Rhapsodic by Lauren Thalassa
Published November 15, 2016

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.

So, i’m not sure if a lot of you know, but I’m a twitch streamer, and I started a bookclub for my community. This was our read for March.

This book had so much potential and it really missed the mark for me. I read through a good few Goodreads reviews and I feel like I understand why others enjoy this book, and I would say for what it is, it’s a pretty OK book, but there were a few things that really just kept just bringing down the rating of this book for me.

I felt like these characters where vastly underdeveloped. There was no character development and it was kind of annoying because I felt like Callie could have a good amount of potential to be this really great character. Especially since she’s supposed to be this female supernatural P.I. if you know me, you know I LOVE The Dresden Files. And when I found out Callie was a P.I. I was like OMG YAS A FEMALE DRESDEN….but no dice. 

Also, I felt so distracted by all the flashbacks. Every chapter for most of the book had a flashback and it didn’t feel like they helped the flow of the book at all. I actually found it extremely disruptive and there were better ways to bring those moments or memories, or at least the information from those flashbacks into the plot in a less disruptive way.

The way Callie and Des’ romance just kind of randomly happened was just frustrating to me. Yes, you understand she’s got this crush on Des, and he doesn’t reciprocate but never in the flashbacks does he seem remotely interested until right before he leaves her for seven years. Like WHAT!? And how I do believe there was a moment where he mentioned he started loving her when he met her which was when she was like a pre-teen, which felt kind of weird for me. Again, I just felt like the romance was wayyy underdeveloped. 

I think that’s just the best way to sum up this book for me “underdeveloped” I really REALLY wanted to like this, I swear. But with all the fantasy and romance I read, it really just didn’t make it for me. I give it credit for becoming a really popular book lately in the book community but, I just feel like if this book was worked on a bit longer, and really dove deep into more plot and development, it would have been unstoppable. 

1.5/5 Stars