What do You think about Born In Shame (1996)?
I was convinced that I had read the first two books in this trilogy when I picked up this one. But now it seems I only read the first one, Born in Fire, and I have yet Brianna's story to tackle. Born in Shame brings us back to Ireland, one of Roberts favourite settings, and to the Concannon family. Shannon Bodine is Tom Concannon's illegitimate daughter, she is the fruit of a brief affair Tom had with an American woman and she has always believed the man her mother was married to was her real father. She is understandably upset when her mother, on her death bed, tells her the truth. Maggie and Brianna, the heroines of book 1 and 2, already knew they had a sister and had hired a detective to find her. Although Shannon is not exactly in a sisterly mood towards people she doesn't recognise as her family she eventually decides to fly to Ireland and meet them. That is where she meets Murphy, the sister's neighbour who instantly falls in love with her. Although this is supposedly a book about Shannon as the third sister I think Murphy really steals all the attention. He is a farmer, a poet, a musician, a romantic to the point that listing all his abilities and qualities might make a bit unreal and even boring. But in fact he is anything but. He is kind, loving, determined and while I understood Shannon's misgivings in giving it all up for love I couldn't help feeling she was a bit silly in almost letting him getting away. You just don't let it go when you feel that you've struck gold. I did like Maggie a lot more as a secondary character even if she is still a bit of a tough cookie. Her mother is still the same disagreeable self and I'm not sure I believed her mellowing with Shannon's words, to tell the truth I don't even understood why they felt they had to tell her that Shannon was their sister, what she didn't know would not harm at this point and it definitely would have saved them a lot of unpleasantness. So I think this made for a very agreeable story, not much conflict and I would definitely have preferred for them to get to know each other and only after fall in love instead of having Murphy being struck dumb just by looking at Shannon, but overall his personality more than made up for it. Grade: 4/5
—Ana T.
I haven't read the first book in this series. I picked up the second book, Born in Ice at the thrift store and read the entire book one night during a blizzard. When I saw Born in Shame at the same thrift store a few days later I couldn't believe my good fortune. I LOVED Brianna and Gray and I so very much wanted to know what happened to them. I didn't like Shannon at first and it took me a while to warm to her character, though I'm wondering if that is exactly what Nora Roberts wanted. I was happy to know that Murphy was going to be the love interest as I just adored him in Born in Ice. I loved that he didn't know what to say or do around Shannon at first. How many of us have become tongue tied in the presence of someone we find so attractive?I was unfortunately disappointed by the sense of magic in this book. While I love that sort of stuff (loved it in the Gallaghers of Ardmore trilogy) it felt very out of place here. There was so much heavy stuff in this book between the sisters meeting and Shannon trying to discover where she belonged that it was very distracting. I kept trying to ignore it. I felt a bit bad for Murphy. Shannon seemed to have no clue what she wanted and she was leading the poor man around by his heart which I thought was cruel. She knew he loved her, slept with him, but then still was going to leave him. He definitely kept me interested in the book. Why can't a man like that exist where I live. *grin*Still a great book. I enjoyed it more the second time I read it.
—Corrie
CAUTION! IF YOU HAVE NOT READ THIS BOOK YET. CONTINUE AT YOUR OWN RISK! THIS REVIEW MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS!!!I read this one just as fast as the other Born in Trilogy books. The reason for that is because they are soo good that you don't ever want to put them down for a second in case you forget with where you were reading at. Trust me that has happened before and I was like -.- NOOOO THIS CAN'T BE HAPPENING!!! Let's just say that I wasn't a very happy person at all. So I recommened with this trilogy to only put it down for a couple of seconds before going back to reading it or you won't be a happy person like I was at certain points.But other than that this book was such a good read. This time we start out with the youngest Concannon sister who isn't really a Concannon since she was a child born out of wedlock. Or at least almost born out of wedlock. Anyways this girl is like a mixture of Maggie and of her own self. This one to most seemed like a rush job but I love it nonetheless. Nora was doing a different thing for it. Shannon, unlike her other sisters, didn't want to stay in County Clare, Ireland she loved it back home even though while she is in Ireland she has been painting much more than what she did back home in New York. Shannon is such a good mix for the Concannon family and it's also just a really good book. Much like the other two. I once again give a Nora Roberts book five stars for an excellent writing and character development and just being awesome with this book.If you want to take a look at this review or my other reviews along with commenting on them please go to my book blog: http://baronessbooktrove.blogspot.com/
—Karen (BaronessBookTrove)
