All your debts must be repaid.
Blurb: "Siren and soulmate to the king of night.
Callypso Lillis survived the clutches of Karnon, the mad king, and his twisted prison. But the nightmare isn't over. Cally wears the physical reminders of her time as captive, and mounting evidence suggests the Thief of Souls is still out there.
When a fae celebration thrusts Callie and her mate, Desmond Flynn, into the kingdom of Flora, they take their investigations with them. But under the bright lights and striking blooms of the realm, they find there are more immediate issues to deal with. No place is more uniquely savage than the great fae halls, and no amount of bargains can save Callie from royal intrigues.
Fairies play dangerous games. Some want love, some want vengeance, some want flesh, and some wants things too unspeakable to utter. One thing is for sure: no one is who they appear to be. Not even Des, who only grows more enigmatic with every passing secret.
But the Kingdom of Flora has its own secrets, from bleeding trees to branded slaves and missing guards. Something is stirring in the land of all that grows, and if Callie isn't careful, it will claim everything and everyone she loves--and her along with it"
A strange hymn is a brilliant book with fantastic plot development and character and love growth.
In this book we learn more about Desmond Flynn, through freely, and not so freely, given secrets and him opening up to Callie more about his childhood. Don't get me wrong, there's still a lot we don't know about the ever-so-mysterious Des, but with every bit of information we receive, we feel for him more and understand him that bit more.
The book starts with Callie trying to understand her new form- wings, scales and talons. She hates this as she feels that it's a reminder, almost perfectly due to those features being animalistic, of Karnon-the mad Fauna King, who tortured her in the last book. Des loves them and her, and is patient with her, but for some time she's stuck in the thought process of that they make her less human, and more like a monster.
The book carries on and before you know it, Callie's best friend Temper, blows one of the portals to the otherworld, in a desperate attempt to find Callie; unsurprisingly she's a furious when she sees the changes to Callie and thinks Des did it, meaning she's on the war path, but thankfully Callie informs her that Des didn't do it to her. Sadly, because of the changes she can't leave the otherworld, as Temper points out. Not that Des minds... naughty king.
Des takes Callie to see the different parts of his kingdom, surprisingly us all when they meet some of his friends along the way (he has friends?! Who knew?!) and they share some intimate time together, if you get my meaning...
After some time they are summoned to the Solstice celebrations, hosted by Mara, the Queen of Flora, and The Green Man, her husband and Flora king (yep, those with feelings towards the Pagan holidays of the solstice celebrations, will feel the familiarities, but that's where they end), in her kingdom. When we're there we see that she still has slaves (grr) and she doesn't treat them well. Mara, in all her gorgeousness, is cunning and when she flirts with Des, I'm right there with Callie when I feel she needs to move her damn hand from him (She's Callie's soulmate and she knows this, hell she has her own!) damn woman needs to back off. Thankfully Des knows how to appease her without causing a war between the two kingdoms and he makes it very obvious to everyone, that Callie is his and he is hers (soulmates, not property).
During this time we meet the freaky-and-creepy green man, who seems to have taken a liking and a fascination with Callie, much to her dismay, and while being polite (politics, am I right?!) she's firm in the fact that she's not interested.
While in the Flora kingdom male soldiers begin to go missing, each from different kingdoms, and Callie has dreams of The Thief of Souls, and Des, each time more disturbing and leaking her feeling into the real world, at least for some time. The different leaders and Callie share notes and try to figure out who and what is behind this- the Thief of Souls is dead... isn't he?
Meanwhile, the Sacred Oak trees are bleeding and Callie and Des are training- no mate of Des' will be a victim or a unable to protect herself.
Events happen, showing Callie's strength and her leadership skills, along with her morality, and Des' control begins to slip out, showing Callie his darkness and how dark he can be, and with this he's afraid that she'll think differently of him... but he also shows her his romantic side (King of darkness and chaos romantic?!) which I'll admit, did me in and made my heart swell.
In the end Des and Callie find out shocking revelations and a plot twist that made me unable to tear my eyes away. It.is.good.
Des almost looses Callie for good and he fights for her hard, making her pay off her debts in one swift swoop.
Forever changes Callie stares into the future and doesn't know what he life is going to be like, but she has Des, and together, they will be someone's nightmare.
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So to wrap it up, this is a bloody good book, it pulls you in and you get invested in the characters.
Have you read this book? What did you think?
And as usual, if you have any recommendations leave me a message or an instagram DM.
-Lil.
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