Nora Roberts, Key of Knowledge

Key of Knowledge

Nora Roberts

Jove, Dec 2003. $7.99, 352 pp.

ISBN: 0515136379

In Pleasant valley, Pennsylvania, three women were invited to attend a cocktail party hosted at a castle by people they never met before. Intrigued each one shows up as well as three men. The women learn they are the chosen to rescue the stolen souls of the three "daughters of glass". Each one will seek a special key that will open the locks that imprison Ninkane, Venora, and Kyna. Others have tried and failed as the God Kane is powerful, tricky, and willing to kill his antagonists.

Last month Malory Price was first up and successfully found the KEY OF LIGHT. She also fell in love with one of the trio of men accompanying the hunt. Now librarian Dana Steele draws the short straw and begins her quest for the KEY OF KNOWLEDGE. She has one month to succeed or the entire mission fails. Though she knows that at some point she will go it alone, her allies help her, but especially Jordan Hawke. She loved him once, but he left her without a look back. Jordan is willing die to keep his beloved safe. Kane is willing to accommodate Jordan, but killing Dana is an option.

The key to a Nora Roberts novel is the believability of the characters who, regardless of the situation (even a fantasy setting), seem genuine. That is the case in KEY OF KNOWLEDGE as it was with its predecessor and guaranteed to occur with the conclusion (see KEY OF VALOR). The story line is exciting, but it is the prime players regardless of "species" that make this tale and the series a must delight for fans of romantic fantasy.

Harriet Klausner