Callypso Lillis is a siren with a very big problem, one that stretches up her arm and far into her past. For the last seven years she’s been collecting a bracelet of black beads up her wrist, magical IOUs for favors she’s received. Only death or repayment will fulfill the obligations. Only then will the beads disappear.
Everyone knows that if you need a favor, you go to the Bargainer to make it happen. He’s a man who can get you anything you want … at a price. And everyone knows that sooner or later he always collects.
But for one of his clients, he’s never asked for repayment. Not until now. When Callie finds the fae king of the night in her room, a grin on his lips and a twinkle in his eye, she knows things are about to change. At first it’s just a chaste kiss—a single bead’s worth—and a promise for more.
For the Bargainer, it’s more than just a matter of rekindling an old romance. Something is happening in the Otherworld. Fae warriors are going missing one by one. Only the women are returned, each in a glass casket, a child clutched to their breast. And then there are the whispers among the slaves, whispers of an evil that’s been awoken.
If the Bargainer has any hope to save his people, he’ll need the help of the siren he spurned long ago. Only, his foe has a taste for exotic creatures, and Callie just happens to be one.
Rhapsodic, by Laura Thalassa
I’ve been on a paranormal kick recently. This is perhaps a little inconvenient, in part because I am supposed to be working on the next book (it’s in progress, I promise!) and in part because we’re going to London shortly for a vacation/family wedding/research trip. Because what kind of a Regency romance author would I be if I didn’t jump all over this opportunity to explore London?
But sometimes the heart wants what the heart wants (as a romance author knows all too well) and so I’ve been trolling through some of the Amazon offerings and found this one. I wish I could remember how.
Rhapsodic is on that strange border between young adult and paranormal romance. It probably falls into the new adult category that I am less familiar with. (I will freely confess that book categories can really confuse the heck out of me and what I put something in is probably very different than what someone else would say.) It’s the first of a series that is, of yet, incomplete — and while each book does wrap up its part of the story, there are some cliffhanger elements. Fair warning for those who dislike that sort of thing.
This is one of those books where I’m not sure how I feel about it. (This can frequently happen with books in this genre.) Callypso is a flawed heroine. There are times I don’t like her very much. She’s had some difficult experiences in her past (relating to sexual assault) and sometimes it’s hard to tell what is her working through the consequences of that and what is just her. Still, there are flashes about her past that have me curious and I don’t actively dislike her.
Desmond, on the other hand, is a fascinating character to me. Probably the main reason I kept reading (and then read book two). He’s mysterious, has some incredibly protective instincts without coming across as smothering, and smolders. Oh boy does he smolder. I really enjoyed getting to know him over the course of the book. The plot too does an excellent job of helping to drive the book forward — it’s very well paced, I think. I could have appreciated a little more world-building; there’s a number of questions I have about how much the “real” world knows about the “supernaturals” that’s never really talked about, for example, but these are probably minor quibbles.
If the best measure of a book is how hard it is to put down, this one certainly achieved that. I really enjoyed it and look forward to the next book in the series. (I’m hoping it’s the conclusion to the overarching storyline, because in my experience those are hard to carry off longer than a trilogy.)
Also, on a superficial level, the cover design for this series is gorgeous.