Review – Angel Seduced (The Hidden #3) by Jamie Rush

Angel Seduced cover image

Publisher: Forever
Publish Date: Out now
How I got this book: ARC from the publisher via Netgalley

My name is Kye Rivers. I am a Deuce Crescent, which means I have magick running through my veins. Even though my family is Deuce, too, I have always felt like an outcast. Why? Because my particular gift revolves around sensuality, which makes my family uncomfortable. I get my validation and satisfaction from helping people with their sexual pathos. The price for my magick is that falling in love interferes with my abilities. Losing my abilities, and my career, isn’t worth getting involved with some guy who will probably break my heart anyway.

When I met the new bartender, a rare Caido who works at the nightclub that serves as my office and second home, I felt an electric draw like never before. Even scarier, Kasabian isn’t like other angel/human Crescents, who are cool and asexual. Kasabian craves emotions…and he craves me. I fear that what’s different in him is dangerous for both of us.
This blurb came from the author’s website.

I have been eyeballing this series for a while and when I read the back cover blurb of this story I was tempted to give it a try. So I went out and purchased the first novella in this series and found the world intriguing. I continued to read until I was up to the point of this installment but unfortunately I found the magic missing. I really wasn’t able to connect with either of the main characters, and about halfway through I found myself struggling to keep the plot threads connected.

The world Rush has created is populated by those with magical abilities: some are dragon shifters, some seem more human, others are angelic decedents, and then there are the angels themselves. Regardless of their supernatural bloodline, all require exposure to a certain level of essence. This is the force that powers their supernatural abilities. Caido are half human/half angel and have a reputation of being impossibly attractive and completely uninterested in feelings or emotions. A few have developed an addiction to feeling and emotions, but the method they use requires another person who eventually dies.

Kye made her living as a combination sex and relationship therapist. As part of her practice, she discovered, in certain circumstances, she had the ability to allow Caido to feel without killing another person but it wasn’t without side effects. Finding herself drawn to Kasabian at first just put her livelihood in danger. Then as world events continued to develop, her life was at risk.

Kasabian didn’t quite fit with his kind. Mentally scarred from his childhood, he spent his time tending bar, working at a children’s shelter, and not exactly avoiding emotion. Then he spotted Kye and felt a desire to be around her as much as possible. Fearing what could happen to her, he did his best to stay away, and to tried keep her from seeking him out until he discovered the nightmare from his childhood was happening again to other children.

While I admired the dedication and loyalty both Kye and Kasabian demonstrated as they tried to solve the issue of who was behind the kidnapping and what the motivation was, I was not as fascinated with their romance. It seemed as if outside their physical attraction Kye and Kasabian were reluctantly drawn to each other. They only seemed to consider how much they valued the other person when an outside entity tried to keep them separate until the end of the story. Regardless of how crucial Kye was to Kasabian’s success, he repeatedly kept vital information from her. Kye kept information from Kasabian that directly related to their bond, which impacted their chances of success. They did manage to work together on certain occasions but each was followed by a period of enmity—usually on Kasabian’s side.

I did want to find out the story behind the missing children but a lot of that information was provided by the glimpses of the bad guys. So instead of having a mystery to solve along with Kye and Kasabian, I had to focus on seeing if they would put the pieces together in time and manage a successful rescue. Unfortunately I found myself lost trying to keep track of who did what, when, where, and why and partway through not really hooked enough to try to figure out where the different threads went. I think if I was more invested in the romance and the overall problem in this particular installment instead of the overall series, I would have felt differently.

In Angel Seduced Rush took the world I found fascinating and added a few new complexities all of which did not exactly work for me. I did have a glimpse at a dragon but this installment focused on the Caido and their obsessions. I hope in future installments dragons come to prominence once more and the focus shifts back to the overall problem facing this world. I would like to see a return to the magic that made me decide to take a chance on Angel Seduced.

I give Angel Seduced a C-

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