Rhapsodic

    

Title: Rhapsodic

Series: The Bargainer #1

Author: Laura Thalassa

Publisher: Bloom Books, September 6, 2022

Pages: 402

Genre: Contemporary Fantasy Romance

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 Callie has been wearing a bracelet of black beads up her wrist, magical IOUs for favors she once received. Only death or repayment will fulfill her obligations.

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 Callie, he's never asked for repayment. Not until now. 

When Callie finds the Bargainer 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 admitting a truth—a single bead's worth—acknowledging the attraction between them. But the Bargainer is after more than just rekindling their connection. Something is happening in the Otherworld. Fae warriors are going missing one by one, and only the women are returned, each in a glass casket, a child clutched to her breast. 

For the Bargainer to save his people, he'll need the help of the siren he spurned long ago. If she can forgive him.

I was not prepared for how dark this book got. I don't know why I wasn't ready, but I was not. 

The first time Callie reached out to the Bargainer was rough. But he helped her out, free of charge. After that though, she started racking up debt. She was lonely, and he didn't seem to want anything from her except the nebulous favors that weren't yet real to her. Well, only real to her in the sense that they were baubles on her wrist. Eventually, the Bargainer calls in his favors. And when he does, Callie gets drug into this mystery in the Otherworld. 

I look forward to seeing exactly how that mystery gets wrapped up. I think this book fell into that category of first books in series that kind of fall flat for world building. But The Bargainer sounds like he looks like Henry Cavill in distressed jeans with his Witcher wig, so like, into it!

Ratings

Stars: 3/5

Spice: 2/5