Monday, June 6, 2011

The Gallaghers of Ardmore (Nora Roberts)




In 2000, Nora rolled out a trilogy set in Ireland's Waterford County, along the Celtic Sea. It's the stories about the Gallaghers, two brothers and a sister, who run a pub. There's a great deal of mysticism including a legendary fairie prince and a ghost. Titled "Jewels of the Sun", "Tears of the Moon", and "Heart of the Sea", these novels are available in paperback.

JEWELS OF THE SUN

Psychology professor Jude Francis Murray is a wreck. After her divorce two years ago, she hasn't put her life back together. So, she quits her job, journeys to Ardmore, a small quiet village in Ireland, and seeks tranquility at her grandmother's cottage. Tranquility? Wrong! The first thing she sees is a mournful woman who, she later learns, has been dead for centuries.

Then she meets Aidan Gallagher, handsome proprietor of the local pub. It doesn't help matters when Jude finds out that Aidan has been seeing the ghost of the faerie man for years. Aidan falls for Jude immediately, but she stubbonly refuses to yield. Through her relationship with Darcy, Aiden's sister, and Brenna, a local lass, Jude grows and learns who she is and what she wants and needs. The match-making efforts of her new friends contribute to Aidan's and Jude's budding romance. No one does family relationships better than Nora Roberts.

The first book in this trilogy, Jewels of the Sun, introduced Carrick, a faerie prince who had been separated for three hundred years from his true love. Before he can be reunited with her, three couples must find love and happiness. Since Jude and Aidan of Jewels of the Sun are happily married and expecting their first child, Carrick turns to Aidan's brother Shawn and his long-time friend Brenna O'Toole.


TEARS OF THE MOON

Shawn and Brenna are not particularly willing participants. Both are pretty satisfied with their lives and not exactly ready to fall in love. Brenna is her father's partner in a handyman type of business. She can fix or build anything, and she figures most men see her as more of the "buddy" type. Brenna has been attracted to Shawn for years, but she's pretty sure that lust is all she feels for her old family friend. For his part, Shawn has never considered Brenna as anything but a very close friend. He mans the kitchen at the family's pub, and writes music in his spare time.

When Brenna tells Shawn she wants to sleep with him, he is completely taken aback. Sure, he's admired Brenna's cute figure a time or two, but he's never thought of her that way. But once she mentions it, that's about all he can think about. The two begin a sexual relationship with an agreement that when it's over they will part friends. Shawn realizes fairly quickly that he is in love with Brenna, but he knows Brenna can be stubborn and proud, so he wants to make her think that marriage is her idea.


An American businessman approaches the Gallaghers with the idea of building a theater for music near their pub. All of them like the idea, but they tread carefully when the businessman sends his representative. They figure they might get a better deal if Shawn's beautiful sister Darcy lays on the charm, and if Shawn pretends to be a little dense. In some of the funniest scenes of the book, Shawn pretends to be a little confused in order to help their business dealings. The theater sub-plot is used to further Shawn's relationship with Brenna (who has ideas for the theater's design) and also to set up Darcy's story.


HEART OF THE SEA

Passionate and beautiful, Darcy Gallagher works as a waitress in the family pub while looking for a way to achieve the glamorous lifestyle to which she would like to become accustomed. Enter wealthy American builder Trevor Magee, whose Irish roots have drawn him back to the childhood home of his grandfather to build a theater. As Darcy and Trevor revel in the heated sexual attraction that flares between them, neither believes that they are the final key to end an ancient spell that separated Carrick the Faerie Prince and his human lady love, Gwen. Both Trevor and Darcy turn out to be vulnerable human beings with appealingly ordinary hopes and dreams.

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