Rhapsodic (The Bargainer #1) by Laura Thalassa

This post contains affiliate links you can use to purchase the book. If you buy the book using that link, I will receive a small commission from the sale.

Title: Rhapsodic (The Bargainer, #1)
Author: Laura Thalassa
Series: The Bargainer #1
Published by: Indie
Release Date: November 15, 2016
Format: Kindle Book
Pages: 423
Genres: Mythology, New Adult, Paranormal Romance
Reading Challenges: CC's Goodreads Reading Challenge
Find it: Goodreads ✩ Amazon
My rating:

Blurb:

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 Review:

This book immediately pulled me in with the dark undertones of both the characters and the plot itself. It was mysterious and addicting. Callie seems broken and unable to deal with the traumas that she experienced at such a young age.  When nothing else seemed to work she turns to the bargainer to ease her suffering. I don’t think she was expecting to feel as strongly as she did when Des came into the picture though. 

Their relationship was so emotionally driven at first. The pull that they had for each other was immediate in the writing. You can tell that they crave each other’s presence even if it was unhealthy, which, in the beginning, I think it was.  

I really like the flashbacks of their relationship, we get to see different levels as it starts and evolves. Really the best part was the chemistry, the chemistry was just, I mean, I felt it so deep inside.  It was sensual and intense. Not just sexy. Their minds were involved too which made me swoon hard.  

The story wasn’t just about the relationship. It had a deeper plot that was rich in world building and intrigue.  I like the detailed layers of the different worlds and what Des’ role was in each of those and what Callies’ role was in his life pertaining to each of those worlds.  

It was just simply amazing, one of the best books I’ve read in a really long time.