Key of Light - Nora Roberts

The life of gallery manager Malory Price is stalled when she is invited to a reception at a mansion near her small Pennsylvania town. Upon her arrival, she discovers that she is one of only three guests-all of whom are feisty young women with life challenges just like her own.

Their mysterious hosts explain that centuries earlier, they allowed the souls of the three demigoddesses under their care to be stolen by a sorcerer. Legend says the demigoddesses cannot be freed until three mortal women find the keys to the glass box in which they are housed. Should they agree, Malory, Dana Steele and Zoe McCourt will each receive $25,000 to search for the keys, plus a million dollars if they succeed. They nervously accept, and Malory is the first to tackle her task, with the help of Dana's charming but commitment-phobic brother Flynn.

I really enjoyed the first books I've read Nora Roberts, it was the Three Sister's Island trilogy and I really liked the story of 3 modern women trying to make a living and falling in love. There is a paranormal element but I have found that I can put that in the back of my mind for most of the story and just read it as a contemporary story. The same happened now with the Key trilogy, although there is a definite paranormal element that starts off the treasure hunt the characters are involved in, the main thing for me was how much I enjoyed the characters and their interaction.

The magic part - once upon a time a king married a human and they had 3 daughters. Their enemies locked said daughters in glass coffins and the legend says 3 women will have to face who they are and find the keys to save the daughters.

One tempestuous night Malory, Dana and Zoe are invited to a party, a party just for them where their hosts - Rowena and Pitte - tell them the legend and that they are the chosen ones. If they accept the challenge they will immediately received twenty five thousand dollars each just for starters. The three women have several things in common, one of which is that two of them have just been fired and the other had their hours reduced, so they decide to take it. I really liked them and how they complemented each other and struck up a true friendship.

Key of Light is Malory's story (although the 3 books are so connected that I think reading them in a row as one big book is the best option). Malory has an artistic soul and worked in an art gallery. On finding the other two women she also meets Flynn, Dana's brother who runs the local newspaper, and through him Jordan and Bradley, his childhood friends.

Flynn immediately lets Malory know he is interested in her, this despite the fact that on their first two meetings she comes across as less than enthusiastic about him. This is important to the story because the men will have an important role in each woman’s role in finding the key. I really liked that after a time it is Malory that acknowledges her feelings and goes after Flynn, I thought it was refreshing to see such a self assured heroine. And then there is a lot of humour in the story, for starters there is Moe, Flynn's dog, who is overly friendly and whose scenes are always funny, and there is the natural banter between all six characters which I also enjoyed.

Since the quest has to do with each of them, Malory's has to do with her interest in art. I thought the way Roberts developed what they had to do to and what they had to go through to reach their goal to be interesting and well thought of.

Grade: 4/5