The battleground has been chosen for the final showdown between those selected by the gods and the minions of the vampire Lilith. But there is one vampire who dares stand against her. And his love for the scholarly queen of Geall will complete the circle of six-and change the face of eternity.

For those of us who listen to the Audio version, all three books in this Trilogy are read by the same narrator, which makes for good continuity. That said, I find fault with deep-voiced men who try to 'lighten up' to do the women's voices; it's very annoying. It makes the women seem shallow and childish. But Dick Hill did a great job with the general narrating and the men's voices, and overall I found the story to be engaging. An earlier reviewer stated that the major battle isn't until the third installment, but isn't that what we expect with a trilogy?

I do recommend this series to fans of Nora Roberts and those who enjoy the paranormal. I especially liked the progression of the romance between Moira & Cian, and I absolutely LOVED the ending.

This is the last of the Circle trilogy that started with Morrigan's Cross and continued with Dance of the Gods. The consensus seemed to be that this would be the best of the series and everyone seemed to be waiting for Cian's story.

So when I wasn't thrilled, I wanted to know why--what other people saw in this book that I didn't, and vice versa--and I read a bunch of reviews to try to figure it out. The positive ones drooled over Cian; the negative ones complained that there were *gasp* vampires. I don't know why I bothered.

It did make me think more about my reactions, though, which was, after all, the purpose.

First, the good stuff. I liked the interactions between the group of 6, and basically the characters in general. The four stars is primarily for the characters, including the bad guys. The vampire leader Lilith, her 2nd in command Lora, her "son" Davey, and their wizard ally Midir were nicely creepy, believable, and 3-dimensional. They were vain and selfish, but cared about each other. I didn't agree with the reviews that said they weren't evil enough. Evil with human characteristics is so much more interesting than just pure evil.

Also, Cian and Moira were in a pretty impossible situation--always a good plot for a romance. He's an immortal vampire, content with his life in 21st-century earth. She's a mortal, queen of her people, in Geall, an alternate world that's mostly like medieval earth.

I appreciated Moira's growth once she became queen, and how she proved herself to her people, stood up for them, and motivated them.

But I think this trilogy dragged on too long for me. The war that was supposed to provide the bulk of the conflict in this book didn't. I didn't really care about any of the people involved in the earlier skirmishes; and the outcome, and even the course of the big battle at the end were predictable and thus lacked tension.

There was very little tension in the romance plot, either. Cian and Moira initially tried to deny their feelings for each other, but Moira decided to seize what happiness she could, and didn't have much trouble convincing Cian. Any complaints about their relationship from the other 4 or from Moira's subjects were dismissed easily.

And oddly, despite the fact that in Morrigan's Cross, Cian was a fascinating character, he had very little to do in this book. It's primarily Moira's book, about her becoming queen, her personal growth, her battle to save her people, and her tragedy of loving someone she couldn't have a happily-ever-after with. Cian was just a secondary character here.

As for the ending... I know plenty of people like paranormal stories that end like this, but it feels like a cop-out to me. In fact, I think I'd have liked this book better--or at least felt it was more honest--without the happy ending. Don't get me wrong--I do not at all advocate pushing the envelope of romance genre conventions by eschewing the happy ending--with an other-than-happy ending, I'd have called it something other than romance.

I don't read much of Norah Roberts books but i've fallen in love with this series.

I loved all of the books in the Circle Trilogy but this was my favorite. It was a page turner with lots of excitement and romance. Moira and Cian are very entertaining characters and I found myself reading certain passages over and over. If you like Nora Roberts, you will love this book.

Nora Roberts closed her trilogy with a winner. This book was a bit more emotional than the other two but for good reason. The cost of battle on both fronts the one against evil and fate naturally bring rise to more powerful emotions yet they don't distract from the storyline only enhance it. If you like fantasy this trilogy is worth the time.