DISCLAIMER: I was lucky enough to receive this book from BookSirens on behalf of the author. This is in exchange for an honest and unbiased review. I hope the prospective reader will read this review fully before making any prejudgments on the book. I will give the book my thoughts, good and bad. Also, this review contains opinions that are my own and not the author’s. My thoughts will be different from your thoughts and just know that before reading the book. Lower in the review, I will talk about disclaimers in the book as well that you should read before opening the book.

Elaine is in constant turmoil. After escaping the darkest realm in faerie five years before, she is experiencing nightmares that terrify her. Even though her memories are almost nonexistent, there are mysterious thoughts that resurface in her dreams. These blue eyes that stare into her soul day and night. When the nightmares return, so does the man who haunts her dreams constantly. A man who has dark power seeping out of him. Liam says that he is there to protect her. Is this the truth? Or is this proving to be Elaine’s most dangerous temptation yet?

This story brings to life Lainey’s world, but I have to say that it is defining the boundaries of two completely different realms. I want to really talk about the realm in faerie more. We all know what our world is like, but there is something so interesting about this realm. I pictured it as if it is a fairytale that has a muted look to it. I see snow that is falling that has a look like ash and not the colors we see in nature. You see the magic that matches the tone of the story. Although intending to be fictional, it seemed to be realistic. You will be lost when entering into the realm and stuck forever in its depths.

The characters in this book are really well thought out and written. Lainey is missing parts of her memory, yet she doesn’t break. She makes mistakes and has a lot of humanity. I find that she shows her own vulnerabilities and feels real. She is strong and powerful; she is a witch after all. Liam has a lot of issues. The way he approaches life is more amusing than serious. I found he was a welcome comedic break to the seriousness the book portrays. I felt the dreams Lainey had were their own characters, more than the characters themselves. The idea Liam’s eyes are all that she remembers in the fading memory of a nightmare is engrained into my own head.

As a disclaimer for this book, I have to say that there are some scenes that people would deem as inappropriate. Although, I did not find it to be in any way excessive. There is some sexually explicit content as well as cursing. I found that each character did have their own way of wording things and some were more direct than others. Also, the thoughts that were going through the characters head can be considered explicit as well.

My rating: I enjoyed reading this book. Although, there were some holes where the characters were concerned. I feel that at moments, the reader was expected to fill in the blanks on some details that we weren’t told. It seemed as if I was reading the second book in the series and not the first one. I did enjoy that the story got right into the action, but I wanted more commentary. For that, I am going to rate this book a 3 out of 5 stars. Overall, I enjoyed the book. I don’t know if I would want to read the second in the series.