Lawson’s review of The Pagan Stone (Sign of Seven, Book 3) by Nora Roberts
Paranormal romance released by Jove 25 Nov 08

Book three of the Sign of Seven trilogy follows Gage and Cybil and also ties up the series about Hawkins Hollow. If you haven’t been reading the series, it’s about three childhood friends who released an evil on their town unknowingly on their 10th birthdays. Every seven years the evil has returned, and this time it’s set to end everything. However, Gage, Cal and Fox have Quinn, Cybil and Layla to help them, as well as paranormal gifts, to end the evil once and for all.

The tone of this story is rather different than the other two. Gage is dealing with his childhood still, which involved his alcoholic and abusive father. He’s restless and can’t stay in one place too long, but he always knows he has to come back to Hawkins Hollow for “the Seven”. As he’s seen his two friends fall in love, he feels he may be up as well, but he knows Cybil doesn’t like having her fate laid out for her any more than he does.

Gage, like Fox and Cal, was given a gift to help fight the evil on that fateful 10th birthday. Cal can see the past, Fox the present and Gage the future. Gage has used it time and again to help him get out of a tight spot or make some money to keep him going when he’s not in Hawkins Hollow. Cybil also has the gift of sight, and the two of them together, when they finally get together, really do work well using their gift as well as the inevitable fall.

Everything the other two books gets tied up here, dealing with the Seven and what that’s going to do to the six people who are fighting it, as well as the destinies of all of them and the glimpse of a good future. Gage and Cybil did seem to have the most to bring to a relationship taking shape, not just their gifts, but their pasts and how that made them the people that they are. The shedding of their fears and giving in to what is meant to be fate could be cliched, but it’s told well enough to work with the story and who the characters are.

Grade: B

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Summary:
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The Pagan Stone had stood for hundreds of years, long before three boys gathered around it to spill their blood in a bond of brotherhood, unwittingly releasing a force bent on destruction …Gage Turner has been running from his past for a long time. The son of an abusive drunk, his childhood in the small town of Hawkins Hollow was tough – his only solace his friendship with Fox O’Dell and Caleb Hawkins. But, aged ten, the boys unleashed evil on their town: every seven years murder and mayhem reign, and each cycle is more extreme than the last.
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Now Gage has returned home to help his friends save Hawkins Hollow, but a lifetime as a loner has made him wary of emotional ties. And who can make plans for the future when their present is so uncertain? For unless they find a way to use the Pagan Stone against the demonic force, everything they know and love will be destroyed …
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Read an excerpt.

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