Synopsis: For seeker Raine Benares, a demon infestation on the Isle of Mid couldn’t come at a worse time. Already fighting the influence of the Saghred, a soul-stealing stone, Raine discovers she is also magically bonded to a dark mage and a white knight, two dangerous and powerful men on opposing sides.

Turns out, the demons want the key to unlock the Saghred. As a seeker, Raine should be able to find it first. As the axis of light and dark powers, she’s a magical cataclysm waiting to happen. -Goodreads

Review: On a random recommendation I purchased the first four books in this series a few years ago. I read through the entire first two books even though I couldn’t really get into them. They were alright, just never really managed to draw me in. Anyways, as part of Bout of Books I picked up book number three and really enjoyed it. Sometimes sticking with a series pays off. Not usually, but it does happen.

There is a lot of action in this book and Raine wastes absolutely no time before jumping right into things. At the beginning of the book she’s shopping for new clothes and then BAM, demons and the book basically follows things from there. This is one of those books where everything happens in the span of just a few days so there is a lot going on. The characters never get a chance to catch their breath which adds to the urgent feeling of whatever they are trying to accomplish at any given moment.

The storyline and world building are pretty standard for fantasy, but I am still really enjoying how the additions of goblins as a major race. They’re silver, and pretty and more than a little underhanded most of the time. Raine’s goblin love interest Tam is so much fun to read and I would love to see more of his relationship with Talon as the series progresses.

One pet peeve of mine with this book is that there seems to be a lot of repetition and inability to assume readers will remember things on their own. There are way too many references to the Benares family reputation, etc. etc. I did appreciate the occasional reminder about some of the plot points (especially as some of the background characters are hard to keep separate in my mind since they all have standard, unpronounceable fantasy names) but the book might have benefited from a few reminders less… per chapter.

Overall, while I liked this book more than the other books in this series and will even willingly start book four, I’m still not in love with the Raine Benares books. That being said, it’s pretty obvious that there are a lot of people that disagree with me so as usual, check out the second opinions list down below.

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Rating:

Second Opinions:
@The Books Smugglers
@Lurv a la Mode
@Tempting Persephone