Bewitched & Betrayed (Raine Benares 3), by Lisa Shearin

Description:
Raine Benares is a seeker. She finds lost things and missing people- usually alive. But now she's been bonde with the Saghred, a soul- stealing stone of unlimited power, and must hunt down its escapees. Especially since one of them is also hunting her....

Review:
Shearin starts the book by plunging the reader into the chaos that has become Raine Benares' life.  We find her chasing down the spirit of an uber bad guy whose soul has managed to escape from the Sahgred.  If I just lost you its time for a quick recap: the Sahgred is a big bad rock that has the power to suck souls out of body to increase magical power of the one who is 'in-control' of it.  At this point in time Raine is in control of the Saghred, but she doesn't want to be.  Sarad Nukpana on the other hand desperately does want to be in control of the rock.  Unfortunately for him he was sucked into the darn thing when trying to gain control of it from Raine.  However he just escaped from the rock in the last book, and now we are trying to track him and the rest of his evil scheming buddies down.  Clear enough?  Good let's move on!

During this novel, Raine is trying to capture the escaped souls so that they can't inhabit the unwilling body of a victim for life.  Nukpana has his own secret plan to ruin Raine’s life by consuming the souls of strong, intelligent, and magical elves/humans/goblins in order to gain more power and become a solid soul, negating the need to possess someone.  At the end of this process he plans to feast on Raine herself, which is of course something we can't have.  In order to avoid this outcome Raine and Mychael team up to discover who Nukpana is trying to devour next, and keep him from doing it to Raine.

Now let's run down the big plot points of the novel:

1.) Raine makes a choice between Mychael and Tam.  It was organic, and in the end the choice I figured we would see.  However, it was sort of sad, because a lot of the fun tension in the earlier novels was created through the love triangle.
2.) Nukpana is a big extra scary baddie who keeps on keepin’ on, even if we wish he were dead.
3.) Mychael's past is revealed in a big surprising moment.
4.) We may have the beginnings of war on our hands between the elves and the goblins, which is what the goblins want and the elves want to avoid.
5.) The Tam/Raine/Mychael bond is shattered.
6.) In light of the possibility of war, Tam's newest role in life is to be a liaison between the goblins and the elves.

As far as the novel goes, it was a fun fast run.  Raine as a character grows stronger understanding who she is and that she is separate from the Sahgred.  I’m not a huge fan of the choice she makes between Mychael and Tam.  I personally don’t find the chemistry very exciting.  I’m glad to know that Mychael isn’t such a goodie two shoes, it helps makes Raine’s choice more palatable.

Overall this novel was fun, and I’ll probably read it again.  Makes it a four out of five!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Emerald Blaze (Hidden Legacy, #5) by Ilona Andrews

I received this book as an advanced readers copy from Netgalley. ★★★★★ Ilona Andrews is an author whose novels I voraciously read. This one was no different. I couldn't put this book down and finished it in one sitting. It was action-packed and the chemistry between the protagonist and her love interest was stellar. Reader be aware, this does have a love scene. Many of the author's previous novels, while they feature romantic stories, don't have explicit scenes. This novel is set in a parallel universe where due to an epidemic flu and the subsequent solution, magic has been introduced into the world. I would recommend that any reader who hasn't read the first novels in this series starts with the other series first to give them a good grounding and so they won't be confused. The universe that the authors' have created is detailed and there are a lot of moving parts. Even though I had read the previous novels, it had been a while so I couldn't remember som...
Read more

The Echo Wife by Sarah Gailey

  ★★★★ ☆ This was a thought-provoking and very interesting novel. The story follows the trials of a woman whose ex-husband has illegally and without her knowledge created a clone of her.  While the story is set in a science-fiction parallel world, I found that most aspects of the novel don't deal with the science-fiction. Instead, it is a story of betrayal, heartbreak, growth, and the human spirit. Despite not liking the protagonist, I still ripped through this novel. It was an interesting introspection on the relationships that create us, and the many facets through which we build our visions of ourselves.  The author subtly weaves a narrative that allows the reader to consider how our upbringings shape us and whether we are defined by our natures or nurture. The end of the novel left me filled with foreboding as I felt the main character began to display traits that she had previously despised in her father. I found myself returning to the storyline and the characters m...
Read more

"Every Which Way but Dead" by Kim Harrison, (The Hollows Book 3)

Image
Description: Some days, you just can't win. Witch and former bounty hunter Rachel Morgan's managed to escape her corrupt company, survive living with a vampire, start her own runner service, and face down a vampire master. But her vampire roommate Ivy is off the wagon, her human boyfriend Nick is out of town indefinitely and doesn't sound like he's coming back while the far-too-seductive vampire Kisten is looking way too tempting, and there's a turf war erupting in Cincinnati's underworld. And there's a greater evil still. To put the vampire master behind bars and save her family, Rachel made a desperate bargain and now there's hell to pay--literally. For if Rachel cannot stop him, the archdemon Algaliarept will pull her into the sorcerous ever-after to forfeit her soul as his slave. Forever. My Review: Harrison's third Hollow's Series novel is much better than the second. The book starts off with a bang as the action pits Rachel's brain aga...
Read more