Out of the three books I’ve read in this series, this one has the most romance. There’s still plenty of action and another main plot to this story. However, the two main characters explore and decide what to do with their feelings for each other. All of our questions about their relationship gets answered in this book.
The story is very creative and original. The teenage characters act true to themselves, and I enjoy Sadie’s relationship with her mother and Rayne. There’s just enough action and romance to balance this series out.
The only negative for me was how easy it was for her to believe the worst of Rayne immediately after he disclosed his feelings for her. I have a similar moment in one of my own novels, and as a writer I know why it was done. I just didn’t think he looked guilty enough. However, that did not take away from the story at all, and I still love it.
As for my conservative clean rating for this being a young adult novel, I give this my squeaky clean seal of approval. There are no curse words, the action and violence are not filled with blood and gore, and the romance is very sweet. I’m highly impressed with a certain scene within this book, as the writer had to make a decision on how far the young couple would go. I read many young adult fantasy novels, and I’m often turned off by authors thinking teenagers can’t control their hormones or make good decisions. I’ve even read a book where the young couple got into a heated argument over a trivial thing as a way to keep them from succumbing to temptation during a night alone. I applaud Christie Anderson for how this was handled in the book. It was believable and well done.
I highly recommend this series, as it keeps getting better. My favorite one is Ambrosia Shore, and I’ll have a review on it soon. It is very different from the first two, and I’m looking forward to the release of the fourth book in the series.
