Review On: Born in Shame by Nora Roberts
Series: Born in Trilogy (Book 3)
Rating: 3/5
After Born in Fire and Born in Ice, we finally have Born in Shame, the final book in the Born In trilogy. In Born in Shame we meet Shannon Bodine, Maggie and Brie’s long-lost half-sister, whose mother Amanda Dougherty had a short-term affair with their father Tom, about 25 years before the books started. In Born in Fire, Maggie is present when her father dies, and hears him utter the name of a stranger before he passes on. In Born in Ice, Brie discovers some love-letters in her attic, finds out her father had an affair, and they (with Maggie) decide to find their lost brother/sister.
At the start of the story, Amanda Dougherty-Bodine is dying, but decides to finally tell her daughter the truth about who her real father is, and the message of love her step-father wanted to share with her even when she wasn’t his real daughter. Shannon Bodine is distraught over this confession but has no time to think it over as her mother dies soon after telling her. Suddenly, Shannon meets a lawyer sent by Maggie and Brie, who are looking for her mother. When they find out that Amanda has passed away, Brianna invites Shannon to come to Ireland to meet them and the Ireland where her mother had fallen in love.
Shannon, though initially reluctant to go to Ireland, least of all to meet her half-sisters, decides to take a leave of absence from her work in New York and goes to Ireland. She builds a wall around herself when she meets her half-sisters, and finds herself immediately in conflict with Maggie whom she discovers has a personality much like hers. She also meets Murphy, the Concannon’s neighbor and childhood friend, who is immediately smitten with her. Upon her arrival to Ireland, Shannon tells herself that she is only satisfying her curiousity and after a few weeks, she will go back to her old life and Ireland won’t mean anything to her. But as the days pass by and she gets to know her sisters, their husbands and children, and the community, Shannon can’t help but find her wall chipping away. Having Murphy come at her doesn’t help Shannon’s defenses either as she finds herself being courted and more unsure of what she thought she had wanted. Not to mention the vivid and somewhat magic-like dreams she keeps getting, which has something to do with Murphy and Ireland. And later, Shannon comes face-to-face with Maeve, her half-sisters’ mother. Though their confrontation is initially a mess, Shannon is later on able to gain some form of respect from Maeve, which also helps her relationship with her own daughters.
But, is Ireland growing on Shannon, enough for her to stay and leave everything behind for the sake of love and family?