The end of the world as we know it starts with the death of a pheasant. Ross MacLeod and his family enjoy their annual holiday trip to Scotland, not realizing that the hunting death of the pheasant is about to trigger a cataclysmic plague that will destroy most of the earth's inhabitants. The infrastructure of the world is in chaos as the basic systems are failing and various groups of people are banding together to survive. In this new void, magic is emerging. Who will live and who will survive as the plague, called Doom, overtakes the world?

Wow! Nora Roberts has long been a favorite author of mine (particularly under her J.D. Robb pseudonym) but YEAR ONE just blows me away! Divided into four parts, YEAR ONE takes readers through the first days of the plague in Doom as we begin to see who our main characters will be in this nightmarish and all too realistic scenario. The next three sections, Escape, Survival, and Dark to Light, take readers on a journey where magic is beginning to divide the remaining population into segments of good and evil.

The first section, Doom, may be one of the best written apocalyptic scenarios I have ever read. The circumstances Nora Roberts describes are are frightening in their intensity, even more so because of how plausible the scenario is. It's rare that a book haunts me for so long, but YEAR ONE is the kind of story that stays with you well past the last page being turned.

I don't want to give away any spoilers by focusing too much on any particular characters, but Nora Roberts ensures that the reader is drawn into the various lives of the characters. We love, we cheer, and yes, we fear for the very survival of the various characters Nora Roberts introduces to us. My favorite character to this point in the trilogy is Arlys Reid for her steadfast determination to provide the public with news and information in a suddenly scary and everchanging world.

Nora Roberts is best known for her romances and her J. D. Robb police procedurals, but YEAR ONE is a startling and intriguing new direction for her writing. Nora Roberts has taken my emotions and wrenched them in so many different directions- and this is only after the first book in the trilogy! I can't wait to see where Nora Roberts takes us in this new and fascinating world. Without a doubt, YEAR ONE is the best book I've read this year (and I've read a lot of books). If you read just one book this year, make it YEAR ONE.