Reviewed by Sarina
TITLE: Buried Desires
SERIES: Soulbonded #1
AUTHOR: A.E. Wasp
PUBLISHER: Kelpie Press
LENGTH: 204 pages
RELEASE DATE: May 10, 2016
BLURB:
The vengeful ghost of a murdered girl stalks the innocent. A forbidden passion ignites in the dark. Secrets of the past that doom the present rise with the dead at Eden Lake.
For Nikolai and Alexei, their jobs at Camp Nevele were supposed to be a break from real life, a last deep breath of freedom before returning to their family and the traditional marriages arranged for them. But the peace of the summer is shattered when the ghost of a brutally murdered girl begins to kill.
Even within his Romany family, Alexei has always been different. Gifted with the sight, he’s lived his life knowing something dark hunts them. A being from the otherworld unwilling to stop until it gets what it wants…and what it wants is Nikolai.
As the boys struggle to put the spirit to rest before it kills again, they find it harder and harder to deny the passion burning between them.
Despite the deep taboos of their upbringing, desire ignites between the young men and they are left with a devastating choice between holding on to each other and losing everything they’ve ever known. But the very love that binds them together may separate them forever and the choice may not be theirs to make.
Fans of the supernatural and passionate stories of first love will fall in love with the fantasy romance of Nikolai and Alexei and their desperate struggle to stay together.
REVIEW:
I’ll be the first to admit that I don’t really know much about the Romany culture and what knowledge I do possess came directly from My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding on TLC and even then its been a few years. Reading the blurb and finding out that the main characters were both from that culture was one of the main reasons I decided to give this book a try and while there weren’t a ton of details about their heritage or way of life, I really enjoyed the uniqueness it gave to the story. Put that alongside the ghost of a dead girl who’s killing people at a summer camp and you have an interesting blend of religious and supernatural elements that came together to make an entertaining read that captured my attention more than I expected it to.
While the ghost in the lake does feature prominently in the story, as she’s what the plot revolves around, I found Alexei and Nicolai, and their unique type of ‘coming of age’ storyline to be more of the focus and that’s what I was really interested in reading about; the paranormal elements were just kind of a bonus for me in this case. The ghost part of the story was a nice accompaniment to the changing relationship between the main characters but I was captivated by the deepening connection between Alexei and Nicolai. The air of mystique they have surrounding how they came to be found and raised as Romanies added to that and just made them more interesting to me.
Now, let me drop a bit of a warning/explanation about one of my tags here. I did label the story with an incest tag but that was more out of caution than anything else as there is no actual evidence to prove Alexei and Nicolai are related. They were raised together but no one knows if they are actually related in any way. To me, it didn’t feel as though they were but I figured I would drop the tag just in case as there was some confusion on this issue. The story itself flowed well and without a great deal of drama and I found it entertaining from start to finish. The ending, however, has raised quite a few questions and has only whetted my appetite for more. (I’m happy to say the sequel has already been released so I won’t have to wait for answers!) If you enjoy paranormal stories and are looking for characters with a unique cultural background I’d give this one a look; I’m really glad I did because I thoroughly enjoyed it!
RATING: 
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