I received an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Chest tight, Rose gasped as her gaze shifted over the parting crowds. Her feet moved without her command, stumbling toward the bar counter—as though someone had tied a rope around her, lassoing her. Holding her captive. Then she saw him.
Kiss of Vengeance is the delightful and entertaining second book in Samantha Young’s True Immortality series.
Fionn Mór was once a High King in Ireland; a fierce warrior who led his tribes against the invading fae. It was a war he couldn’t win and to save his family he turned consort for the Fae Queen. By the time Fionn manages to escape he has become the thing he once despised, and the people he loved betray him. Now centuries later it’s time to take his revenge, but the only way to do that is to reopen the gates to Faerie.
At sixteen Rose Kelly discovered a family secret that changed her forever. Years later she’s still lost, traveling across Europe in search of that elusive missing ‘something’. When she’s attacked by a vampire, not only is she wrenched into a supernatural underworld she never knew existed and a knock on the head that releases the spell blocking powers she didn’t know she had.
Now Rose has a lot of questions and Fionn claims he has the answers. However Rose quickly realises she’s a pawn in his plan for vengeance and what had begun as a passionate battle of wills has led to an inexplicable connection.
"But what matters is your ability to change your mind and do the right thing. Before I knew the truth about you, I saw you as this otherworldly, noble being who made me feel exhilarated and safe at the same time.
And despite your plans for vengeance, I still see you that way. It’s who you are deep down. You’re just too stubborn to see it.”
I really enjoyed Kiss of Vengeance, particularly the dynamic between Fionn and Rose which was one full of romantic chemistry, snark and, angst.
“Can you find a way to undo this shit between us?”
His expression darkened. “There’s no undoing this.”
Rose sat up, pushing her face into his. “Then why should I return an item that means a great deal to you when you can’t return something that means a great deal to me?”
Confusion flickered across his face. “Wha—”
“You have a piece of my soul, even though you don’t want it.” Hurt edged her words no matter how hard she tried to camouflage it. “So I’m keeping An Breitheamh, even though I don’t want that. Fair’s fair.”
I did find it was a little slow to start and there were a few lines that seemed to stand out as clunky and awkward;
“Look, I will let it slide that you put your hands on me without permission and just ask you to leave.” She spoke slowly, calmly, so as not to cause agitation.
There was also a bit of exposition that really stuck out, particularly with the conversation between Niamh and her brother when they went to Rose at the beginning of the book.
“Niamh, we don’t have time to deal with an ignorant human. We have to go.”
“She’s not an ignorant human. Okay, she’s ignorant but she’s important, Ronan Farren,” Niamh snapped at him. She turned back to Rose, irritation changing to earnestness. “More important than anyone else in the world.”
The way Niamh uses her brothers full name here just really stuck out as odd and it seems like it was only written like that as their surname comes is important to events further into the book and this was an easy way or Rose to find out what it was. Then again Niamh is a psychic fae so maybe this is a normal way for her to speak.
However, these issues were brief and the novel soon evolved into the excellent writing I associate with Samantha Young.
I loved the world Samantha Young has created for the True Immortality series and can’t wait to find out what comes next but, in the meantime, I’ll just be re-reading War of Hearts and Kiss of Vengeance constantly while I wait.
Kiss of Vengeance can be read as a stand-alone and is due for release on March 3rd.
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