Coveted

Coveted. Christina C. Jones. 2019. 107 pages. [Source: Kindle Unlimited.]

I am so pleased that Christina C. Jones is back with the second installment in the “Eternally Tethered” series, Coveted. With this book, she focuses on younger sister Ancelin and further explorers the ties between her and Nasir that were introduced in 2015’s Haunted.

Ancelin is known as a bit of a wild child; her reputation for hedonism is well-known. She, like Khalida in Haunted, is loath to commit to one person for fear of getting hurt or making the wrong choice in partner. However, when a series of odd and forboding coincidences keep occurring in relation to Ancelin, she’s forced to accept Nasir as a bodyguard. As Aram’s right-hand man, Nasir is unquestionably loyal to Ancelin and will guard her life at all costs. The reasons run deeper for him, but Ancelin takes a while to get to a point of truly understanding his motivations. Along the way, though, the two have a deliciously tense chemistry that has Ancelin doing all she can to tempt Nasir.

I enjoyed Coveted even more than Haunted, which I was a bit shocked to realize. I’m still not into paranormal, so these two books are my only forays into the genre. Perhaps it is more a testament to Jones and her recent approach to releasing books that stretch her beyond her own comfort zone. Whatever the case, I felt this book built on Haunted, diving deeper into Khalida and Ancelin’s origin story, particularly related to their romantic partners.

With this book, Jones presents more elements of paranormal than the time-bending in Haunted. In doing so, she broadened the scope of the story, in my opinion. I wondered how she would reconcile the constant separations over time, and with this book, she answers several of those questions but leaves enough to make me covet book 3 (you see what I did there?). The suspense factor throughout the book was also high. I was on edge most of the time wondering what was real versus what was a hallucination and how the past would impact the characters in the future. While the romance piece was definitely significant plot element, it shared the spotlight well with the story of the main characters figuring out what was plaguing Ancelin and why.

Oh yes, there is a book three, and I cannot wait. The introduction of new characters Zair and Eryn, and the reappearance of Khalida and Ancelin’s meddlesome grandmother has me excited to see how she resolves the issues and closes out this series.