A Book Obsession..: Early Review: Gold by Talia Vance

Early Review: Gold by Talia Vance

, by Kt Clapsadl

Gold by Talia Vance

Bandia #2

Descended from an Irish demigod, Brianna has fled to Ireland to escape destruction at the hands of her sworn enemies, the Sons of Killian. Taking refuge at the estate of her former nemesis, Austin Montgomery, Brianna discovers a rift in time that opens to an era before the feud began.

Wrestling with her newfound feelings for the more innocent Austin, Brianna begins to wonder if she can alter the past. But when Brianna and Austin learn that the Sons are raising an army of mythical beasts, the pair will need to use their magical strength in the present to avoid a tragic end.

The fragile peace Brianna formed with the Sons of Killian was only short lived and she's forced to flee to Irelend. She end up in her formal rival Austin's estate of all places, the last place on earth she thought she would be. But when she slips through time into a rift that lands her before the thousand year old war began and finds a younger Austin who changes her perceptions of everything she thought she knew. As she scrambles to deal with the brewing battle and her desire to try and change the past, Brianna is torn between what her heart wants, and her duty as a Bandia.

I'm a very loyal person when it comes to the "teams" in romances that I choose. I'm not one to switch teams, but every so often a writer pulls off something like this and I find myself completely forgetting about the first guy and falling head over heels for the new one. After everything that happened in Silver, never in a million years would I have believed that I would find myself falling for Austin of all people. Yet in a surprisingly short amount of time I did. In fact GOLD put a whole new light on a lot of Austin's actions in the last book. What seemed vindictive at the time, turned out to be something so very different, and I just loved how my perceptions of those events have completely changed, which allowed me to fall for Austin. I could go on and on about the progression, but to avoid spoilers, I'll just let things there and let you experience it for yourself.

I really enjoyed how GOLD delved even further into the mythology than SILVER did. It was complex enough to keep me utterly enthralled, but never once slipped over the edge into "too much." From the Bandias, to the Demigods, Giolla, and even a new introduction, I just couldn't get enough of all the interwoven factions and threads. It really kept me on my toes as you were never quite sure who was on whose side, and there weren't always clear cut definitions between the good and bad.

This book was beautiful, it was intense, and I both absolutely loved it and utterly despised it at the same time. It is so heart-wrenching and the depth of raw emotion was just staggering. The ending impressed me for the author's chutzpah at making such a hard choice, but at the same time left me utterly devastated, especially since after talking to the author, there may not be another book. That fact alone took the ending events from shocking to utter devastation for me. But I'm just going to hold out hope that there will indeed be another installment in this series to greatly lessen the blow of this one. Even so, and despite my heart feeling like it's been cracked into a thousand piece, I do not regret reading GOLD one bit. Even knowing the emotional torment I would go through ahead of time, I would read it again, it was simply that fantastic.

(Received a copy from the publisher via Netgalley)

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