I enjoyed the first book in this series, this second book wasn’t not what I expected. I wanted to love it as much as the first one but I did not. The story dragged on for more than it needed to. The storyline stayed the same with no progression. I would have loved to see more growth and progression within the characters

I used to LOVE Nora Roberts books so I was so excited to get back to one of her books. However, this one was too much of a ghost story for me, and I never really got into it. Part of it was the pacing - Sonya and Cleo did a lot of housekeeping and other mundane tasks while the ghosts rattled around in the house. This seemed repetitive, and didn't move the plot forward. I wanted more action - investigation, continuation of the prior installment, and more romance. Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the advance copy of this book.

Excellent story and characters, both living and dead. The location is another character in this second book of the Lost Brides trilogy. Relationships continue to be defined as they grow. Narrator really brings this audiobook to life. Looking forward to book three.

I very much enjoyed this audiobook. I was so hooked from the beginning .

I do recommend this very much

Narrated by Brittany Pressley
14 hours, 24 minutes

Note: This review contains light spoilers for 'Inheritance' (The Lost Bride Trilogy, Book 1). Also, I do not recommend reading 'The Mirror' as a standalone; I highly recommend reading Book 1 first.

In 'Inheritance', Sonya MacTavish inherits a haunted Victorian mansion on the coast of Maine. The house is home to the ghosts of brides who were murdered by the deranged Hester Dobbs—an unhinged woman who, after a one-night affair, hoped to become the mistress of the manor but instead watched as the man she obsessed over married another woman. Dobbs murders the bride, steals her wedding ring, creates a curse, and then commits suicide, continuing to haunt the manor over a century later, vowing to destroy any Poole bride who lives there. In Sonya's dreams, she glimpses the tragic past and is drawn to an antique mirror, sensing it holds dark family secrets. But the mirror is no mere dream—it’s real—and Sonya is eventually pulled through it into another world.

'The Mirror' picks up immediately after the cliffhanger ending of 'Inheritance' when Sonya and Owen step through the glass, and the story takes off from there. Nora Roberts excels at world-building and character development, and the heart of this book lies in the rich, descriptive, everyday interactions between its main characters. Trey and Owen, in particular, are a joy to read, especially in their evolving relationships with Sonya and her best friend, Cleo.

Sonya and Cleo continue to make the manor their own, while Sonya’s dreams become even more vivid, showing her the deaths of the manor’s brides, their wedding rings ripped from their fingers by the vengeful Dobbs. Alongside Trey, Cleo, and Owen, Sonya strives to build her new life while trying to figure out how to break Dobbs’ centuries-old curse.

Brittany Pressley delivers a fantastic narration. She brings clear distinction to each character’s voice and offers a performance that adds depth to the story. Pressley’s narration was the highlight for me, especially since the second book in the trilogy feels more like a bridge—filling in gaps left by Inheritance while setting the stage for the finale in book 3.

That said, I still have lingering questions. Why don’t the characters question the origins of the mirror or attempt to understand how it works? Is the manor sentient somehow, or do the resident ghosts have their own magic and place the mirror for Sonya to find? Are the portraits of the dead brides arranged by Colin, the manor, or some other ghostly presence? Unfortunately, these questions remain unanswered.

While I enjoy the characters, the plot in 'The Mirror' often feels like it’s treading water—focusing more on daily activities like working, cooking, planning a big party at the manor, and the occasional ghost sighting, than on progress toward breaking the curse. It’s frustrating that there’s little forward momentum—there’s still no sign of even one of the lost wedding rings. In many ways, 'The Mirror' feels more like filler in a trilogy sandwich than a story in its own right.

That said, I’m looking forward to reading book 3 and seeing how Sonya and crew finally defeat Dobbs once and for all.

Sci Fi & Fantasy | Romance

The Mirror by Nora Roberts is the second book in her Lost Bride series. The story is well written and very enjoyable. The characters are fantastic! Definitely recommend.

***I received a copy of this book in audiobook format from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review***

**There are trigger warnings. This book talks about death and describes it but is not heavily detailed. It mentions the loss of a child during pregnancy (not miscarriage), it mentions death during childbirth, suicide, and murder. This is a "closed door" style book. Nothing is mentioned, sex is implied but not discussed or described in detail**

*This book ends on a cliffhanger*

Sonja McTavish has inherited a big beautiful mansion on the Maine coast. It comes furnished, has a beautiful view, and has more ghosts than one person can manage. With her best friend Cleo, their pets, and the boys, Owen and Trev, they navigate everything the mansion throws at them. Sonja is a conduit. She sees the past when the ghosts want her to. A mirror appears, and she walks through it. Her cousin, Owen, helps her understand some of the family history, and Cleo and Trev are there for support and comfort. Through this book, we meet more of Sonja's Poole family and get deeper into the mysteries of the family. Truths are revealed as more puzzle pieces fall into place. Dobbs gets braver with her attempts to disrupt the peaceful balance Sonja has worked so hard to create.

