I was walking the lakefront with Denise last weekend - one of those perfect Chicago spring evenings where the wind off the lake isn't trying to kill you for once - when I realized I'd been smiling for about twenty minutes straight. Not at anything in particular. Just at Nora Roberts doing what Nora Roberts does best.
Look, I'll be honest. I don't typically review romance novels for the podcast. My 47 listeners expect Faulkner and Hemingway, not witches on a New England island falling for the local sheriff. But here's the thing about Roberts that I find myself explaining to my AP Lit students when they turn up their noses at "genre fiction": the woman understands narrative structure better than half the literary darlings we're forced to teach. Dance Upon the Air is exhibit A.
The Disney Princess Problem
Let's address the elephant in the room. Sandra Burr narrates this, and she's got what I can only describe as a 1960s Disney princess quality to her voice. Soft. Clear. A little ethereal. For the descriptive passages - and Roberts writes gorgeous descriptive passages - it works beautifully. The pacing between dialogue is solid. When she's setting scenes on Three Sisters Island, painting the cafe and the cliffs and the small-town rhythms, Burr is in her element.
But.
Nell Channing is a woman who fled an abusive husband. She's supposed to be steel wrapped in silk. That survival-through-trauma arc reminded me of I'm Still Standing, though that narrator captured the fierce part better. She's supposed to be terrified but surviving, fragile but fierce. And Burr's soft delivery... doesn't quite land that. The character voices in general felt a bit off to me - the New England accents weren't convincing (and I say this as someone from the Midwest, so take my accent criticism with appropriate salt). During the dialogue-heavy sections, I found myself occasionally drifting. Not enough to stop, but enough to notice.
The narration isn't bad. It's just not quite right for this particular heroine. It's like casting Julie Andrews to play someone who should probably be played by Michelle Pfeiffer. Both talented. Different energies.
Where Roberts Earns Her Crown
Here's what kept me walking an extra mile around the lakefront: Roberts knows how to build a world you want to live in. Three Sisters Island feels real. The bookstore cafe where Nell works, the slow-building romance with Sheriff Zack Todd, the friendships between the three women at the heart of this trilogy - it's comfort food for the soul.
And the witchcraft element? I wasn't expecting to care about it as much as I did. Roberts threads the 1692 curse into the contemporary story without it feeling gimmicky. The parallel between Nell escaping her abusive past and breaking a centuries-old curse isn't subtle, but it doesn't need to be. Sometimes metaphors work best when they're bold.
This is the kind of book my students would roll their eyes at. "It's just a romance, Mr. Williams." And I'd tell them what I'm telling you now: the "just" is doing a lot of heavy lifting in that sentence. Roberts has sold more books than most literary authors will ever dream of, and there's a reason. Big Little Lies does the same thing—genre fiction that understands character better than half the stuff on my syllabus. She understands that character-driven storytelling is the foundation of all good fiction. (Don't tell my students I said that about a book with witches and a hot sheriff. They'll never let me live it down.)
Perfect For Grading Season
I listened to most of this during late-night grading sessions. Papers on The Great Gatsby stacked high, red pen in hand, Sandra Burr's soft voice in my ears. It was... nice. Genuinely nice. The production quality is clean, no weird audio issues. At just under ten hours, it's a perfect length for a week of commutes or a couple of long walks.
Would I recommend it? Yes - with caveats. If you're a Roberts fan, you probably already own this. If you're sensitive to narrator voice choices, maybe sample first. The character voice issue might bother you more than it bothered me. Skip this if you need gritty realism or can't handle supernatural elements in your romance. But if you're looking for something heartwarming with a little supernatural edge, something that doesn't require you to take notes or parse difficult prose, this delivers.
Mr. Williams's Final Grade
Denise asked me what I was listening to when I came home grinning that evening. I told her it was research. She didn't believe me. She knows me too well.
The truth is, sometimes you need a break from Middlemarch. Sometimes you need an island, a curse, and a woman learning to trust again. Roberts understands that. Even if the narration isn't perfect, the story underneath is exactly what it needs to be.
