Seventy-Three Hours
Jade Christy
Paranormal Romance
The moment Aria Holt breathes in evil Celeste’s Red Note, the countdown begins: 73 hours until she belongs to Celeste.
Perfumer Aria Holt should smell victory—until a predator has other plans. Celeste wants the bottles back, and she hits Aria with a perfume that binds the wearer in seventy-three hours. Obedience, forever. Celeste and the Patron want their plans for power and wealth to get back on track.
To break the Red Note, Aria needs more than courage. She needs Gabriel, the old-world vampire who chose her over his maker and is falling for Aria; Loki, a charming menace and shifter; and Luna, a clever witch whose spells value consent over control. Together they face Celeste’s empire: a Choir of enchanted bottles, a market built on addiction, and a city tuned to the wrong key.
Every hour tightens the leash. Every clue points toward the same terrible truth: the Red Note isn’t just a perfume—it’s a terrible prison written in blood and glass. To survive, Aria must rely on Luna and Gabriel to break the spell before 73 hours are up, or her life won’t hers.
Tick, tock. In seventy-three hours, love becomes a weapon—or a ruin.
Uncaged Review: In this second book in the Blood Collector series, perfumer Aria Holt is sprayed with evil vampire Celeste’s dangerous perfume, Red Note. This perfume will blood bind Aria to Celeste unless Aria’s vampire love, Gabriel de Clermont, finds a way to stop this from happening. As time is of the essence and whittles down to when Aria becomes tied to Celeste, Aria finds her own unique ways to find possession and losing who she really is, but is it going to be enough to stop Celeste? Even with all of this, what about Aria’s relationship with Gabriel? Will Celeste poison that too? It is a race against time to stop Aria being completely controlled by Celeste, or will Aria become Celeste’s puppet anyhow?
I enjoyed The Blood Collector, the first book in the series, so, of course, I would read this one. To get me back into this story, though, I had to reread the last chapter of the Blood Collector because I had forgotten what happened to the heroine, Aria Holt. Even with that, all the characters, whether they are vampires, shapeshifters, witches and humans, are nicely developed. Luckily, these books aren’t too hard to follow, and this second book picks right up from the cliffhanger ending. This book, being a continuation, can’t really be read as a stand-alone, so you really have to read the first book in order to figure out what is going on too. Unfortunately for me, this book did drag a little bit, moving somewhat sluggishly along, even with the quick time frame Aria had. I felt as if this book was just a standstill for what could have happened. Does it make me want to stop reading the rest? No, I still have the next in the series and do plan to read the rest just to see what happens to everyone.
Reviewed by Roslynn Ernst
3.5 Stars
