Review: Deceived by Stephanie Nelson

SPOILER ALERT: If you haven't read Craved by Stephanie Nelson, you may want to hold off on reading this review.

The vampire drug, brew, nearly ruined Gwen Sparks’ life. Just when things started to get back to normal between her and Aiden, she is summoned by the North American Witches Council to their central city of Moon. A war is imminent between vampires and witches, and Gwen’s experiences with brew are being used to fuel the fire. She is about to discover just how powerful she is with the help of the ruggedly handsome Angel of Death and just how far some people will go to get what they want. Gwen is going to learn exactly what it means to be Deceived.

Ian is back and making the worlds most frightening appearance, but what is he really up to? With the war "brewing" (haha, get it?) over vampires addicted to witches blood, everyone seems a bit tense. And while all Gwen wants is to be left alone to watch over her magic shop, she finds herself smack dab in the middle. When Dorian, the Angel of Death steps in to help tone her connection with death, will Gwen be able to keep her hands to herself? After all, she's still with Aiden, the sexy vampire a bit on the dark side.

I cannot express how much I loved this book. As you know from my review of Craved, I was a bit torn up over what to to rate it. I swayed from a 3 to a 4, finally deciding on a 4 due to how things built up and exploded in the end. Just as I was hoping, Stephanie takes everything Craved was and expanded.

I loved how we specifically found the title throughout the book. The explanations of different people being deceived, the secrets that lie behind the shadows and how the people we thought we could trust, may not be so trustworthy after all. This definitely helped to keep the theme throughout the book.

I also should note that there is a bit of sex and sexual violence in Deceived. Everything was completely tactful and went along well with the storyline.

Overall, this book was a fantastic read with everything you look for: action, romance, awkward tensions and connections to the spirit world. I cannot wait for Taming the Wolf.

My Rating for this book:

 Stephanie Nelson is a writer from Illinois. Inspired by Stephanie Myers' Twilight series, she realized how possible it was to fall in love with a book. So began the inspiration to create her own stories. When she isn't writing, she loves to play around on Facebook, watch movies, reading and being around her family. She considers herself to be "a very down to earth girl who just happens to be living her dream." To hear more about Stephanie visit her website at http://www.stephanienelson.com/ . 

To see an excerpt of Deceived, click here.