Paranormal Review ~ Rhapsodic (The Bargainer #1) by Laura Thalassa

Book 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.

Buy Links:

Amazon UK: http://amzn.to/2ndoqqN

Amazon US: http://amzn.to/2n6Zww8

Our Review:

Reviewed by Donna ~ 4.5 stars

“‘Bargainer, I would like to make a deal.’”

I am not a huge paranormal reader, I leave that side of the blog to my mum, but sometimes I get the itch that I need to scratch. I love a paranormal read with the best of them and when one of my trusted reader friends recommended this one, I had to dive in. Laura Thalassa is a new to me author and she will not be a stranger. I fell in love with this authors voice, she charmed me like the siren in the story she was telling and this was one of those books that I couldn’t put down.

“Seven years is a long time to wait, especially for someone like me. A word of caution: I’m not leaving again.”

Callypso Lillis is a siren and in the world of the supernatural they are a rare commodity. Now a bounty hunter of sorts Callypso uses her gift to extract the truth from the unscrupulous and even the evilest of hearts are not immune to her charms. Through flashbacks to her past though the reader soon learns that her life was not always so charmed. As a child, Callypso went through a lot, culminating in a night that will haunt her forever, a night so horrific that she had no choice but to call on the services of “The Bargainer.”

“I am the scariest thing out here. And if anything tries to touch you, they will reckon with me.”

“The Bargainer” is the King of the Night, a man with insane powers and who never does anything for free, you call The Bargainer, you owe and The Bargainer always collects. Callypso should have been frightened of him and yet he showed her compassion, The Bargainer went above and beyond and so the unlikeliest of friendships was born. Callypso called on The Bargainer a lot and for every call she was rewarded with another bead to her bracelet and at the last count she owed The Bargainer a lot...until one night he just disappeared. Callie is now older and wiser and seven years later, The Bargainer has come to collect.

“A fairy doesn’t show his wings to his betrothed…A fairy shows them to his soulmate.”

I have to say I loved everything about this book, the relationship between Callie and The Bargainer was extremely well written, totally captivating and utterly believable. The friendship built between these two when Callie was a teenager was beautiful to read and it is this base that makes their relationship in the present all the more rewarding for the reader. Those past chapters meant so much to this story and whereas sometimes I find time jumps irritating, I found myself itching for these chapters just as much as the present.

“I didn’t fall for Des because he was handsome, or because he knew my secrets, but because he stuck around when I was least lovable. Because he was a man who didn’t try to take anything from me even when I lay next to him, but instead gave me peace and comfort. Because each one of those nights he saved me all over again, even if it was from myself.”

The paranormal story surrounding these two was extremely well written and totally engaging. The air of mystery, suspense and intrigue was prevalent and all my thoughts were of course…. wrong. I was appreciative that the author did not rush this story and I more than appreciated the extra length to give this story the heart that it deserved. I was captivated from the very beginning, drawn inexplicably to our Lord of the Night and all his charms. I was glad that the relationship between “The Bargainer” and Callie was at the forefront, this was a great foundation to what I can fast see becoming a highly addictive series. With these two a formidable team and the Politia and the other worlds desperate to keep them apart I can see more battles on this couples horizon.  Bring on A Strange Hymn…I definitely need this sooner rather than later. A fantastic first book in what I hope will be a longgggggg series.

“I’ll be at your side,” I promise, “till darkness dies.”