Book 875: Souls Aligned (Tasier #2) – Arian Williams

What a dangerous opening line! For some reason when I said yes to this book, I mean I did read the first one after all, I didn’t realize a chunk of it would be taking place in Boston.*

It’s always a gamble with me when it’s in a town I’ve lived in or have been to frequently. Thankfully, Williams didn’t disappoint, but that’s because she kept everything super vague and general, which I’d rather an author do than screw up something everyone who’s been in the city for more than an hour knows.

Book two, Souls Aligned, of Williams Tasier series picks up not long after the first book, Dream Bound finished. Where it differs is that the first half of the book is almost all flash backs. It almost didn’t work for me, and honestly if there were one or two more I might’ve had to consider DNFing and abandoning the series. I get that Williams wanted to give us the back story of Eric and Bhas, but it took WAY too long. I mean all I really wanted to know about was WTF was going on with Joon’s parents and who were these super powerful people at Tasier!?

Thankfully, Williams finally got to it and we got a lot more information, sort of, about who the powerful beings are that run Tasier. This includes Bhas, Sett, Niki or Nial (can’t remember which), Ash, and Ari. They’re not human, but I’m not sure they’re alien either. They’re hermaphroditic and can both impregnate and be impregnated and their soul bonds are vital to helping their partners have long lives because they live to be in the thousands of years old (Bhas is young at only 3-to-4,000 years old).

The main storyline did progress significantly, but it’s only in like half leaps forward. They were able to rescue Joon’s mother, but not his father, and in doing so Erik was sent back in time to ancient Rome. It was probably one of the cooler aspects of the story, but it lacked depth. I’m not sure if Williams got tired or wasn’t 100% in it, but they could’ve done so much more with that series of scenes. The “battle” between Bhas and Ari, was pretty bad ass, and Erik and Bhas’ reuniting was well done.

The sex seemed a bit more gratuitous in this novel than the last one. It probably has more to do with Eric’s cockiness as a character and less to do with Williams’ writing of the scenes. They were well written with a decent heat level with a bit of humor thrown in here and there.

Recommendation: This was a good continuation of the Tasier series, but I’m not sure it’s going to keep me engaged if it goes longer than a third book. The entire first half of this story was giving us Eric and Bhas’ backstory which was useful to know, but it dragged on a little too long for me. When the story shifted back to the main storyline around Joon’s parents the pacing picked up drastically and I finished it a lot faster. I’m assuming the third book will be about Nial and Niki, but we’ll see when it comes out.

*I received a copy of Souls Aligned via Gay Romance Reviews in return for my honest opinion. No goods or money were exchanged.

Opening Line: “The plane touched down smoothly on the runway of Boston Logan International Airport.”

Closing Line: “He swiped the screen on, and a text message from Nikki popped up. Check your email!“ (Whited out to avoid spoilers, highlight to read.)