Dark Harmony

I finished The Bargainer series, and while I loved it, the last book is my least favorite. I felt like this one was mostly filler, and the events that unfolded were a little lackluster. The sleeping soldiers, who were such a prominent and scary unknown for two full books, were disappointing when they finally woke up. Callie handled them in a short amount of time, and then they weren't seen again until half the book had passed, and even then they were just used as the Thief's messengers. Once the original threat was taken care of, the Thief did nothing for most of the bill except toy with Callie in her sleep. What was he waiting for? I know he took Des as bait once Des made a deal with him, but this man is a god; if he really wanted Callie like he always said, he could have came for her whenever he wanted. He did not need bait or anything else to draw her in, he could have simply taken her. If he did that towards the beginning of the book, Callie would have had no shot since she hadn't fully embraced her powers yet. Also, Des wouldn't be able to kill him either, especially with the shadows working against him.

We saw that the casket children were reveling in the carnage and feasting on soldiers during the first battle, but then nothing else happened with them. Are they free now of the Thief's weird hive-mind mind control now that he's dead, or are they like this forever; cursed, half-children that will never live normal lives? We saw that the previously sleeping soldiers were apparently released from their mind control, but there was no word on what happens to the children of fae and a god.

I didn't love the ending and thought everything wrapped up a little too nicely. I never got the impression the water did anything to Callie's powers. As much as it was said that the ocean calls to her and stuff, it always felt like it was just something she really liked, rather than something integral to her power. So the fact that it was made a big deal that she went back to her siren roots to drown a man in water felt a little like a cop out. I also really don't like how Des faked his own death, made Callie see him like that and in pain, and didn't apologize for it until she made him. He should be devastated that he put her through that, but instead he's immediately making snarky comments and thinking about sex. Which, whatever, that's who he is, but he still loves Callie and doesn't want her to suffer, and right after she went through one of the strongest moments of devastation in her life, it seemed like he didn't care. Also, speaking of sex, I felt like there were a lot more sex scenes in this book than any of the other three and none of them added anything to the story, which is why it felt a lot like filler to me. I don't mind the sex scenes at all, but in this book, a lot of them felt unnecessary.

Overall, I really enjoyed the series and can see myself reading it again in the future. I wish the ending was a little stronger but I appreciate everything it accomplished.