Prolific Nora Roberts just keeps writing and writing …

Helen Holzer

Friday, July 19, 2002 | 10:25 a.m.

Title: "The Villa"

Pages: 486

Publisher: Jove

Price: $7.99

Grade: A-

From the opening sentence of "The Villa" you'll be hooked. Nora Roberts' best seller of last year is now in paperback. And like a fine wine, "The Villa" is meant to be savored.

Sophia Giambelli is a fourth generation California wine grower. Part of her family has stayed in Italy to oversee operations there, while the others live and work near San Francisco. Sophia is the ultimate working woman, who is finally taking the time to smell the roses. Unfortunately it's also the time someone is trying to wreck her company, and several people have been killed along the way. So smelling the roses will have to wait, though Sophia does get to have some pretty terrific romantic interludes.

And what Nora Roberts novel would not have some romance?

At times the mystery is all too easy to solve, but it's a fun read and Roberts has created a complex mix of characters who would be totally at home in a TV miniseries. You'll want to hurry these characters along a bit, but remember, "No wine before its time."

Title: "Face the Fire"

Pages: 358

Publisher: Jove

Price: $7.99

Grade: D+

Thank goodness there were only three sisters in Nora Roberts' Three Sisters Island Trilogy. Otherwise she would have inflicted yet more books in this dismal series on her loyal fans. The best-selling author could probably sell the phone book if it had her name on the cover. And unfortunately, "Face the Fire" is little more compelling that the Yellow Pages.

Three women who are direct descendants of three Salem witches come together 300 years later to fight an age-old evil force. The good witches must triumph or they will forfeit their lives, and the lives of everyone who lives on Three Sisters Island. "Evil" takes many forms, including a black fog, a wolf and it even enters the mind of a madman.

There was no rhyme or reason to the two previous books in the sisters series, so at least Roberts is consistent. Things get really laughable when the whole gang (three witches and their husbands/and or significant others) get together to plot how to fight (Dr.) evil. Their biggest dilemma seems to be what to serve for dinner.

And you know when the evil force is still kicking with only 10 pages left in the book, there's not going to be much of a showdown -- and there isn't. The ending was a real letdown, a whimper instead of a roar. The magic that should have been generated by the characters never materialized.

Let this be a warning to Roberts fans: When she's good, she's really, really good. But when she's bad, you've just wasted your time and money. You can usually tell in the first page or two if Roberts is on target. So take the time to peruse that much before you leave the bookstore. As the witches in this book like to say every other page or so, "So mote it be."