Rating  - Great book
I love Nora and this book is just a great as all her other books. I love the trilogy's and they just keep getting better and better. I cannot wait until the third book is out in paperback.. I'll have to reread the first too to keep me from chewing off my nail... lol.
Rating  - Below standard
This novel has a long list of things wrong with it from my perspective. I will lump together just a few:
(1) The paranormal stuff just doesn't work. It's supposed to be scary, but it doesn't pass the giggle test. I've liked some books about monsters and ancient magic and such, but this wasn't one of them.
(2) The three men and three women central figures are annoying yuppies who I suspect would drink expensive wine with bologna sandwiches--just for show. They seemingly have no money problems, dress expensively, have nice vehicles and say, "Good point" a lot in an attempt to convince the reader that the story makes sense. Their discussions about what to do next and their conclusions with respect to what is and has happened are silly. I found myself hoping the boogey man would get them.
(3) The best thing about Nora Roberts' novels is her sense of place and the ability to take th reader there. It was completely absent for me in this book. We're somewhere in Maryland, mostly in winter, in some little burg, but the specifics were lacking. I never felt transported.
(4) The book has no ending, no satisfying clincher chapter. I realize this is part one of a trilogy, but in other Roberts trilogies there was a denouement of sorts for each book. The ending here is--well--as goofy as the plot, which is goofy indeed. I can't be more specific than that without someone saying I ruined it for them because they were still reading the book.
This is well below the better books by this author. Somehow I don't have much hope for the next two books, given the absurdity of the premise, the yuppie characters, and the lack of atmosphere.
Rating - Intriguing approach to 'horror'
Other books would focus on the details of the demon's attacks on the town, the 'infection' and madness, suicides, assaults, murders. Instead, while these come up now and then, they aren't the focus of the book. Blood Brothers is as much a mystery as it is a horror novel.
You could say that this series was written for those of us who chuckle every time we read one of those 'lessons learned from a horror movie' emails that goes around, or who roll our eyes when the girl in the horror movie freaks out and runs straight into the bad guy's arms. It's for all of us who want to know why the good guy imprisoned the bad guy centuries ago, risking release centuries later, rather than eliminating him. It's for readers who get frustrated with horror characters that run around getting mown down by evil rather than fighting back.
When the demon tries to drive the women away from the town they've been drawn to, they don't run away. They decide it's time to find out why things are happening they way they are and how to end them. The whole group goes into research mode, interviewing Cal's 97-year-old great-grandmother, reading the journals of an ancestor, consulting with experts on demonology in Europe, figuring out the women's connection to the town, and trudging out to the Pagan Stone in the forest where everything started.
This being a Nora Roberts book, characterization is beautiful, and key to the story. Every character is fascinating and unique, from Cal and Quinn (the foreground characters in Blood Brothers) to Cal's extended web of relatives and acquaintances, and yes, even his dog. I've often wondered how Ms. Roberts can keep up such entertaining and fun descriptions and dialogue for book after book; it feels as though she writes them with every bit as much joy and mirth as radiates from the lines she's written.
Blood Brothers is part horror/paranormal, part mystery, part romance, and all amazing. Due to the research angle I imagine there are some people who might find it too 'talky' if that isn't what they're in the mood for. However, the plot & background are so fascinating as they get teased apart, and the characters and their dialogue so interesting, that I daresay as long as you aren't specifically in the mood for something else, you'll get quite a charge from this engrossing story.
Rating  - Captivating First Book
I am a huge NR fan. I started reading her books about 7 years ago, and I have rarely been disappointed. I definitely wasn't disappointed by Blood Brothers.
In the town of Hawkins Hollow, evil lurks. It seduces. It kills. For 21 years, evil has stalked the town, returning every seven years. Since their 10th birthday in 1987, Cal, Fox, and Gage have been cleaning up the carnage that it has left behind. Now, 21 years later, it is beginning again. This time it has started sooner and it has gotten stronger. The guys don't want to just clean up after it anymore, they want to beat it, and with the help of Quinn, Layla, and Cybil they will.
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