Rhapsodic (The Bargainer) Paperback – November 15, 2016

What a great book. Can’t wait to read the next instalment. Had me hooked right from the start with funny, sarcastic, likeable characters.

Rhapsodic (The Bargainer #1) by Laura Thalassa4.5 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.”

I'm picky about the books I like. Maybe it's because I've read so many over the years that I'm easy to bore with a poor story, or to irritate with poor writing.This book surprised me. It hooked me from the start. The story isn't rehashed, it's new, and it's good. The writing is excellent. I don't slam into poor spelling or grammar that makes me cringe. Did I say that the story it tells is well crafted, captivating, and SO worth the read? Well done, well done indeed!

This book… the whole series actually, cause it’s about one couple, has been on my radar for a while now… I kept hearing great things about Laura Thalassa’s writing style and since I was recently sort of in a reading slump… as in a lot of books I’ve been reading kept disappointing me in one way or another, I thought that this will be a pretty safe bet… a book that I will really love and then immediately after finishing it continue with the next installment… yeah… unfortunately, this was a bit of a disappointment as well… I was going back and forth on how exactly I want to rate this, but in the end I decided on 3 stars… I did like some parts of it and I will continue on with the story… at least another book that I already own, hoping it will get better, but there were also things I wasn’t a fan of… to explain most of the things I will have to talk about spoilers, so I will try and express myself spoiler free as best as I can in the next paragraph in case you haven’t read the book or don’t want to know any details, and then in the last part, clearly marked so you won’t read anything accidentally, I will get into a spoilery explanation of all the reasons for my mixed feelings about this one… but first I do have to put trigger warning for rape… it’s not happening on the pages of this book, but it is mentioned, and I just want to warn all of you guys who are sensitive to this sort of content…So for the spoiler free part… the writing style was good… not great, but entertaining enough that I enjoyed myself for the most part… I had some issues with the lack of depth in the secondary characters that we saw in this story… and don’t get me wrong, I know that the main focus was on Callie and Des, but when we saw other people, they were… just… one dimensional… it was especially jarring with Temper, Callie’s best friend… I liked her as a person, but the way she was talking felt… over the top and maybe even a bit offensive at times… when it comes to our main couple… without spoiling anything I have to say that the synopsis is misleading… I was expecting a different story when I started this book and I think that’s one of the reasons why I was disappointed by what I got instead… I’m not gonna get into details right here, but it will be the first thing I talk about it the spoilery section, so if you want to take a sneak peak you know where to find it :) but their whole relationship… I know it doesn’t make a lot of sense, but it dragged on and felt rushed all at the same time… it was all over the place and felt underdeveloped, and… I wanted so much more from it… especially since the whole premise is sooooo interesting… but the execution just wasn’t to my taste… I feel like again I’m in a minority with my feelings about this book, but that’s ok :) we don’t have to agree all the time ;) pacing is a bit all over the place, interrupted by quite a lot of flashbacks… but when it comes to the “present” timeline… honestly, I thought we would get more of the actual mystery that Callie was supposed to help Des resolve… and it takes them almost half the book to actually start doing just that… so there are moments when basically nothing happens, and then we get closer to the end of the book, and suddenly a lot of things happen in a very short amount of time and then BOOM! big thing happens and we end the story… that’s all I can talk about without spoilers, sooo…This is the promised WARNING that I will be talking about big SPOILERS, including things that we discover at the end of the book, so keep that in mind going forward with reading my review :) ok, if you’re sure you're prepared to keep reading and discover all sorts of SPOILERS about this book, let’s jump into my thoughts and feelings in no particular order.......SPOILERS BELOW....#1 the misleading synopsis… I picked this book up expecting a story about two adults… a Siren who somehow amassed a big debt to the infamous and dangerous Bargainer and now has to work for him to start repaying it… what I got is a second chance romance… and I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with that trope… it’s just that I personally don’t like it in books… specifically if it’s handled like it was in here… let me explain… Callie does something when she’s about two weeks away from her sixteenth birthday (will talk more about that later on) and she needs help from the Bargainer to take care of it… he does it for free, cause he doesn’t want to make a bargain with a minor… but then, she keeps calling him back, night after night after night… gathering more than 300 beads in the next year… and they form… a weird friendship with some deeper undertones… and it just… it didn't sit right with me… she’s young, and even though it’s mentioned that for supernatural creatures in this world sixteen is the age when they become adults, still… it felt… just, not right… and then one night something happens, and he leaves her and they don’t have contact with each other for seven years… when he comes back he needs her help to uncover why certain things are happening in his kingdom… now let’s get into even more spoilers about our characters and their relationship, because I have a lot of feelings about it all…#2 Callie… I wanted to like her… I really did… but I just couldn’t really connect with her… it was interesting to see that she basically has a whole different personality, and that the Siren is different that Callie… but… look, Callie has a very dark past… she was raped for years by her stepfather, until one night she fought back and accidentally killed him… that’s when the Bargainer helped her… years later it looks like she still didn’t really got help with her issues… the way she’s dealing with people in her life, including Des when he reappears after those seven years, is just… all over the place… her feelings change very quickly, more often than not without reason or any sort of explanation… I hope to like her more in the next book…#3 Des… the Bargainer… he was… I’m not sure how to put it best in words… cause to me it felt like we were supposed to see him as this very dangerous fae king, but mostly we got a very tamed version… and I try to understand that maybe the reason is because we saw him mostly with Callie and he acts differently around her, but still… I had real troubles picturing him as the dangerous and deadly fae king that he was supposed to be… also, and that’s just a personal thing, but for me, the endearment “cherub” that he uses when he talks with Callie is just… nope, I didn’t like it… *sighs* I just wanted so much more from him… and I feel like we got a tamed version of what might have been a very interesting character...