She's not like other Fey. [The Awakening by Nora Roberts]

In the realm of Talamh, a teenage warrior named Keegan emerges from a lake holding a sword—representing both power and the terrifying responsibility to protect the Fey. In another realm known as Philadelphia, a young woman has just discovered she possesses a treasure of her own…

When Breen Kelly was a girl, her father would tell her stories of magical places. Now she’s an anxious twentysomething mired in student debt and working a job she hates. But one day she stumbles upon a shocking discovery: her mother has been hiding an investment account in her name. It has been funded by her long-lost father—and it’s worth nearly four million dollars.

This newfound fortune would be life-changing for anyone. But little does Breen know that when she uses some of the money to journey to Ireland, it will unlock mysteries she couldn’t have imagined. Here, she will begin to understand why she kept seeing that silver-haired, elusive man, why she imagined his voice in her head saying Come home, Breen Siobhan. It’s time you came home. Why she dreamed of dragons. And where her true destiny lies—through a portal in Galway that takes her to a land of faeries and mermaids, to a man named Keegan, and to the courage in her own heart that will guide her through a powerful, dangerous destiny…

I was really excited to read this book because the cover looked pretty and it was by Nora Roberts, an author whose name I recognize from many a retail drugstore. from many libraries. This being the first of her books I would read, I was excited. Ready to finally understand the hype. "The Awakening." Even the name sounds mystical and adventurous. But wow, do I have gripes with this book and its plot logic. And because I can't explain them all coherently, I'm gonna bullet point some of the more egregious ones that stood out. Suffice it to say, SPOILERS!

• All the token stereotypes! 
• Black gay best friend
• Would she, Breen, our protagonist, be less Irish if she wasn't both redheaded and green-eyed? 
• The accents and the dialogue didn't come off as authentic to me. Or maybe it's that it felt overdone?
• It's like if you wrote down everything you associate with Ireland or Celtic myth and 
• Speaking of Breen, so ungrateful! 
• So she has some issues with her mother because she feels she's been stifled, or controlled all her life. Fine. She finds out that her father, who she felt abandoned specifically her, had sent money for her care. But then she finds out that her mother had kept the money secret. Had she stolen the money for herself? Nope. In fact the account manager was adamant, insisting on how well Breen's mother had invested the money, which has presently grown to about $3 million dollars. We don't know how much of that was sent and how much was interest from fantastic investments.
• Why did her mother invest this money but never tell her? What's the point of that detail? Where was that going?
• Breen's best friend and roommate, who treasures her mother for being supportive when he came out, somehow also sees secret money as the most egregious thing.
• When Breen reconciles with her father's family and learns the truth of her nature and earliest childhood, that she was kidnapped by her father's father - again her father's family, who had intent to do harm, when she learns that, understandably, after this horrific incident, her mother went back to her world, there's never a moment of, wow, I get it. Let me reach out to my mother. Instead we get some ridiculous argument at the end of the book.
• So you learn you have wild powers and potential and that your mother has been minimizing this because, rightly, she's afraid of what that means for you. But you don't have a massive shift in your understanding of her. She's still the villain. 
• When you are the descendant of a god-child it's your parent's prerogative to minimize your potential to save you from yourself.
• Somehow, even though her mother never actually said it, Breen feels her mother made her feel her father left her. 
• Divorced kid having the most severe case of daddy issues a compelling read does not make. Me empathizing with the protagonist does not happen.
• Speaking of villains!
• So her grandmother, Marg, lets it slip that she's only vulnerable in her father's home realm. 
• So grandma was angry with mother about keeping you from her, knowing that where grandma lives is the one spot you can be attacked. Hmm.
• We're also not going to ignore the passive aggressive put-downs of Breen's mother.
• Yes, your granddaughter's mother took her away from where she was in danger. You don't have the right to be angry.
• Token smutful scene was singular and actually quite unnecessary.
• That the Fey expected her to give up her life and make no reconciliations, a clean split, after a couple of weeks is the most ridiculous thing.
• Speaking of the Fey, why do they keep animals?
• We've got witches and weres, gods and mermaids, elves and myriad other creatures. Many Fey bond with animals or can read their minds. Some ride dragons. Why do we have familiars and guard/nanny dogs? The whole set up in Talamh was some weird loosely magical agrarian society that thinks themselves peaceful and equal but are they really? 
• Why is Yule a thing here?
• Why was everyone tripping over themselves to complement Breen her in every other sentence? 
• She's apparently super skilled innately at anything she does.
• I mean, a three book publishing deal falls in her lap her first go-round. Sure Jan.
• We didn't need to have her learning how to fight via ballet. That's the most ridiculous thing I've read in a long time, pirouetting to fight with a sword.

The following were just some other thoughts I wrote down as I had them:

• Breen's mother learned too late that she was never going to be put about her father's family, which is funny because Breen's grandmother insists that her son, Breen's father, chose his wife and child over his duty. 
• Which he could have, but he didn't and somehow the mother still gets the blame for that?
• Why didn't he just step down and live out his life with his family?
• This read gave me A Discovery of Witches vibes, which I don't think I'm likely to finish it because I realize/am realizing that I actually really don't like this faerie fantasy subgenre that seems to be the popular thing now. Dare I say, I abhor it?
• Why was Breen's agent's assistant noted to be a "tiny" Asian who looked 16 years old?
• Umm...
• After her big windfall and her publishing signing bonus, her overworked best friend would work as a her social media manager, but he didn't want to get paid for it? Even though she's offering to pay him? Why would he do that?
• The fey really don't respect boundaries.
• Keegan's trash for stringing Shana along and I hate him for it.
• How are boots "sexily scarred?"
• Yes, I definitely believe that Keegan, who strung along Shana, definitely will never break Breen's heart. Sure.
• He had a two-year situationship with her and didn't resolve it. But let the MC heroine savior come along and he's suddenly determined and knows what he wants. Trash.

NetGalley recently updated (and by updated I mean removed the details of) their suggested scale of star ratings, but I've referenced it enough times to know that 3 stars was a maybe I'd recommend. A lot of times when rating a book I've finished I finalize my rating in the context of other ratings. Does this compare to the books I've rated 1 star? Not really, but it's also not that much better. Would I maybe recommend this book? Also no. I didn't really enjoy it. I was more annoyed than anything. The first in the Dragon Heart Legacy series, I'd continue on with this story if only to learn of the fate of Breen's overly and undeservedly loyal friend, Marco, in Talamh. The first quarter or so of the book, where it was just best friends having their life-laugh-love adventures in one's ancestral homeland, was more fun than what followed. I'm invested in Marco, and that's about it. Everything else seems to be going down a very predictable route. Fated lovers, a conveniently OP main character, the scorned ex-lover with so many romantic prospects who teams up with the big bad for a inexplicably fixated and nonsensical revenge. None of those prospects entice me. So 2 stars from me. 

The Awakening (ISBN:9781250272614) was due out for publication November 24, 2020.