it so i am reading them in paperback. Holding a book and turning the pages again is nice.
Overall a good book and Nora is very good at articulating the innocence and vulnerability of love and sex. Keely being so inexperienced and Brian the polar opposite yet they have so muchh the same inside them.
I like how the one thing he wants to do is run and keep running but she is rooted and needs family, she changes him emotionally and he changes her physically. I enjoyed this book and was touched by the romantic story and it was really lovely to read about Adelia and travis and their lives and alos touching briefly on Burke and Erin's life.

maybe a fourth book linked to them and their children may have been a nice follow on but the trilogy has finished and i am left feeling a little, lost not having more to read. I take that as a good thing and it has kept me gripped! I will now move on to another set of books......

overall a 6/10 i think!