Thank you, St. Martin's Press and NetGalley, for an eARC of this title in exchange for an honest review! All opinions are my own.

I absolutely LOVED the first book in The Lost Brides series, Inheritance. It was perfectly haunting and I enjoyed the characters and the writing so much. I wish I could say the same for The Mirror.

It starts right where the cliffhanger from the first book left off, thank goodness! And the book is aptly named as the mirror is a very prominent part of the story. Sonya, Cleo, Trey, and Owen are the four prominent characters of the story. And of course I can't forget our cast of four-footed friends either! (I seriously love when writers introduce animals to the story and then keep them around!) As the characters learn more about each of the lost brides and their tragic fates, Sonya is more determined than ever to face the evil haunting her home. But can she break this curse and find her own happily ever after?

This wasn't a bad book by any means, but I definitely did not like this one as much. The writing was okay, but it was more so that the pacing dragged. You know those great stories, the ones that make you wish you could actually live with the characters day in and day out. Well, your wish is granted in this book and lets just say actually reading about the day in and day out life of a character is not the best experience. It became nearly monotonous, even with ghosts popping in and out sporadically. In the first book, it was much more suspenseful because the reader didn't know when a ghostly encounter would happen. In this one it was guaranteed some type of spirit would show itself in pretty much every chapter.

It's hard not to compare the first and second book, but I'm having a hard time reconciling that these were written by the same author. It just felt so different.

Some things I did love- getting to know the side characters more. They were definitely fleshed out a lot more, but that's to be expected after living with them for a month. I loved seeing the lost bride's stories as well. We learn so much of this family's tragic past and a lot of secrets come to light in this installment. I also loved how confident the main FMC becomes in this book. She's owning her haunted mansion, her business, and her love story. Does Sonya still have doubts and fears? Absolutely, and I appreciated seeing her show those vulnerabilities and still kick ass!

I will continue the series as I am pretty invested and I want to know what happens! I'm just hoping for some better pacing, and also some better dialogue. (A lot of it was clunky or just too much.)

I picked this book up not knowing that it is the second installment of a trilogy. It might have been good to read ‘The Inheritance’ first but I gave it a shot. So, it sounds like the first book was all about how Sonya McTavish inherited this gorgeous seaside mansion in Maine, The Lost Bride Manor. Now she has moved there with her best friend, Cleo. They both love the house even though it is haunted by generations of ancestors, mostly friendly ghosts but also one very bad resident witch who has murdered 7 brides in the house and stole their wedding bands. It is now up to Sonya to find the rings and break the curse while the bad witch is doing everything to chase Sonya and Cleo out of the house. Can Sonya solve the mystery of the Mirror that keeps showing up in different locations and allows her glimpses into her ancestors’ past?
Part horror, part rom-com, this book is a charming and paranormal novel about family, friendship, loyalty and love. The characters and their pets are so lovable, even the ghosts with the exception of one, of course. The atmosphere of the house is described so well, and I enjoyed the sense of companionship and village community. A captivating and entertaining read with strong female characters, I didn’t want it to end and am eagerly awaiting the next installment to get closure for the family. I’m suspecting it will be an explosive ending.
Thank you Netgalley, St Martin’s Press and Miss Nora Roberts for the opportunity to read this advance copy. I am honored and thoroughly enjoyed it. The above is my honest review and own opinion.

This is book #2 in The Lost Bride Trilogy. I admit, I had forgotten a lot of the details from the first book, so I felt a little adrift at first. I really wished that the author had included a recap at the beginning of the book to help bring people like me up to speed. Alas, there was no recap, so I was forced to rely on what memory I had of the previous book. Fortunately, the author did include references throughout the entire book, referring to things that had previously occurred and that helped to jog my memory. I think that is the only reason I didn't enjoy this book as much as I did the previous book. I still enjoyed the concept of the main character moving into a house haunted by a ghost who killed all of the brides in her family and took their wedding rings. I liked Sonya, the main character, and her best friend and roommate Cleo. I thought some of the dialogue was clunky, but that is like the dialogue in all of this author's books. I am looking forward to seeing how this trilogy concludes - will they be able to banish Hester Dobbs? Also, will Sonya & Cleo both have happy endings with the men they are falling for, once the ghost is banished for good? We shall see.....

