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.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B01M4K3DUH
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B01M4K3DUH
Review by Bubbles The Book Pimp
In a time of crisis Callypso aka Callie calls out for aid… her hands covered in blood… she reaches out to The Bargainer.. a mythical wish granting entity whose help always comes with a price… for Callie it’s her heart.. from the moment she met him, she has been his…she just didn’t know it at 16.
Fast forward 7 long years and Callie is kicking ass and taking names using her own skills… she’s a siren and a strong one… sometimes too strong…. but her strength won’t help her when the bargained returns to call in his debts.
Intense and gripping from the get go this book quickly morphed in to one of the most breathtakingly wonderful love stories that I have ever had the pleasure to read. Filled with mystery and intrigue and a harrowing past it’s both dark and light. Which is very spot given the fact that our leading man is the king of the night…. and our leading lady is a siren, who glows with her own power… light and dark night and day.
The slow and steady reveal of story was brilliantly crafted, jumping backwards and forwards ( in Callie’s perspective ) in to the past and current tense… made for great reading. Allowing us to see the development of their friendship over time and of The Bargainers ( aka Desmond’s ) feelings for Callie. Alongside his conflict when it comes to helping her, wanting her and his reasons for staying away from her for so long.
It’s a wonderfully emotive story packed full of heartbreak, major ‘FEELS’ and chemistry, that compliments and blends brilliantly with its fantasy/Fae/PNR theme. I loved the mystery and intrigue that filled its pages and I’m dying to know more.
After reading this first in series I will be continuing on with the series. I’m so totally invested in this couple and their story. Bring on book 2!!
Bubbles The Book Pimp 