Book Review: “Island of Glass” by Nora Roberts

Warning: If you have not read “Island of Glass” by Nora Roberts, do not read this review unless you’ve already read the book or don’t mind spoilers!

I’m back with another book review, and this time I’m completing reviewing Nora Roberts’ Guardians Trilogy with the very last book, “Island of Glass!” I’ve already reviewed both “Stars of Fortune” and “Bay of Sighs,” so I’m happy to conclude this trilogy! Here’s a summary so we know what it’s about:

“As the hunt for the Star of Ice leads the six guardians to Ireland, Doyle, the immortal, must face his tragic past. Three centuries ago, he closed off his heart, yet his warrior spirit is still drawn to the wild. And there’s no one more familiar with the wild than Riley—and the wolf within her…

An archaeologist, Riley is no stranger to the coast of Clare, but now she finds herself on unsure footing, targeted by the dark goddess who wants more than the stars, more than the blood of the guardians. While searching through Irish history for clues that will lead them to the final star and the mysterious Island of Glass, Riley must fight her practical nature and admit her sudden attraction to Doyle is more than just a fling. For it is his strength that will sustain her and give her the power to run towards love—and save them all…”

Like how the first book focused on Sasha and Bran while the second focused on Annika and Sawyer, this last book focused on Riley and Doyle, the two remaining main protagonists whose points-of-views had yet to be covered. I liked both Riley and Doyle individually, but unlike Annika and Sawyer in the second book, I wasn’t as convinced with their romance until about 75% through the book, mainly because Doyle was incredibly indecisive about his relationship with Riley while Riley was getting really mad about how he wasn’t exactly making any sure decisions regarding how he feels towards her—up to the point that she quite literally calls him out for this at about 75% into the book.

I felt that the final battles against Malmon and Nerezza were a bit anticlimactic, and somehow I actually found this hilarious when it came to Malmon’s demise. He’s gloating about how great Nerezza supposedly is and how the main protagonists should just surrender, but then Sawyer just steps in, shoots him in the head three times and says (not word-for-word), “That’s for all my friends and Annika, you fool!”  The potential for Malmon to get even scarier than the writing was trying to make him be was there, but I don’t think it was fully executed. The same goes for Nerezza, mainly for her poor planning skills.

Speaking of hilarious moments, there are quite a few scattered throughout this book—including Annika up and running to greet the nice goddesses and complimenting them despite Annika and the others having just fought Nerezza one or two pages ago and got quite injured. Another moment is later on in the book right after Nerezza’s demise, where the nice goddesses propose that they should celebrate. Poor Sawyer, meanwhile, notes that he’s quite injured from this battle and will literally bleed all over the floor if he doesn’t get immediate treatment. Thankfully, he does get treated and healed by the goddesses right after this is pointed out.

I also noticed how information provided in this book regarding the characters and worldbuilding was a bit more of an info-dump compared to the last two books. Though this was plot-necessary information, I wish there was more of a build-up to it, or somehow written so it felt less like an info dump.

When it came to the ending, I thought it wrapped almost a little too neatly. Is it great that all the main protagonists essentially got married (and even better, Annika can keep her human legs and even have kids with Sawyer)? Yes. Was it a tad fast? Yes. However, it gave a warm fuzzy feeling of a happy ending, which was exactly what this trilogy got and also deserved.

Overall, I’m rating this book 4 out of 5 stars!

This is due to the hilarious moments as well as the happy ending, but taking away the one star for the weak villains and the info-dumping.

For the trilogy as a whole, I’m rating this 4 out of 5 stars!

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