Book Review: Rhapsodic by Laura Thalassa

Rhapsodic (The Bargainer #1)

by Laura Thalassa

Release Date: November 15, 2016

Source: Own Copy

Goodreads

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.

I had honestly never heard of Laura Thalassa until I saw she was an attending author at a singing I'm going to. I saw that that this book had pretty high ratings and it was a fantasy romance, so I decided to give it a chance. 

Callie is a siren who has never felt like she really belonged. Once she calls on The Bargainer to help her get out of a sticky situation, she can't seem to let him go. Callie calls him again and again because, with him, she feels less alone. Callie knows for every bargain she makes, she'll have to pay. Seven years later, The Bargainer is back in Callie's life. And he wants his payment. 

Going into this book, I literally had no idea what it was about. I just knew it had good reviews. When I started, I was absolutely sucked into this story. I loved Callie's character and seeing her now versus when she was 16 and first interacting with Des. This book is told in a dual timeline, so we learn more about how their relationship started 7 years ago contrasted against how they were together now. I enjoyed learning more and more and the past while we were seeing the intense chemistry between them today. 

Since this is a fantasy novel, the characters in this were not human. Callie was a siren and Des was Fae. I really loved how their characters interacted and how they interacted with their different powers. I was fascinated with the fantasy world Callie was discovering for the first time with Des. As for the romance, it was SO ANGSTY AND SO HOT and I loved it. Des is a bad boy and so charismatic and I loved him. 

Overall, this book was everything I want in a fantasy because it had soooo much romance. The romance and the fantasy were so well balanced and I could not get enough of this story. And after that ending, I definitely need book two in my hands now!