Customer Reviews

Nora's Soul

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I've just finished reading Margay Justice's novel, Nora's Soul. The front page says "Watch for future volumes by Margay Leah Justice from Beckoning Books," and I will certainly be watching.

Nora's Soul is a fascinating, genre-bending novel. Maybe it's a romance, or is it paranormal, spiritual, mysterious? Or maybe it's just one of those stories where the whole is rather more than the sum of its parts.

Nora's heart is either broken or missing at the start of the novel. She's almost engaged, but things go radically wrong, and what might have been was never meant to be. But she has a past, as does her best friend's brother. And she has a soul.

The various pasts place barriers between Nora and her new employer, keeping their hearts at odds even as Nora grows more attached to his children. And the souls, Nora's and perhaps her employer's too, hang in the balance with the hearts.

It's never clear whether angels also have souls, but they certainly seem to have wills and a heart for good or ill. But good and evil aren't just lists of "thou shalt"s and "thou shalt not"s. And the soul isn't some separate icon but an integral part of the body (and heart and history) and its choices.

Halfway through the book I knew what the ending should be, but I couldn't see the path. The author had me willingly following a trail through past and present problems to a happy resolution. So yes, Nora's Soul is a romance. But it's fascinatingly different and surprisingly thought-provoking, and it's got a brilliant cover and first line--"Angels don't exist." Or perhaps they do.

Nora no longer believes in angels, but angels believe in her -- two angels one dark and one light will battle for Nora's soul and should Nora succumb to the gorgeous dark angel Dante, Nora's will not be the only soul lost.

I loved the cover and while the presence of angels in the story does give Nora's Soul a supernatural element, I don't know that I would really call Nora's Soul a paranormal romance, even though it is tagged as such. Even so, I enjoyed Nora's Soul. I thought that author Justice did a good job of connecting us with her damaged leads Nora and Kyle. In addition to the loss of her brother as a teen which resulted in Nora's break with her faith, Nora and Kyle's lives were both altered as the result of 'one night stands' and both still bear the scars of those encounters. Dark angel Dante remains more of a mystery and since Nora's persuit by Dante never has the same intensity as Nora's interactions with Kyle, there never is any doubt as to who Nora will choose. The only doubt is whether Nora and Kyle will overcome their individual pain and take a chance on love, even as they are unable to resist their mutual attraction. While the angels didn't really play a part in the romance, the interactions between Nora and the light angel Peter give this book an element of spiritual healing that ultimately makes this a 'feel good' read.

Nora's Soul is supposedly the first in a series of books which follow Dante and Peter, as Peter works to bring Dante back to the light.