Narrated by Cooper North
I was on the fence about the story in Death Eternal, book one in Richard Amos’ Necromancer Rising series, but in my review, I said that I would probably listen to the next book because the final reveal and cliff-hanger had me intrigued and wanting to find out what happened next. The four audiobooks in the series are on a monthly release schedule, so I didn’t have long to wait before I could get started on Death Enraptured, which picks up where Death Eternal left off.
Note: This is the second book in a same-couple series with overarching plotlines – there are spoilers for the previous book in this review.
At the end of Death Eternal, Marcel discovered that he and Death have been lovers across the millennia, doomed to find each other, to love each other… and under a curse that brings terrible disaster and many deaths – including Marcel’s – every time. For the last twenty years, Death has been searching for a solution that will allow them to be together without causing any cataclysmic events, and thought he had found it in the form of a magical ruby he had specially made to keep the curse at bay. The downside was that it also kept Marcel from remembering the truth – but when, during a moment of passionate abandon (!) the ruby was ripped from around Death’s neck, all Marcel’s memories of him came flooding back, which means that the curse will find them, too. But while Death is determined to find a way for them to be together without kicking off any natural disasters, Marcel is starting to think that maybe they should do the right thing this go-around and just end things. Death needs to go back to work and Marcel will find a way to deal with the heartbreak and move on. Reluctantly, Death agrees to respect Marcel’s wishes and leave him alone – although he’s not going back to work. “If we can’t be together without all this pain, I won’t perform my duties.”
Marcel very quickly learns that heartbreak is the least of his problems when he discovers that his cheating former fiancé, George, is now engaged again, this time to Robert – who is Marcel’s new work-partner. Worse, Robert and George have been assigned an apartment in the same building as Marcel’s, just two doors down. When he finds out that his boss, Emma, is the one who organised the apartment and didn’t bother telling him, Marcel is angry and upset; she knew he would likely be unhappy about the arrangement but simply doesn’t care about his feelings. All she’s interested in is tracking down Nicholas West, the former High Necromancer of Oakthorne, who was revealed to be a lich – a supposedly long-extinct, undead creature that sustains itself by absorbing the spirits of the dead – who is building an army of rogue necromancers ready to do his bidding for some as yet unknown and nefarious purpose.
Marcel working to track down the lich while Death is trying to find another way for them to be together means they spend a chunk of the book apart, although of course, despite Marcel’s decision they should break up, they can’t stay away from each other for very long. Death goes back to the powerful mage who created the ruby for him, and she agrees to create a spell that will enable him and Marcel to slip into another dimension for short periods of time and prevent them from triggering the curse. Although, of course, such a spell carries an unwelcome price.
I have to give the author credit for his ability to ramp up the tension into an exciting climax and to create cliff-hangers that leave you wanting to know what’s next – but the trouble is that there isn’t too much happening between the cliff-hanger at the end of the first book and the one at the end of this one to make the story really gripping. Death’s search for a way to break or circumvent the curse (which throws up an interesting discovery) and Marcel’s annoyance over George aren’t really enough to keep things moving, and although there are some interesting plot points – the introduction of the mysterious onyx key, which it seems Nick is hunting for, Emma’s machinations, and Marcel’s sudden acquisition of several new powers – they only really come into play late on and the story mostly treads water until the last 20% or so of the book. If there was more chemistry between Marcel and Death and if there’d been some actual relationship development, it would be easier to get invested in their romance, and Death’s determination to find a way for them to ensure that their forbidden love doesn’t bring about any more death and destruction would be way more compelling than it actually is. But clearly, the ‘romance’ is meant to be of the Fated Mates variety, and it’s not a trope I enjoy. I want to listen to two people falling in love, not just be told they fell in love eons ago! The author could, in the previous book, have shown Marcel falling in love with Death again (seeing as he didn’t remember him), but he didn’t, instead relying on what felt like ridiculous levels of insta-lust to try to convince me that they are Meant To Be. (He failed.)
Death is still very underdeveloped as a character, and honestly, comes across as a spoilt brat with his whole ‘not gonna work if I can’t have what I want’ thing. I mean he’s literally condemned millions of spirits to walk the earth rather than find peace just because he wants to be able to shag his boyfriend without the world ending? Sometimes, the needs of the many really DO outweigh the needs of the few. Or the one. (#wisdomofspock) And while I continue to like Marcel and enjoy his dynamic with his family, I really wish he’d grow a backbone. He just meekly accepts the (really suspicious) ban on seeing or talking to Jenn (his former partner), he lets himself be guilted into talking to George when he really doesn’t want to, and he accepts whatever crap Emma throws his way.
Cooper North delivers another excellent performance here, once again employing an impeccable English accent for both narrative and character dialogue. The voices he’s given to the recurring secondary characters are consistent with their portrayals in the previous book (Marcel’s family, Emma, Nick etc.) and he differentiates clearly and expertly between them all. Given that he’s voicing the undead, witches, ghosts and the like, Mr. North gets to play around with a variety of ‘spooky’, from gravelly, angry poltergeists to breathy spirits, crafty witches and lots in between. When it comes to the humans, I liked the contrast between Marcel and Robert – Robert’s voice is deeper and there’s an element of brashness in the delivery – the female voices are good, and the French accent he gives Marcel’s mother is spot on. Oh, and speaking of accents, he does a much better job with the West Country one this time around. (Possibly because there are fewer speaking parts that requrie it, but whatever the reason, it’s an improvement!)
I’m ending this review still on the fence about this series. The finale is exciting, the cliff-hanger definitely has me intrigued and the narration is strong enough to have me considering listening to the next book, but if I do, I’ll need to adjust my expectations for the romance, which doesn’t seem as though it’s going to develop any further. I’m also hoping that the plot will pick up in Death Unbound, seeing as there’s not a great deal going on with that here. I’m clearly in a minority though – reviews on Amazon and Goodreads for Death Eternal and Death Enraptured are overwhelmingly positive (4.05 and 4.31 on GR), so while I can’t give Death Enraptured a total thumbs up, if the Fated Mates trope is one you’re into, then you may well enjoy the series a bit more than I have so far.
Caz
Buy Death Enraptured by Richard Amos on Amazon
