Title: Rhapsodic
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Series: The Bargainer #1
Publication: November 15, 2016 by Lavabrook Publishing Group
Source: Personal library
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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.
My Thoughts
The opening chapter had me intrigued. With our heroine’s siren budding powers, she becomes the target of everyone’s attraction whether she wants it or not. Even her own father. After multiple violent attacks against her person, she fights back which is how The Bargainer came into her life. She makes a deal with him to get rid of the evidence and the police off her back in exchange for a favor of The Bargainer’s choosing at a later time. One favor becomes two favors and so on until she owes him over 300.
The book jumps back and forth from the present to the past, alternating chapters showing readers Callypso’s relationship with The Bargainer over the course of seven years from the age of 16. This book was tricky since the heroine was so young at the start. Callypso spent most of her time with him and although nothing truly happened until the very end of the seven year (a kiss) its hard to ignore that he’s an adult and she a minor. Many people had issue with this, and I too can see what’s problematic with this relationship. But the same could be said about Twilight and other novels featuring century old sups and their teenage human love interest. So I wouldn’t get too bent out of shape about it. Like Twilight again, The Bargainer waited for Callypso to get older to pursue an intimate relationship…specifically 23-years-old (unlike Bella’s 18).
I like the plot for the most part, it was different. What I didn’t like was how rushed the ending was and the problem solved. For example, The Bargainer was plagued by the Thief of Soul for almost what, 10 years or something? Thousands of women put under the sleeping spell and countless numbers of children born and The Bargainer couldn’t protect his Kingdom from this villain? Then suddenly Callypso comes along and attracts The Thief of Souls attention and her bracelet from The Bargainer led him straight to her and the Thief. It was a little too easy, convenient, and anticlimactic in my opinion. Overall, I liked Callypso and The Bargainer Des. Honestly can’t think of anything negative about them. I read a review that Callypso’s best friend, Temperance was poorly written and that I agree with. I guess she was the token person of color friend because the way the author wrote her. Was it supposed to make her sound ‘ghetto’? Well, whatever the author was trying to do, she failed. Because hello....most women don’t call their friends the B-Word or other degrading terms. Normal people of any ethnicity don’t talk like Temperance at all. Talk about trying to stereotype people. Like Temperance, most of the side/secondary characters were poorly developed. I didn’t care about their story nor were they memorable.
At the moment I am a little curious to see how Callypso and Bargainer Des’s relationship/ story will play out but not so invested that I need to read the sequel immediately. Would I recommend this book? Not really. The writing and story was decent but nothing spectacular. There are far better faerie fantasy out there. But if you’re looking for a quick brain candy smutty book...then you may be interested in Rhapsodic.
