Author: Laura Thalassa
Pages: 417
Genre: NA Urban Fantasy
Series: The Bargainer Series
Format: Paperback
ISBN: 9781541130852
Story:
”If you need a favour, 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.
Callypso Lillis is a siren with a bracelet of black beads up her wrist, magical IOUs for favours she’s received seven years ago. Only death or repayment will fulfill the obligations.
Not until now. When Callie finds the Bargainer, (aka 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.
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. ”
Sounds exciting? Don’t get your hopes up. This Synopsis is highly misleading! There’s hardly any chapters dedicated to the problem in the Otherworld, but just two hot people moaning after one another..
Characters:
Callie: Who? Oh the too beautiful for her own good, twisted but pure hearted, extremely powerful damsel in distress? Nope.. She talks and thinks big but never really does anything. Except for moaning after mr perfect. And the whole thing about Callie being wicked.. She killed someone in self defence and now uses her power to make people do the right thing. And she has tried to keep bad guys from being tortured or killed.. Wow, Satan has competition now..
Rhys-light: oh sorry! I mean Desmond, the bargainer.. The perfect, all powerful, handsome, sweet, cruel, ken-doll personality, better than everyone else King of The Night.. BORING!!!
The other characters you ask? There’s as much usefulness in them as mannequins in a clothe-store. Insert basic spunky BFF and asshole stereotype ex and some random figures without faces. You won’t get any backstory on them, and when any of them is about to be filled in on events or gets a chance to be involved, the scene is skimmed over and they are dismissed.
Romance:
He’s obvious and she’s dumb.. the googly eyes, the hugging, the domestic repayments, sexual advances.. Oh my, it’s not like 90% of the book is about them just staring at each other longingly or anything.. This attempt at angst is one of the most infuriating I’ve seen..
He treats her differently than any other, he keeps being respectful and protects her. She thinks over and over that he likes her and that she loves him. But no they can’t be together! Without any real reason, they just can’t because the book need to be over 100 pages..
Rhys-li.. Des I mean, later recites something romantic he will vow to his future queen (while he’s hugging Callie btw), she gets all jelly and ”oh-poor-me”. Nobody’s that stupid, and this like the rest of the book feels so staged to make an attempt to be dramatic without logic.
Writing:
The pacing is way too fast. The amount of story could be rewritten into 2 books if it was slowed down to actually focus on character development, conversations and keep to the writing rule ”Show, don’t tell”. All I suffered trough was telling and no showing to back it up. As soon as there might be a lengthy discussion about something else then that Callie and Rhys-light (oh I mean Des of course) has the hots for each other, or to show any personality, the whole thing is cut short.
And it keeps going back and forth between the past and the present. Not short flashbacks, 40% of the book is the story of how they met 8 years before, and it is thrown in when you’re in the middle of a chapter. In some cases this can add depth to a story, but here it’s just to damn much! And they basically have the same conversations and interactions then as in the present.
And then there are the typos.. ”Children are children are children!” … Really? No proofreader picked that one up?
Conclusion:
I really wanted to like this book, the plot sounded great and I’ve read and enjoyed Laura Thalassa’s books in the past. But I can’t, the book just pissed me off.
There’s no depth, and all attempts on it feels staged, shallow or plain just dumb.
If you want a ”true love” tale about 2 people who invent reasons for not getting nasty with each other. And you don’t want to be distracted by anything as irrelevant like a plot or common sense. This is the book for you!
Why have I not given this book the lowest score possible? Because for some darn reason I did not want to put the book down.. Why baffles me! 1,5 stars for the mystery plot, even if there was not much of it.. And 1 more star for entice me to keep reading it.. 2,5 total.
I’m continuing the series, as I always do.. I hope that now when the past and all the ”angsty romance” has been crammed into this book (and down my throat), there will be more time for character development, plot and maybe an actual story?
Sidenote:
If it was not for the fact that A Court of Mist and Fury was only published 6 month before Rhapsodic I would be screaming ”half-assed fan fiction”.. But 6 month is not enough time to write and publish a whole book.. Right?
Grimmsnaught - Books Are Life 
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