The way the details were described made it easy to feel like I was there in the story. It had humor that felt natural, conversations flowed naturally, and the love interests were not over the top. This was an easy read (listen), and it kept me thinking about it when I had to do other things and couldn't listen. I couldn't wait to get back to the story. I was drawn in from the start.

This is the second book in the series. I didn't know that as I received this book as an ARC. My review is based only on the second book. I didn't feel lost, and the book summarized a bit of what happened in the first, making it easy to understand the basics of the back story (aka, book 1).

📖+ 🎧: The Mirror-The Lost Bride Trilogy Book #2

✍️ By: Nora Roberts- I read Inheritance and gave it 5 ⭐

🙏🏾: Thanks to NetGalley, St. Martin's Press, Macmillan Audio and Nora Roberts for this ARC & ALC🪞! I voluntarily give my honest review, and all opinions expressed are mine alone.

🗣️ Narrator: Brittany Pressley voices all the characters. The narrator's voice fit the characters with standouts from Sonya, Cleo, and Owen. The reading style brought the text to life, and the author and narrator worked together perfectly. The pacing and flow allowed me to get lost in the story. The narrator paused and announced new chapters and there was a table of contents which helped me follow along.

🏃🏾‍♀️Run Time: 13:48

🗓️ Publication Date: 11-19- 24 | Read: 11-14 -24

📃Page Count: 448 eBook

Genre: Time Travel, Fantasy, Mystery/Suspense, Paranormal Romance

Tropes: ghosts, gothic mansion, magic, inheritance

🌏Setting: Maine

⚠️ TW: murder, suicide-just mentioned, grief

☝🏾POV: 3rd person, single

💭 Summary: Sonya MacTavish has settled into Lost Bride Manor with her BFF Cleo and its ghosts. Trey, Owen, and the furry children join in when Sonya has dreams and is forced into the time travelling mirror to see all the brides. Sonya and Cleo make a huge effort to become a part of the community by networking and throwing a party at the mansion. Sonya flashbacks to see all the brides right before their deaths to gather clues on how to defeat the evil witch Dobbs.

🚺Heroine: Sonya "Son" MacTavish-a freelancer, created her own graphic design company- Visual Art. Inherited a haunted mansion from her uncle Collin with glimpses of the past, portraits of the 7 brides, and visions within an antique mirror


🎭 Side Cast

✓Cleopatra "Cleo" Fabares-Sonya's BFF, lives w/her- an artist/illustrator

✓ Trey Doyle-Sonya's boyfriend, a lawyer

✓Owen Poole-Sonya's cousin, a craftsman

✓Hester Dobbs-the 200-year-old witch who cursed all the Poole brides. She murdered them, and took their wedding rings

✓Deuce-Trey's father, was BFF with Collin

✓Collin Poole-Sonya's deceased uncle and her father's twin brother

✓ Brandon Wise-Sonya's ex-boyfriend who cheated on her. Works at Sonya's old job Ryder Sports

✓Pye, Mookie, Yoda, Jones -the furry family

🤔 My Thoughts: This a great follow up that expanded the Lost Bride Manor's world. Clover, Molly, and Jack were welcomed additions who helped Sonya. I loved Patricia Poole with her ambition, Gretta, her daughter who raised Collin, and Collin the rebel. Can't wait for the final showdown between Sonya and Dobbs!

🌶️: Spice 3/5-open door 1 scene
🎧: Narration 5/5
😭: Emotion 4/5
❤️: Couple 4/5
⭐️: Rating 5/5

The Mirror, book 2 of The Lost Brides Trilogy, by Nora Roberts.

This is my first Nora Robert's series and I am absolutely loving it. It picks up right where the first book leaves off, letting us travel into the mirror while awake for the first time. We start learn some of the rules regarding the curse and travel through the mirror. Additionally, the ties bonding Sonya, Cleo, Trey and Owen are strengthened.
While I read book 1, I listened to the audio version of book 2. The narrator was fantastic. It took me the typical amount of time to adjust to her voice and speech patterns as it has other audio books. Her words were clear and character voices were distinct. It was very enjoyable and an easy transition after reading the first book.

