Title: Serpent’s Kiss
Author: Thea Harrison
Series: Elder Races #3
Pages: 338
When Rune agreed to a favor for Carling’s help in saving his friend Tiago, he never expected it to be about saving her. Carling’s powers have become erratic and her followers have left out of fear. While these two work to figure out what is going on with her power, they find themselves falling for each other at the worst possible time.
After meeting Carling in the previous book I was interested in knowing more about her and her life. She is a powerful vampire who gave up her place as queen of the vampires to join the council and is a powerful magic user as well. At first Carling is pretty emotionless and closed off from life, but as this book progresses Rune helps her come back to life in a way. She starts feeling emotions again, like desire, and starts wearing modern clothes, all while dealing with her erratic power and the fear of death. She realizes she hasn’t lived this long to just give up now and I liked seeing her embrace life again, even if it is only temporary.
Rune is the carefree sentinel who agreed to a bargain with Carling to save Tiago’s life. He quickly changes his opinions on Carling and agrees to help her figure out what is going on with her power. I liked Rune a lot in the previous books and he just grew even more on me in this. He may be carefree but we quickly see that he still is dangerous and extremely protective of Carling.
Carling and Rune had a very enjoyable romance that grew as they worked together to find out what was going on. I liked that they both fell hard and fast but were fearful to admit it because of the circumstances. I will be interested in seeing how their relationship progresses in future books without all the danger driving them.
The Elder Race world continues to grow in this one. We are introduced to more vampires, an Oracle, a djinn, the Elder Races council, and to a lot of different magics. I really love how rich this world is with magic and creatures and I can’t wait to see what will pop up in future books. I feel like I can never guess what appears.
Overall this was another really enjoyable Elder Races book. I can’t wait to see what will happen next and who will fall in love with whom.
Goodreads | The StoryGraph | Amazon
Previous books and reviews for the series:
#1. Dragon Bound
#2. Storm’s Heart
Red-Haired Ash Reads 