This was as entertaining as Inheritance, the first book in the series. The cliffhanger is quickly resolved, and the story moves on as Sonya lays claim to her home with the help of her best friend, Cleo, her boyfriend, Trey, and her cousin, Owen. I would highly recommend reading Inheritance before diving into this one, especially if you love a good ghost story.

This is well-written. The characters are interesting and have relationships that we all long for. The dialog is witty, and the villain is just plain evil.

I really enjoyed it, and I can't wait to see how this trilogy ends next year.

Not family friendly due to profanity, violence, and sex.

📖+ 🎧: 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 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!!

My thanks for the ARC goes to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press. I'm voluntarily leaving a 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.

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!

Nora Roberts has done it again with The Mirror, delivering a masterful blend of suspense, romance, and the supernatural. If you're a fan of Roberts’ work, The Mirror will not disappoint. It’s a story that blends intrigue with a touch of the uncanny, and as always, Roberts delivers a satisfying mix of suspense, heart, and hope. And I NEED the next book! EEP

Thanks to Netgalley, I received an ARC of this book but the opinion expressed here reflects my own views.

I love Nora Roberts. The first book in this trilogy was good; it set up the story and the relationships well. The sequel did what good sequels do- it depends the readers' relationships with the characters and their friends and family, and made us more invested in their fate.

But like all trilogies, the second part ends at a low point. This is when Luke has learned the truth and Han seemed all but lost after that romantic confession and the iconic response. In this case, we are surrounded by the tragedy of the past with no real clue as to how to defeat it. But defeat it we must.

So much to love, and a truly evil villain who is easy to hate. A fun, fast, and easy read, with rich details that make the story come alive in your mind. I'm already excited about part 3.

This is another stunning book in the Lost Brides Trilogy, but I will say I am ready for the third book now. I enjoyed this book, but I feel like there were areas that dragged a little bit because the third book is going to be epic. I cannot wait to see how everything wraps up and how Sonya is going to finally break the family curse. I hate that I must wait another year to find out what happens. I know it will be worth it. I know readers are already anticipating this second book and I am so excited to get it in their hands soon.
Thank you to St. Martin’s Press and Netgalley for allowing me to read an advance copy of this title.

Nora Roberts is forever one of my favorite authors. She writes great characters and does such a great job of exploring different family dynamics. She also does a great job of setting a scene - enough description to make you see it but not so much that there isn’t room for your imagination. Which is why it pains me to say I didn’t love this book. I liked it - I like the story, I like the concept behind it, and I love the characters. But it felt like a middle of a trilogy book. Like it was meant to fill space until we got to the good parts. The pacing was brutally slow and the repetition of events made it feel even slower. For being over 400 pages, we didn’t learn much more than we already knew from book one. With some good editing, this feels like a series that would have been excellent as a duology but suffers as a trilogy. That being said, I am very much looking forward to the third book to see how everything comes together in the end! And I’m always excited for anything Nora writes so I look forward to whatever comes next!

This book picks up where the last one ended. Now I really enjoyed the first one. This one I was not so in love with. It took me forever to figure out what was going on.
The story for me seemed to drag on and on. Perhaps they would be better enjoyed read back to back

I am a glutton for punishment. I was curious if book #2 would be better than book #1 and I am sorry to say not even a little. This is filler. This was not necessary. I think Roberts could have done a duology and been done with it because nothing about this series is remotely exciting. I love romantic paranormal suspense when done the right way, but from the beginning this series had lackluster leads and a random woman popping up to murder brides.

"The Mirror" is the second book in the Lost Bride Trilogy that follows Sonya as she travels back to the past to see a bride murdered. Recommend that readers read book #1, otherwise you are going to be lost. Sonya is not the only one who can go through the mirror, her cousin Owen can too and they go back in time to witness the wedding receptions which left the brides dead.