#bookreview #2024 #paranormal #curse #romance #netgalley #hauntedhouse #witches

The Mirror is a novel about a manor that has been in the Poole family for centuries. The misfortune that has happened to those women who have married there is their untimely deaths. Well, for some of them and it played out differently for a few others.

Here you will meet Sonya who is a Poole. Her father is Charles Poole although he had been adopted and later found out who he was and then so did Sonya. Charles has passed away but Sonya has met her Uncle Collin and his son, her cousin Owen.

Now,at this point no one wanted to live in the manor and or could bare to believe what was happening in the manor to be true. Sonya and her best friend lived there and had learned to deal with the ghosts that were there! Yes, that's what I said GHOSTS!
The one particular ghost that Sonya had to figure out how to handle was Hester Dobbs. Long ago she cast a spell that she would be the maiden of the manor. She had to get rid of the brides in order to be the maiden and so she has done just that. She has seven rings and will collect more if she has too.
You will have so much fun in this book with Sonya's best friend Cleo. She is a hoot and a half. She is an artist and a true best friend.
Trey is another person in Sonyas' life that is very special, he is her special someone that she is very much in love with. Owen is her favorite cousin and he is someone who stands beside her and goes through things with her along with the other two people in her life. What I mean by that is The Mirror is exactly that a mirror that Sonya can see and sometimes the others can see as well. When Sonya sees it sometimes it is in the middle of the day sometimes in the middle of the night. Sonya would feel a pull toward the mirror and get called through it and she had to go and on occasion others would go with her. She would see what had happened to the brides and how they died and experience it as well.

Nora Roberts has a way of bring the words to life on the page. What an incredible story and what an imagination Nora Roberts has. An incredible whimsical,imaginary story!

Highly recommend this book!

Happy Reading!!

The Mirror is book two in The Lost Bride Trilogy. I do feel like it could be read even if you haven't read the first one, as there is a lot of repeat information from the previous book. I still recommend reading them in order, since it picks up right where Inheritance left us. It was a good follow up, but it did lack a little of the suspense we had from the first book. I felt a lot of information was repeated, a lot of things we already knew. We got a lot of the day to day lives of the characters, where I was expecting more ghosts, more creepiness and more suspense.

It was fun to get more flashbacks into the previous brides lives, the curse and the manor. I liked knowing their backstory and what truly happened to them. The aspect of the mirror and how Sonya was using it to see the moments of their deaths and get more insight into the truth.

Although I did want and expect more suspense I still applaud Roberts for the originality aspect of this novel. It remains an interesting read which I'm highly anticipating will end with a bang. They're definitely worth a read!

🎧 The narration by Brittany Presly is amazing. She truly brought the book and characters to life. She gives each of them a distinct voice and personality. It's a great audio production.

✨️Thank you to @netgalley, @macmillanaudio & Nora Roberts for my gifted ARC & ALC in exchange for an honest review.

My thanks for the audio ARC goes to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio. I'm voluntarily leaving a review.

Genre: Romance, Fantasy, Paranormal Fantasy, Paranormal Romance, Romantic Suspense
Language: F-bombs and more
Representation: Multiple races


THE MIRROR is the sequel to INHERITANCE, and now, we're waiting for the third. It's got a paranormal, creepy vibe combined with a modern romance book. It's also got a time-travel vibe.

Brittany Pressley did a fantastic job reading the book—I love listening to distinct voices.

Sonya MacTavish continues in the manor house (haunted, obviously) and learns a bit more about the brides. I enjoy her friendship with Cleo as well as the other characters—they really are heartwarming, and we get to know them better in this book. The pacing is a touch slow, but if you've read INHERITANCE, you can't miss this book. And the ending is going to leave you hungry for the next in the trilogy.

Happy (ghostly) reading!

The Mirror is the second book of The Lost Bride Trilogy by Nora Roberts. I listened to book one, Inheritance, and then listened to The Mirror. Brittany Pressley does an amazing job with the fun, suspenseful, and tragic moments. If you loved the first book, then The Mirror will not disappoint. I will be setting an alert for book three.

Hearing Nora Roberts in the forward talk about inspiration coming from childhood trips to The Greenbrier, this West Virginian immediately had to clock in for this series.

“When Sonya MacTavish inherits the huge Victorian mansion on the coast of Maine, she has no idea that the house is haunted. The footsteps she hears at night, the doors slamming, the music playing, are not figments of her imagination. In her dreams she sees glimpses of the past. In the present she finds portraits of brides. And when she has visions of an antique mirror, she is drawn to it, sensing it holds dark family secrets.

