Suspense Thriller / New Adult

Rescuing Emily and the other girls had its consequences. Like being poisoned along with Raoul and his family. Who did this? Why her, why them?  Too many questions left unanswered. 

The virus

We find out that it was a virus that poisoned them all and left them paralysed. Through sheer determination Gaia fought to walk again and to find out the truth. Raoul and his family were in a less stable condition. The drugs that were used to subdue Gaia when she was kidnapped built up some type of immunity to the virus.  

The story revolves around the virus and who holds the power. Whether it be Raoul, Dominique or Carlos, the game has changed, lives are in the balance who will survive and who will surrender.  

Gaia returns home to carry on with new duties as Queen, to rule Ica. She brings Emily too and settles her in the hospital on her island, hoping and praying she pulls through. She begins to develop an idea to create a special task force to help with seedy underbelly of the trafficking and drug cartels, along with making sure the judicial system and the current law enforcers are clean. 

Dominique & Raoul

We start to learn more and more about Dominque, where he originates, why he becomes a pirate and who he cares for most in the world – his family. Whereas Raoul becomes increasing distant and a little mean. It’s almost a race as to who can figure out what is happening first – yet Dominique pretty much holds all the keys. 

My thoughts 

We are introduced to a number of new characters; Emily, Kristel, Jared, Johan, The Govenor, Carlos to start. These all have fairly intricate threads to the ever-developing story that Rayes has created and the story has been written really well. It’s still fast-paced, with the exception of being able to digest the information that we are being given. The romance was pretty much non-existent in this novel, it kind of dropped off in this instalment. I’m of two minds about this as originally, I didn’t think it was appropriate in the first book, but it set the relationship and status quo of these characters. Although there are snippets of potential romantic scenes nothing came of it and I’m not sure if it was intentional to keep to the storyline and not drift into muddy waters or not.  I enjoyed this instalment as I felt the individual’s stories were more interlinked and we get to know the characters in more depth.

As ever Rayes keeps us on the edge, never telling the whole story and leaving us wondering ‘what happens next?’

–TalesfromNj