“You’re part samodiva. I knew that when I met you. It’s in your blood to be distracted by beauty…and pleasure.” He turned to face her, taking in every sensuous curve of her female form. “You seem to have forgotten that it’s in my blood as well. Whatever shall I do to remind you?” Scandal. Blackmail. Obsession. It’s just another day if you’re a Marinossian. When Annika disappears without a … When Annika disappears without a trace, Talvi launches the hunt for his most infuriating rival yet. His only clues are from a government he’s increasingly at odds with. In exchange for access to their resources, he does the unthinkable and reveals Annika’s true nature. Time is short, but the list of names Talvi can trust keeps getting shorter.
Back home at the family’s country estate, his brother Finn is blindsided when the missing redhead turns up injured with no recollection of how she arrived. While his mother tends to her physical wounds, Finn’s given the task of restoring her memory…and he just can’t resist showing her his version of the truth. But playing mind games is like playing roulette—and someone’s luck is about to run out.
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INCREDIBLE!!!! AMAZING!!! couldn’t put it down and have reread it multiple times.
I received a complimentary copy of this book for free to give a voluntary honest review. This review contains only my own thoughts and opinions of this book. Thank you Emigh Cannaday for this opportunity!
Reading this book from start to finish started as a fun pastime … until chapter two and three. After that it became an obligation to my ”can’t leave anything unfinished” syndrome and further down the road it became absolute torture. There is no way this author planed this starting the first book. The second and now this book is just so so different and follows the Flame and the Arrow so poorly that right now I can’t help but think that she let her first story and it’s amazing characters, plot and world go to waste. She could have just left the first book as a stand alone and made a completely new series instead.
First of, this is supposed to be a dark fantasy paranormal romance. Is it dark? Yes, but not in any good way for the most part. Is it fantasy? I guess? But it honestly felt more like some sort of detective/criminal investigation drama with all the kidnapping and searching and working for the supernatural’s very own FBI. Is it paranormal? Sure, It is more paranormal than it is fantasy anyway. Last of all, is it romance? No, not really at all. Unless you count the last 7 % of the book (kindle). This was more like a long distant relationship without the regularly scheduled phone calls and infidelity on the side. What’s romantic about that?
This just shows how deceiving the book cover is because once again Talvi and Annika is apart for the major part of the book (in this case 93 %). You’d think that’d be the worst part, but it actually isn’t. No, the absolute worst is that as I was struggling with my annoyance of them not being together yet again, I started getting the shipping of Finn and Annika thrown right in my face. Excuse me, but wasn’t that already resolved in the Silver Thread? Why go back there then? Instead of evolving the plot and relationship it got devolved back. I didn’t tolerate the relationship between Finn and Annika much in the previous book and even less now that the author insinuated that they are “soulmates” and “destined lovers”, like the love between Talvi and Annika wasn’t real or as strong. Add my already growing annoyance I was feeling of a “romance” between characters spending most of the story worlds apart, you can understand I was pissed. Emigh Cannaday is pulling a Sara J Maas on me. The difference is Maas expertly wrote the new relationship so that I could eventually get behind it. This however, I can’t get behind. At. All.
Then we have all the useless facts, stories and details that gives nothing to the plot or development. They were just here to fill out the pages and bore the readers, it felt like. For example all the different provinces/countries and all their politics and culture. Why do we need to know that in detail? We also had to read through Corbin’s story which I can barely remember since I sort of spaced out finding no interest in it. As far as I could see none of it were of importance or any way to progress the story. Then we have that weird moment when they were discussing twilight as well. I don’t know if it was useless. I guess it gave the book and Annika a quirk, but I found it really cringy. I mean, what the hell was that about? Is Cannaday promoting Twilight or something?
For me this book deserves two stars at most. After all, there were some things I quite liked, although few and far between. I liked how well written the trauma Annika experienced was and how it effected her. I really liked the chapter from Hilda’s POV, which surprised me since I usually don’t like different POVs. I especially liked that for once Talvi actually took some blame of what went wrong in their relationship, instead of blaming it all on Annika, like he did in the Silver Thread.