Sonya's main goal is to just figure out how to rid her home of the ghost and avenge the brides who were murdered, but honestly most of the book is about super mundane stuff. I do think that the problem in this book and like in many of her others is that she's stopped developing characters in order to describe shit we don't care about. It's bleeding over into her JD Robb works too. I get she loves renovating and talking about colors, and whatever it is, but I do not freaking care. Just like book #1, there's zero chemistry at all between Sonya and her love interest, Trey. They suck. So does Chloe and Owen.

I honestly at times thought about some of Roberts earlier works and it felt like this was an old old draft she polished off because it just does not work at all. I was over the men being protective. Sonya being stubborn, the jumping back and forth showing us Hester Dobs, and even more backstories on the murdered brides.

The Mirror
by Nora Roberts
Pub Date: Nov 19 2024

The Mirror is the second book in The Lost Bride Trilogy series. Although I did not realize this when I started the book, I didn't have any issues once I started it. I must admit I did take a peak at the description of the first book, "The Inheritance". I highly recommend doing this if you haven't read that book.

The main character, Sonya has lived in a haunted house with her friend for a year. If you like reading about haunted houses and ghosts you will absolutely love this suspenseful story!

Many thanks to #NetGalley #TheMirror and #StMartinsPress for providing with an E-ARC of this 5 star Ghost story!

This picks up exactly where The Inheritance left off, but enough background is entwined by the end of chapter three to dive into the story. Roberts has developed a seven-generations-deep family history revealed through a mirror. Sonya, Trey, Owen and Cleo continue their quest to oust the evil Hester, whose more than 200-year-old curse has taken the lives and wedding rings of seven Poole brides. The Manor’s helpful ghosts are fun: Molly picking out clothes, Jack playing with the dog and especially Clover, whose musical commentary had me humming or listening. I also enjoyed the strong friendships, evolving relationships, and loyal pets but I’m not a fan of cliffhangers. Any book by Nora Roberts guarantees high demand. Recommended.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for an eARC. All opinions expressed are my own.

I did not want to put this down, but life got in the way, and I also wanted to read it slowly to make it take longer because I know I will have to wait another year for the next story in this trilogy. Sonya, Cleo, Trey and Owen have to battle almost nightly with the evil presence in the house. The others are very kind and helpful, so they don't mind them "haunting" the manor. Sonya is pulled into the mirror several times and gets more of the story of the brides, but it doesn't help them figure out how to stop Dobbs. All they can do is bring love and light into the house to spite Dobbs. Will they ever find the key to stop her?

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.

Sonya and Cleo are really settling into life at the manor. They are used to the 3 a.m. awakening when pianos play, ghosts are crying and sometimes Hester Dobbs tries to scare them away. The book starts off where book #1 left off. I did go back and read the last two chapters to get myself back in the mood. I love the friendship of Cleo and Sonya and the routines that they have established and the budding romance Sonya has with Trey and his friendship with Owen. Heck, even the animals are adorable and some of the manor ghosts. Molly always cleans up and picks out outfits for the girls to wear and Jack plays ball with the animals. The best is Clover. She would be Sonya's grandmother and she communicates by sending music to their devices.

While the book held my interest all the way to the end, which wasn't as cliff hangerish as book 1, it was long at 448 pages. I think a lot of the day to day could have been left out. I didn't need to know what they were eating or what Cleo was cooking. It didn't take away from the story I felt because it was just an extra page here and there but I got to the point at the end where I didn't care about the gardening. I wanted to know what Hester Dobbs was up to. I also could have done without any interaction with her ex-fiancé.

I am interested in the third book. I just wish I didn't have to wait another year!

Thank you to Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for providing me with a digital copy.

OMG I need the next book in this series now!!!!!!!!!!! I need to read Sonya banish Hester Dobbs once and for all. To say I love this series so far is an understatement. I am obsessed with it and I need more!!!!