#4 the relationship… yeah… I have a lot of things to say about it… they first meet in a very dark moment for Callie… I mean, she just killed her stepfather and she was terrified, because he was a very important person with a lot of connections, so she decided to ask the Bargainer for help covering it all up… but then she keeps calling him back to her for more bargains, cause she… I don’t know… I don’t really understand her fascination with him, especially at the beginning, because he is a very dangerous fae… I thought she would be more wary of people after what she went through… but she keeps calling him back and he keeps coming and like I mentioned before, they sort of become friends? but she also starts to develop a crush on him… and he doesn’t really acts completely innocent as well, soooo… the whole thing happens when she’s sixteen and that’s the main reason why I find it a bit icky… even though in the eyes of the law she’s technically an adult, let’s not forget that she’s still sixteen… and he’s an immortal fae king… I assume he’s immortal, or at least very long lived, because I can't recall if it’s mentioned in the story… and it just doesn’t feel right… but then after about a year of this she kisses him… and he kisses her back… and then he says he has to go, because she’s too young and he doesn’t want to take advantage of her… she makes her final wish, of sorts, and then she doesn’t see him for the next seven years… and the whole explanation as to “why” is just… soooo stupid, I didn’t like it at all… apparently when she made that final wish, his magic understood it as her wanting to have a mate of some sort and accepted, but there is a big price to pay for that sort of wish… so instead of the beads, which is what always happen, the magic decided the price for that one is seven years apart, while they are both miserable… so Des couldn’t get back to her, even though he wanted and tried night after night… I was so mad when I got to that explanation… it felt like an easy way out, and it was just… weird… I am still not sure if I actually understood it accurately… like I mentioned before, we get flashbacks to that original year throughout the whole book when we see how their weird relationship progressed… and then we have the “present” part, when he finally shows up at her door… she’s actually in a relationship with an alpha werewolf, but she ends things pretty quickly, because apparently it’s nothing really serious, but then her ex keeps appearing throughout the story to act in a weird way… Callie and Des in the present have this magnetic pull towards each other… he’s all very mysterious and silent, not sharing any sort of important details or explanations with her… and she’s all like… oh-he’s-so-dangerous-and-broody-but-I-still-want-him-even-though-I-shouldn’t and I’m not gonna lie, there were times when this made me roll my eyes pretty hard… things progress too slow and too fast between them… and I know it seems like a contradiction, but that's how I feel… there's not a lot of build up, and even if there is it’s not done well, and then suddenly it’s all “I love you” and “you’re my soulmate” and “I never stopped loving you” and I’m here like, really? *sighs* when I saw that we will get three books about the same couple, I expected a different story… I wanted two adults who slowly build something… this enemies to lovers trope done very well… what I got is a second chance trope that I don’t like, with an immature girl and wannabe broody and mysterious bad boy… the slow build up I was expecting was very rushed, especially in the second half of the book… and since it happened so fast, I can’t really get behind them… hopefully it will progress better in the second book...#5 the story… like I already mentioned, the pacing of the whole story was all over the place… we got flashbacks throughout the whole book, that kept pulling me out of the main storyline… also, I wasn’t the biggest fan of them because I didn’t like the relationship between them when she was so young… in the present timeline, things progressed way too quickly for my liking… the romance felt rushed and underdeveloped and we got way less of the mystery than I wanted… I was really curious to see more about the sleeping warriors and it just never happened… it took us almost half of the book to actually get to his kingdom and start investigating… and even then we only got like two scenes about it and that was it… until, that is, Callie got kidnapped from Des’s home… she’s being kept by the mad king and then she is forced to go through this weird metamorphosis just before Des finally finds her and then the book basically ends right after that… it all just felt… all over the place… I’m not gonna lie, I’m disappointed… it’s not like I expected to know everything in this first book, when we have the whole trilogy about them, but I wanted to at least got some good basics… and it feels like this mystery was pushed to the sidelines to make room for the romance that didn’t really work like I wanted it to as well…Honestly, I am sad and disappointed… I really wanted to love this book and it just didn’t work for me… I’m gonna give the sequel a try, and I’m really hoping it will be better… I am definitely gonna get into it with lower expectations… as always, I encourage you to check out some other reviews before making your own decision about giving this book a try… because like I said before, it seems I’m in a minority when it comes to my thoughts and feelings about this series, but… oh well :)

