The second book the Laura Thalassa's The Bargainer series continues to follow Callie and Desmond immediately following the end of the first book, Rhapsodic. This is a spoiler free review of A Strange Hymn, if you're looking for a summary of the books in the series, please click here. This book deals with blood, general violence, talk of rape, slavery, death, bullying, classism, infidelity, and murder.
At the end of the first book, Des and Callie killed who they believed was the Thief of Souls, but not before he left Callie irreversibly changed, now sporting scaled forearms and a beautiful set of wings. The problem is that the sleeping women have not woken up, they should woken up when Karnon died if he was the one who had ensorcelled them. But that problem is for a different day. Word has gotten out that Des has a mate, relations between the Kingdoms of Night and Fauna are not looking good, and Des and Callie have been invited to attend the Solstice. They kind of have to go, the week long celebration also serves as a convenient time to attend diplomatic meeting since all of the rulers will be there and things are tense as it is, missing it would be a huge deal. One problem, Solstice will take place in Flora, a kingdom who is not ashamed of having human slaves. And Callie, even a Callie with wings and scales, is still very much a human.
I did not enjoy this book as much as I did Rhapsodic, mostly because I did not like Des as much in this book. We get a lot more of Desmond's backstory, which I thought was great and I can't wait to learn more. But in this book, he started to seem more like somebody that doesn't get told no very much and refuses to accept it, which very much does not track with the more involved backstory. I had a harder time connecting to the characters this time around, although we do get more of Temper, which I enjoyed. All in all, I was not as impressed with the sequel and I hope that we get a turn-around in the final chapter of the series. There is a small novella that I will be reading and reviewing before we get to the last book.
I'm giving A Strange Hymn by Laura Thalassa 3.5 stars out of 5. Spice level is a 1.5 out of 5, nothing too exciting.
For more from Laura Thalassa, check out her website at https://laurathalassa.com/
Pairs well with a few samosas and weekly professional therapy to work out those big feelings.
If you need a refresher on The Bargainer series before moving on to the last book, Dark Harmony, head to our series summary here.
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