Review: Radiant Light by Chloe Adler

Radiant Light (Tales From the Edge #2)
by Chloe Adler

Rating: 4 stars
Genre: Paranormal Romance/ Reverse Harem

Blurb:
Iphigenia Holt, the sweetest witch with the biggest heart continues to tumble down, not only circus silks, but also through a harem of lofty admirers.

There’s Rhys, the enigmatic crossbreed – half vampire and half shifter who can teach her everything she needs to know about defending herself using marshall arts. And his half brothers, all shifters from the same playboy father. All working for the Distant Edge police force. Caspian, the sensitive artist who paints life in brilliant colors, showing Iphi swaths of life she never conceived before. Thorn, the true brawn of the bunch who takes her to another level, pitting her against her deepest fears so that she can overcome them. And Dominic, the heady one who is obsessed over picking apart everyone’s pathology to better understand human nature, including her own.

When the men’s other brother, Nolan, who bowed out of the family when they were young, shows his fangs; Iphi’s head is put on the block. Trying to be the radiant light that precides over the Edge may not keep her safe from this particular vampire or his master. Will the men convince her that sometimes love can’t conquer evil or will she convince them that it can?

My Review:
I received a free copy from the author and voluntarily reviewed it.

Radiant Light is the second book in the Tales From the Edge series and after enjoying book 1, I was eager to see how the story would continue. It definitely is a solid sequel and I enjoyed being back in the Edge and enjoying the story of Iphi and her men.

I did have some trouble getting into the story at first, the story starts slightly before the cliffhanger ending of book 1, which had me confused for a little bit. But after a few pages it catches up to the cliffhanger ending, so I think that simply was the author’s way of reminding the readers what happened. There also was a scene in one of the first chapters with a bunch of violence, an accident and some drama I didn’t really care for. I also felt there were a few things that felt slightly differently or were presented differently than in book 1, but that might also be because I don’t remember those things this way. But after the slightly rocky start things picked up and I really enjoyed the story.

One of my favorite parts of book 1 was main character Iphi and stay the same in this book. Iphi is such a nice character and she definitely has enough room in her heart to love multiple men. We see her struggle with the romance and the new men in her life, her desire to reconcile things with her mother and the ghoul problem. I like how she stays true to herself and develops a bit as well. She starts finding out what she wants and going after that and I liked how she thought things through and talked about things. I like her kind personality and how forgiving she is.

The main focus of this book is probably the romance, but there are some side plot lines going on as well, as well as a plot line surrounding the ghouls in town. Just like in book 1 the ghoul plot line failed to fully capture my attention, not sure why. But it’s nicely woven throughout the story and there is enough focus on the other parts as well, that it worked well for me. There are some developments in the ghoul plot line and I liked seeing some of the witchy powers come in handy.

The reverse harem aspect develops more in this book. And it was great to see how things developed. I really enjoyed the romance aspect. Iphi entered into a relationship with both Caspian and Rhys in book 1, but in this book her feelings for Dom are growing as well. And they have to figure out how to deal with. I liked how there is a bit of drama, but not too much and how it touches upon topics like jealously as well. I like how they communicate about things, but it also felt realistic that saying and actually seeing it are different and that even with the communication not everything goes smoothly. And they change their opinion a few times as well. Although a few changes felt a bit sudden, overall I thought it was all handled well.

This book is told from multiple point of views, not only do we get Iphi’s point of view, but also the four men and even a few chapters from Nolan’s point of view as well. I thought this really helped get a better feel for the different characters, although it could still be confusing at times remembering hwo’s point of view it was as they do sound similar.

I felt this book especially did a good job of giving more insight in Dom and Torn. It was interesting to see Dom and Iphi connect and how he figured something out about her she hasn’t shared with the rest yet and they connect in a different way. I thought Torn has some interesting thoughts and observations and found his perspective quite interesting, even with the situation he is stuck in. He does get overtaken by his shifter instincts at times, which made sense, even tough it made me sad. I do hope things about this situation get resolved soon.

I still felt like the men were a bit too protective about Iphi at times, but I felt like they handled it better in this book and it does make sense they are concerned as the big baddie seems to be after her. I also thought they responded a bit too often with violence, but that’s the nice contrast with Iphi who always wants to talk things through.

I also thought it was interesting how this book sheds some more light on Iphi’s mother and I can see why Iphi acts the way she does with her. And while I do think her mother has a strange way of showing she cares and definitely isn’t the most pleasant person to be around, I also thought it sort of made sense why she acted like that. And at the same time she is still pretty unlikeable and can be very cold and harsh. I think it’s well done how the author didn’t fully turn her into a villain, but instead made her an interesting if difficult to deal with side character. It also was interesting to hear more of Nolan, his story and his connection to the others and why he felt left out.

To summarize: Radiant Light is a great sequel and I really enjoyed seeing how the story progressed. The main focus is on the romance, which is great and there are a bunch of other plot lines going on as well. I had some trouble getting into the story at first and didn’t care for a scene at the start, but after that I started to really enjoy the book. It was great to see how the reverse harem aspect developed in this book and all the struggles and figuring things out that accompanied it. I liked learning more about Dom in this book and also liked some of the interesting observations Torn made. I really like Iphi as a main character with how kind she is. The story also touches upon some topics like jealousy and communication in a relationship which was great to read about. I also liked how we learn more about the side characters Iphi’s mother and Nolan in this book. All in all I thought this was a solid sequel and I am curious to see how things get wrapped up in the next book.

Links:
– Goodreads
– Amazon

You can also read my review on Goodreads and Amazon.

What’s the last paranormal romance book you read?