Love the characters and the incredibly woven story. Loved every page. Des and Callie's love story makes me want believe in magic.

I’m not really sure how I feel.I love the characters and I read through this book rather quickly, although it did have a few dry spots.Curious to see where the next book goes.

"From flame to ashes, dawn to dusk, for the rest of our lives, be mine always, Desmond Flynn"No se ni por donde empezar, esta serie ha sido de mis mejores lecturas este año y vaya que me he leído excelentes libros, una fantasía increíble llena de acción y romance, deberían leerlo ya!.I don't even know where to start, this series has bean one of my top reading this year and I've read some excellent books, an incredible fantasy full with action and romance, definitely a must read now!

Apesar da mudança entre o passado e o presente em todo capítulo, uma coisa que eu geralmente não curto, eu amei demais o livro.Muito envolvente e viciante.

About the book itself, it came on time, perfect state.Long story short, what i liked, what i disliked :✅ Amazing female protagonist✅ Entertaining way of writing about Callie pov✅ Fantasy part is really good✅ Nice declarations, good with words✅ The UNEXPECTED END✅ and finally ladies : good smut 🥵❌ Sometimes too predictable❌ Sometimes you feel like it's just repeating itself over and over, specially in the middle of the book❌ Not really original male's character description (hard abs, strong jaw, mUscuLAr)❌ I felt like Callie's backstory and traumas should have taken a much important placeNow let's talk about the story. No one is a fool when it comes to this book. You just have to read the summary to know what to expect and as i previously said, what you asked for you shall receive. That's one nasty interesting book 🥰🥵 You can clearly feel the tension rise en rise and for that the book is hard to let down.❌Still my only "disappointment" (though it's not really a big big one) is that a lot of it is predictable, and sometimes a bit too "cliché" for me, i like my men to be unique, original, and sometimes reading ten times "hard abs" and "sharp jaw" through two single chapters can get a bit annoying, but still i liked it nevertheless. Callie is an interesting character with an interesting past and i felt like this should have taken more place, i have wished to learn more about how she deals with life knowing what you know about her past. Going to the middle of the book i also felt like i was just reading the same stories over and over.✅ Laura thalassa has one really good way to write and you don't want to really enjoy the book because you're too eager to know what's next 🥵. Her female protagonist is amazing, i like her, like her story, her personality, i felt emotionally involved with her as i was progressing through the story.I also like how she distances herself with her siren part, it makes the story more mysterious, as if something bad that she didn't really know about was inside her. The smut was really good, what else could i say about that except that i wish this book was my life ?And FINALLY, the END LADIES. THE END IS THE BEST PART. So entertaining, things escalated quickly but i really reaaaaally loved it. I just wish the whole book was just as diverting.

Hace un tiempo escuché que este libro fue recomendado para los fans de A Court of Thorns and Roses, y recientemente estuve en el estado de ánimo perfecto para leer algo así.La historia está ambientada en el mundo humano actual, con los personajes viajando también a El Otro Mundo (también conocido como El Reino de las Hadas). No sabía que cuando empecé a leer este libro, así que fue una especie de sorpresa porque pensé que la historia tendría lugar sólo en un mundo de fantasía.Los personajes principales son Callie y Des. Me gustó mucho Callie como protagonista principal, ella era divertida y sarcástica, pero me hubiera gustado un poco más el Bargainer. Lo encontré muy mal como un muchachas a veces y siento que muchos de sus conflictos podrían haberse resuelto antes si hubiera sido más abierto. También desearía que el autor hubiera desarrollado los personajes secundarios más (especialmente Temper, mejor amigo de Callie).El comienzo del libro está muy motivado por el carácter y la trama de personas que desaparecen en el mundo fae no se cria hasta más tarde. Supongo, sin embargo, que los próximos libros serán más motivados por la trama.En general, me gustó mucho el libro y planeo leer los otros. Espero que el autor desarrolle tanto los personajes como la trama más sobre ellos, ya que éste se sentía un poco introductorio.