Review: Rhapsodic (#1 The Bargainer series) by Laura Thalassa

The Cover: So when I first saw the cover for Rhapsodic I was a bit taken aback because I couldn’t tell what it was! Then I zoomed in and saw that it was a bat wing and was IMMEDIATELY interested. (I have a big love for bats and anything with fae wings.) Another thing I found interesting was the red cloth/robe? I actually thought it was blood but then with the second glance noticed it wasn’t. So in conclusion the Rhapsodic cover is your typical book cover but it DEFINITELY catches your attention and makes you interested.

Basics: Rhapsodic was released on November 15th 2016, published Lavabrook Publishing Group and is 423 pages long. Genre wise Rhapsodic belongs to paranormal romance, new adult and romance.

Description: 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.

Overall thoughts: I fell in love with Laura Thalassa with Pestilence, that love continued with I dived through The Fallen World books and I had high hopes for the start of The Bargainer series, Rhapsodic. I’ve read it twice now and to be honest I wasn’t quite what to think the first time I read it; I thought the first time through was slow placed but interesting. Thalassa has a huge talent for creating enthralling worlds and making you question and wonder about them, she also mixes different things together (in this case fae and sirens) and somehow makes them work well together even when you didn’t think they would.

Callie is a Siren who has an ocean long list of problems. Not only does she hunt down people for a living in exchange, a bargain. Literally she has an arm full of black beads promising her of what she owes and they won’t disappear until all commitments are filled. She is dealing with that but she also has a bigger problem heading her way: The Night King, AKA Desmond Flynn. These two have a complicated past together tied with some really strange occurrences happening in the Otherworld, a lot can happen.

The first time I read Rhapsodic I wasn’t sure what to think, I liked it but I honestly just didn’t know what to think! When Thalassa announced that the third book in The Bargainer series, Dark Harmony was coming out I wanted to give it another try. I’m so glad I did! I really enjoyed Rhapsodic the second time around and really fell in love with it. Desmond and Callie could melt polar ice caps with their chemistry and their past together makes their relationship even sweeter. I love them! The Siren and The Night King.

My only complaint that Rhapsodic was a bit slow burning at first but I think reading it more than once definitely helped and I really loved this book. It’s a fae based, paranormal romance book but it’s darker and I welcome that immensely. Definitely looking forward to re-reading A Strange Hymn.

Couple Chemistry Rating: 5/5 Shells

Favorite Quotes: “I love you. I’ve loved you from the beginning. And I will love you long after the last stars dies. I will love you until the end of darkness itself.” -Des

“I couldn’t stay away, I could barely resist you at all, but I didn’t want to push you into something. Not when you’d just escaped a man that took and took. I didn’t want you to think that was all men were good for.” Des

My Rating: 5/5 Shells

Buy Rhapsodic:
***Available in Kindle Unlimited***
Amazon: https://amzn.to/2PihWHQ
Paperback: https://amzn.to/2D0v1zS
Barnes & Nobles: https://bit.ly/2yYI0O9
Add to Goodreads: https://bit.ly/2AoOp7b

About the Author: Laura Thalassa Found in the forest when she was young, Laura Thalassa was raised by fairies, kidnapped by werewolves, and given over to vampires as repayment for a hundred year debt. She’s been brought back to life twice, and, with a single kiss, she woke her true love from eternal sleep. She now lives happily ever after with her undead prince in a castle in the woods. …or something like that anyway.