The Reckoning (The Taker #2) by Alma Katsu-a review

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THE RECKONING (The Taker #2) by Alma Katsu

ABOUT THE BOOK: Release Date January 22, 2013

Love saved her soul . . . but the shadows of the past condemn her.

Lanore McIlvrae is the kind of woman who will do anything for love. Including imprisoning the man who loves her behind a wall of brick and stone.

She had no choice but to entomb Adair, her nemesis, to save Jonathan, the boy she grew up with in a remote Maine town in the early 1800s and the man she thought she would be with forever. But Adair had other plans for her. He used his mysterious, otherworldly powers to give her eternal life, but Lanore learned too late that there was a price for this gift: to spend eternity with him. And though he is handsome and charming, behind Adair’s seductive facade is the stuff of nightmares. He is a monster in the flesh, and he wants Lanore to love him for all of time.

Now, two hundred years after imprisoning Adair, Lanore is trying to atone for her sins. She has given away the treasures she’s collected over her many lifetimes in order to purge her past and clear the way for a future with her new lover, Luke Findley. But, while viewing these items at an exhibit at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, Lanore suddenly is aware that the thing she’s been dreading for two hundred years has caught up to her: Adair has escaped from his prison. He’s free; and he will come looking for her. And she has no idea how she will save herself.

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NOTE: The Taker series must be read in order or important information will not be understood.

REVIEW: THE RECKONING is the second full length novel in Alma Katsu’s dark and richly detailed paranormal, historical fiction, horror-esque series focusing on Lanore McIlvrae and Adair-the man who claimed her life and made her an immortal. Like the first book in the series-The Taker- The Reckoning is divided into three sections, told from first to third person points of view. This is not a story of vampires and blood but a story of centuries old magic, alchemy and the sins of life everlasting-til the end.

Alma Katsu’s wonderfully decadent imagination takes the reader on a journey of one woman’s fight for her freedom from the man who wants the only woman he can never have. Adair is an enigma-a man of wealth and power, but a power that comes from the ancient magical tomes of a physic long thought gone. But some of Adair’s secrets have been uncovered and Lanny hopes to stay one step ahead of the man who seeks revenge and reprisal for two centuries of imprisonment at the hands of the woman he cannot live without.

Lanore McIlvrae is a naïve woman who has truly loved only one man in her entire existence but that love was never shared or returned. Jonathan is beautiful, handsome and the epitome of every man and woman’s dream but with it comes a self centered ego that will never allow him to love anyone beyond that of what he is capable of giving himself.

Lanore is too trusting in her endeavor to seek help from the ‘other’ people who have succumbed to Adair’s charms and powers and in this, Lanny will fall victim to Adair once again. To save the people that she loves, she will be forced to make a choice that, in the end, will push away the man who is willing to die for the woman that he also loves.

Alma Katsu pulls the reader into the dark and dangerous sensual world of one man’s obsession, love, desire and need for the woman known as Lanore McIlvrae. Adair’s passion for immortality is tempered by the circumstances that have forced him into a prison not of his making and it is that passion that will have Adair focusing on the ultimate revenge against Lanny for her crimes against the man and his broken heart. His need for Lanny overpowers any sense of morality and with it comes the desire to destroy anything and anyone who stands in his way.

THE RECKONING continues to build on the story that began in The Taker and the story will come full circle with the release of The Descent on January 7, 2014. There are many questions left unanswered and many more yet to be addressed but with Alma’s ability to weave a tale of obsession and the fine line between love and hate, we know that the final instalment in Lanny and Adair’s story will be epic as Adair has willingly allowed Lanny to walk away with both his heart and possibly his soul.

Reviewed by Sandy

Click HERE for our review of THE TAKER (The Taker #1) by Alma Katsu