5 STARS ✮ THEA HARRISON ✮ SPELLBINDER

SPELLBINDER

(Moonshadow #2)

Thea Harrison

✮✮✮ 5 STARS ✮✮✮

A generous interpretation of Isabeau's order and a good serving of luck leads Morgan from Avalon to the United Kingdom. The Queen of Light Fae usually has him on a tight leash - a dagger gives her power over him - he has to follow her every order, the geas in him overriding every wish, dream and desire he has for himself. But this time...this time she told him she didn't want to see him again before he has completely healed after the disastrous loss of the passageway to Lyonesse in the war against Oberon's Dark Court.
It's his chance to taste a bit freedom and he intends to make the most of it. While free, Morgan wants to use his time wisely and research how to shake off the yoke Isabeau has put him under. He has lost so much but one thing stayed - his love for music. A fascinating pamphlet of a beautiful violin player invites him to a concert. When Morgan hears Sidonie play for the first time he is entranced.

He had no room for this music. No time for it. Yet he couldn’t shake the hold it had on him.

Sidonie Martel can't shake the feeling of being watched. She might have picked up a new stalker on her concert tour. Her worries are confirmed when the car taking her to the airport is intercepted and crashes and Sid is being kidnapped. Her captor isn't after her though.

She is being handed over to the Queen of Light Fae, who throws her in a dungeon, with broken hands and a broken will - music is everything, how can she live when the only thing that gives her life has been taken from her? When a stranger sneaks into her cell she experiences kindness she didn't expect in a place like this.

“So, you like my music?”
“Like is not the right word for it.”
His words came slowly, his unwillingness to answer evident. “Your music hurts, the way sunshine hurts when you’ve existed for a long time in darkness.”

When Morgan realizes that Sid has been kidnapped he sneaks back to Avalon. It's because of him that she is trapped in Avalon, in the queen's dungeon. He can't free her but he intends to make sure she survives. She mustn't know who he is, however, because that would endanger her life. And his own.

We met Morgan in the first book of this series in which he was a villain. I know that Thea Harrison can redeem those, she has done it in her Elder Races series and she'd done it so well, I knew I'd love Morgan in the end. He was a revelation. I loved EVERYTHING about him. He is kind, patient and so incredibly gentle and sweet with Sid. There is a decency, goodness about Morgan, it radiates off the pages, he definitely lives by a code of honor. Morgan has become my favorite hero right after Dragos.

She did know him. She didn’t know certain details, but she knew the ring of sincerity in his voice when he promised to support, respect, and defend her. She knew the private hell he was living. She knew he had an innate decency and sensitivity. He appreciated music, he mourned deeply for something in his past, and he was stronger than she could ever hope to be.

Sid's growth from the beginning is awesome. She starts out as a reserved young artist who obsessively starts counting things when she's stressed out. It's ironic that her OCD is what keeps her halfway sane. Her captivity steels her will, Morgan gives her courage. Their growing feelings something to fight for. Her fierce will to survive is tremendous. Sid is tenacious, never backs down and faces everything she has to endure with so much dignity, her despair is heartbreaking. And then there is adorable innocence about her. She really is an endearing heroine.

Thea Harrison has a way of describing scenes that stay with you for a long time. In one scene Sidonie plays her heart out because so much depends on her music in that very moment. Ms. Harrison's words were stunning and when this scene was over I had tears in my eyes.

She became the music. She was the story, the vibration. She became the story of love, the notes written in kisses and caresses on her skin. She felt the symphony, the swelling highs in the lifts, and the terrible lows in the falls, and hope was the cruelest note of all, the devastation that came afterward, utterly intolerable.

I fell in love with Thea's Spellbinder characters. She made me care for them, root for them and cheering them on. Morgan had a short jerk moment, which was kinda understandable but then again, I was a bit mad at him for not seeing what had been offered to him. He groveled, explained, I got over it.

We get to see the puck from the first novel and towards the end Dragos has a cameo. I swear that guy is the epitome of badassery and the leader of the a-hole pack but man...I love him. LOVE. HIM. He is my spirit animal.

I have read almost all PNR written by Thea Harrison, she keeps impressing me with her incredibly detailed world building and her multi-dimensional characters. I have nothing but praise for her and if you haven't read her yet...what are you waiting for? Get on with it.

Moonshadow on Amazon