3 stars 
 I can't believe I'm going to say it but this fell short of the mark for me. There's no doubt that Nora can tell a story and paint pictures with words. I love all of her paranormal trilogies so far, but some aspects of this felt a bit recycled. 
 The story didn't drag but it wasn't spectacular either as I had hoped. I loved the beginning introduction of Sorcha and her 3 children. It pulled me in instantly. After that, some things were too similar to Three Sisters Island, Key and Sign of Seven trilogies. The evil bad guy is slightly different, even though the power seeking is similar to every evil sorcerer written I suppose. The characters were likeable enough but I didn't feel strongly connected to them. 
 Our heroine, Iona grew up knowing she didn't belong where she was. The only person who understood her was her Nan, who told her the history of Sorcha the Dark Witch. She decided to uproot and move to Ireland to find her connections. And there she did, with her cousins, Branna and Connor, who are also sister and brother. 
 We're also introduced to Boyle, Finbar and Meara. There's strong friendships between all these characters that you can feel. The relationship between Iona and Boyle, however, didn't really spark any flames off the pages for me. I felt like I was told that they had a connection rather feeling it for myself. Usually my stomach or heart flutter and sigh for the H/h. It didn't happen here. It felt a little too rushed maybe as they did jump in feet first. Plus the conflict they had has been done before, and by Nora too no less. 
 The connection between Branna and Fin reminds me of Mia and Sam from Three Sisters A LOT. Even though they are similar, I find myself more intrigued for their story than this one. 
 The build up in the book focused on allowing Iona to learn and control her power. The fight wasn't all that dramatic and ended rather quickly, but this is only the first book after all. I hope there's more action and magic (between the H/h, too) in the next one. 
 Steam: 1.5