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Tuesday, January 7, 2014

Unleashed by Tempest C. Avery. A YA paranormal romance, book 2

Unleashed (Underworld, #2)
Spencer Perry has everything she asked for - her soul mate boyfriend returned to the living. All it took was a trip to the Underworld and a dubitable deal with a god. Now Spencer must pay her debt to that god by spending time with him in the Underworld, or Hades, the namesake she'd learned in school. It's a situation that complicates her relationship with her boyfriend Micah and fosters new feelings for the god Hadrian. It also places her in a situation akin to that of a Greek myth - Spencer's own story seems a little like that of the myth of Orpheus, a little bit the myth of Persephone. But as Spencer has discovered, myths can be distorted. The self proclaimed Queen of the Underworld wasn't some innocent maiden stolen away and forced to remain in the land of the dead for part of a year. Persephone was a monster. And she's a monster determined to destroy Spencer.

It took me far too long to get to this one. I originally intended to do this months ago because I enjoyed the first in the series, Unhinged. But in reality, when I picked this one up... months ago (and I actually paid for it), I was really buying it for my daughter. She was the one who just had to find out what was going to happen next.

Although I really enjoyed the first book, I have to be honest in that I wasn't as thrilled with this one. It is a continuation from where Unhinged left off - Spencer is still clearly in danger and the once perfect relationship she had with Micah might not be so perfect now that he's resurrected and among the living. For me though, it wasn't quite enough. Sure, some of the hanging threads at the end of Unhinged were tied up in Unleashed, and of course some new ones were created so we can look forward to book three. The story did continue, but I have to admit I was expecting more actual story in this one than I found. Don't get me wrong - it was okay and it does get moving in the second half- but there was far too much storytelling time spent on emotional recapping and one character admiring another but thinking it was wrong. It started to feel repetitive. There weren't really any new emotions or relationship dilemmas with the Spencer/Micah/Hadrian situation - until almost the end. On the positive side though, there was a little more going on with the minor characters.

Overall, I liked the story but the four star rating is more my daughter's. I did buy the ebook and at $2.99 I'm not complaining. It was worth it. Sure there were a few editorial things overlooked, but considering I have shelled out a whole lot more for traditionally published books (as ebooks) and found a similar amount of mistakes, it's nothing. When I pay more than $10 for an ebook that has errors (and so far I haven't read an ebook without some kind of error or errors), I totally feel ripped off. Particularly if I think the story is only okay. So for a $2.99 book with a few mistakes and a story I still enjoyed - Unleashed gets my recommendation.

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