Concealed (Beholder 2) Christina Bauer

As a Grand Mistress Necromancer, Elea’s a witch who commands the ultimate power over spirit and bone. It’s magic that she’ll need in order to stop the Vicomte Gaspard from killing her Sisters by draining their magic along with their life force. 


To find and free her fellow witches, Elea must venture into some of the most dangerous places in the realm. What starts off as a rescue quest could easily turn into a suicide mission. And with the handsome warlock Rowan along to help, Elea may be risking more than her life. Her growing feelings for Rowan might put her heart on the line, too.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
My Review:     (Thanks to NetGalley) 

While this book can be read as a stand-a-lone I really felt like I was missing out on part of the experience by not reading the first book (Cursed). 

There was only 6 main characters and the 2 evil ones (the Tsar and the Vicomte) were both obviously introduced and fleshed out in the first book. They seemed more like evil cardboard cutouts in this book...... And they were still probably the most interesting characters. The whole Rowan and Elea relationship was ruined by the ending. No spoilers, but I read the end first and pissed myself off so much that I hated Rowan from the start and though Elea was TSTL for falling for him. She's a necromancer - someone who is suppose to be emotionless, so I also felt like it was her own stupid fault. Phillipe was almost interesting but the author seemed to have decided he was better for nothing more than sleeping with any woman who would move. Amelia was a naive twit and how she ended up in the end (getting the perfect life basically) made me want to smack her. 

Because I didn't read Elea's 'learning' story (book one), seeing her use her powers in this book made me feel like she was a bit of a Mary-Sue and the ending just seemed to confirm this. I don't know how the author is going to continue the story into the next two books but considering the third book is going to be called Cherished and the fourth Crowned, I'm intrigued enough that I would read them if I got them from netgalley. 

My advice? Read Cursed first to get the full experience and don't read the end of Concealed before the start, you will spend the entire book hating most of the characters! lol.