After reading Silver, I was wondering if I should read Gold. After I started, I read it in less than a day. This book is a page turner, and once you start it you won't be able to stop. The only reason I didn't give it five stars is because there are a few scenes that get way too...intimate for my liking. The writing style is very fluent and doesn't feel forced. Overall I think this book is definitely worth reading. ( )

Gold by Talia Vance
(Book #2: The Bandia Series)
Source: Netgalley
Rating: 5/5 stars

Ireland is a wonderfully beautiful country (I know, I have been there) except when you are on the run and hoping to simply survive. Brianna has fled her home and is en route to Lorcan Hall, the home of her enemy and the god she returned to Hell, Austin Montgomery. Yeah, you read that correctly. Keep your friends close and your enemies closer . . .

Completely unhappy with her situation, Brianna does her best to settle in to life in Ireland and keep abreast of the changes occurring in her world. The Sons of Killian want her dead, her ex, Blake is a complete asshat, and despite not wanting to like him, Brianna finds herself drawn to Austin. Let’s keep the awful rolling, shall we? There is new god in town, Pwil – once Austin’s right-hand man in Hell - who is bound and determined to start a war that will result in “his kind” being returned to their “rightful place”. Pwil’s very presence has sent out a sort of supernatural signal that is drawing the world’s supernaturals to Ireland and right to Brianna and Austin’s doorstep. Though both want to avoid a war, they know it may be damn near impossible to prevent.

In her search for a solution to the supernatural smack down, Brianna inadvertently trips a trigger that opens a portal to the past. Interestingly, the portal takes her to Austin and the time before he becomes a soulless god and guardian of Hell. Brianna begins to see Austin – both past and present – in a completely different light. Brianna also begins to wonder if she can shut down the current situation by altering the past. Never, in a million years can Brianna envision what she discovers in her quest to save the world. Her discoveries in both the past and the present are one of the strongest and most interesting aspects of this book!! And no, I am not going to spoil it for you in this review 

The Bottom Line: I LOVED THIS BOOK!!! Vance has apparently never heard of the sophomore slump and came out swinging with Gold!! There is so much going on in this book with the past, the present, the mythology and backstories, the addition of some new and seriously fun characters, the romantic element, the huge supernatural smack down and, the totally out of left-field ending. With all of this, Vance could have easily lost her way and completely confused and frustrated the reader. None of this happened and Gold has proven to be a fantastic follow-up to Silver. Vance takes her time, builds her plot, evolves her characters and, keeps the reader desperate for more. I highly recommend this read but caution the reader to begin with book one!! ( )

Please someone tell me there is a Platinum in the works, please!! I was just okay with Silver. The mythology of the bandia is hard to follow, the relationship between Brianna and Blake even harder. I never really understood it in Silver. It just never seemed to make sense. It didn't feel right and it was just too hard. They didn't even seem like they liked each other. Now, sexually, yeah, they were hot. But otherwise, meh. So I wanted to see where this novel went. I mean, IRELAND. I'll read about digging graves if it's set in Ireland! But I got a novel that I couldn't put down from the minute I started. Okay, so maybe the first couple of pages I couldn't understand what had happened, but Talia Vance digs right in and tells us in a flashback what happened.

This makes the third book I've read by Talia Vance and this one feels like she has finally found where she's comfortable. The writing flows smoothly and there is no point where there is a jarring disconnect in the story. I thought Silver had those times, I'm thinking those might have been intentional, and perhaps the whole unbelievable relationship was intentional. You'll understand when you read Gold. And I highly recommend you read this one. Gold shines like it's name. There are "sexy times" which come so slow you practically want to reach through the book and help them along. But I'm not complaining. Everything comes at the right pace, the tension is done really well, that's why you're anxious for it to happen. My stomach was in knots so many times- those Sons of Killian are single minded in their desire to kill the bandia. And Brianna is always right there, ready to be killed.

The story in Gold is explained much better. There is time travel, more Gods, and an epic battle scene. Of course, there is loss, isn't that how it always goes? Someone always loses in battle. There are losses I really didn't count on. I confess, I read the ending before I finished the book. I cheat like that sometimes. It didn't spoil the book for me though. I had to find out how they got from where they were to how it ended. And it was one hell of a read! Literally! As a second book, it far exceeds the first and is one of those books I was pulling my sweatshirt over my head juggling my e-reader in my hand so I could still read. When I finished it, there was nothing I could read that would satisfy me. You know when you've just read this great adventure and you come down off this high and you want to feel it again and you have no idea what is going to give you that high again? So I started it over again. I figure as fast as I read it, I'm bound to have missed something. And it's rare, right now that I'm rereading a book. Yes, it was that good. But there has to be a third book, right? Right??? Please! I'm begging! That can't be the end. It just can't.

I received a copy of this novel for review from the publisher through NetGalley. This did not influence my review. All opinions expressed are my own. ( )