Then one night the mirror appears and Sonya glides through this looking glass, into the past—and sees a bride murdered on her wedding day, the circle of gold torn from her finger. It is a scene that will play out again and again—a centuries-old curse that must be broken—and a puzzle she must solve if there is any hope of breaking the curse.”

This is my first Nora Robert’s book, which I didn’t realize was a second book to a series. While I enjoyed the book it was a little slow for me, and at times I was confused (probably because I didn’t read the first book). But it was wonderfully written. I enjoyed getting to know Sonya and Trey, Chloe and Owen… I wanted to know so much more about the brides and the murders. I will more than likely read the first book and then read this one again and update my review. I did give the book 3 stars and did truly enjoy it. The audio narrator did an amazing job and she captivated me! She was a perfect match for this book.

The Mirror is the second book in The Lost Bride Trilogy by Nora Roberts, and is immediately continued from the first book. This book shows the deepening relationships between the main characters and brings in even more of their families and community. The supernatural elements also develop more with just the right amount of creepy scariness, which is very well balanced with the positive romantic elements as well as other positive life developments. The story does reveal more about the brides and the curse—and I really enjoyed how Sonya's former fiancé was dealt with too. The narration was well done and added to my enjoyment of the book. I am eagerly awaiting the third book.
I recommend the first book, Inheritance, be read first, but definitely do not miss reading The Mirror.
Much thanks to Macmillan Audio and NetGalley for the chance to listen to this early.

This story continues the mystery of the haunted mansion inherited by Sonya, along with all the ghosts and curses that go along with it. Sonya discovers a mirror in the mansion that is a portal. Her and her friends discover new information about the curse and begin a quest to stop the evil witch from continuing to kill the family’s female descendants when they marry each generation. Can they change the fate of her family, bring peace to her ghostly ancestors, and begin a new peaceful era in the mansion? They’ll certainly try! This story again, was a continuation of a good premise, but I felt it fell short again on action and events, and mostly focused on conversations. For this reason, I could not rate it as high as I anticipated.

Title: The Mirror
Author: Nora Roberts
Page Count: 448
Time Length: 13H 48M
Dates Read: 11/12-11/13
Format: Audiobook
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Summary: Sonya falls for the manor and the man. As she learns more about her family she learns what she must do to break the curse.

Review: Slow paced book with less action than the first. Still really liked the main characters and enjoyed the book over all. I can not wait for the final book in the series.

This is the second book in the trilogy and was still a strong entry. We find ourselves back in Maine where Sonya is still trying to break the family curse and free her family home from a malevolent spirit. She's not alone in the battle. She has her best friend, Cleo and a house full of friendly and helpful spirits. In addition, Sonya and Trey, the local attorney are still pursuing their relationship so he's often at the house along with his friend (and her cousin), Owen.

Much of the book is the same with the exception of a little revenge against Sonya's ex fiance, some new discoveries in the manor about the history of the brides and Hester (the evil spirit) and Sonya's father and his brother. This is definitely a solid "middle book" in that it provides a bridge between book one and book three. I expect that the third book will be a whopper and look forward to it.

AUDIOBOOK REVIEW: I also received an early copy of the audiobook which is always fortunate because I love being able to go back and forth between the written word and audio. It enables me to keep "reading" even when I have other things to do and let's me stay in the story. As before, the narration is solid in this book. 4 1/2 stars

Thank you to NetGalley for these early copies. I voluntarily chose to read and listen to these and review them. The opinions contained within my reviews are my own.

I did not realize this was a series when I requested it. I do think that the series needs to build to fully enjoy the book so my review may be skewed because of that.

I received an ALC (Advanced Listener Copy) of this audiobook from NetGalley & Macmillian Audio.

5⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 🎧

What an incredible story. I am so invested.
Nora gives us all the wonderful makings of a trilogy from the characters to the mystery, you will become invested in and want to know what or how it will all end up.  I am completely enthralled by this story and the brides.

Sonya is one of the most likable characters I have read in a long time.  She isn’t scared of the mansion or the ghosts that inhabit it. She needs to make it safe for them all even if that means she must go into the mirror.

Just that sentence alone scares me, go into the mirror, nope, no thank you.  But not our Sonya she does it because she can’t, not do it.  Cleo, Trey and Owen not only give the book a level up, but they also support Sonya, this makes my heart happy.

That ending!! I don’t know how I am going to make it until the next. I need it like NOW! I thought the wait from one to two was hard. This is going to be pure torture.

I said it before, and I will say it again: Brittany Pressley nailed the performance. She gave us all the emotions. The voice of each character just added depth and layers to an already outstanding story. It's a must-listen.