Review: Sweet Sacrifice

Sweet Sacrifice by L.D. Rose
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I cannot begin to explain how much I adore L.D Rose’s The Order of the Senary series. Without a doubt, it’s one of my favourite paranormal romance series. Which is saying something, when you stop to think of how only two of the books have been released thus far. It’s a sure sign you’re a goner when you’re as addicted as I am so quickly. Knowing how much I adore The Order of the Senary series, it should come as no surprise to hear I jumped at Sweet Sacrifice as soon as I had the chance.

Sweet Sacrifice is the ninth book in The Soul Mate Tree Collective. It’s a series of standalone novellas, one for each month for thirteen months. We’re promised a collection of wonderful stories, all linked back to the soul mate tree. Thus far, I have read the first three novellas in the collective. The first three novellas – Realm of the Dragon, Can’t Stop the Music, and Between Venus & Mars – were all wonderful reads. I thoroughly enjoy them all, each offering something very different. I also have the fourth novella – The Trail to Love – on my Kindle, ready for me to dive into soon. Despite having novella number four on my Kindle, I had to read Sweet Sacrifice first. L.D. Rose is one of those authors I will willing bump up my to-read list. I needed to know what happened in Sweet Sacrifice, and I needed a fresh dose of L.D. Rose.

Sweet Sacrifice is a wonderful addition to The Soul Mate Tree Collective. This isn’t just my L.D. Rose bias speaking – it’s a fact that I need to state. The story is wonderful, playing with so many of your emotions throughout. Honestly, it’s a truly wonderful read. It had the trademarks I have come to recognise as pure L.D. Rose, along with offering a range of things we have yet to experience in The Order of the Senary series. Without a doubt, this story really shows off what L.D. Rose is capable of.

If you’re a fan of L.D. Rose, you need to pick this one up. If you’re a fan of The Soul Mate Tree Collective, you need to pick this one up. If you’re new to either, you cannot go wrong with picking this one up.

Sweet Sacrifice will be a difficult read for a number of people – it is a fact people need to be aware of in advance. Our male lead has made the greatest sacrifice possible – he gave his own life to save his brothers in arms. Sometimes authors fail to hit the right tone when telling soldier’s stories, yet this one is deeply emotional. There is a certain point in this story where things become overly emotional, where the details are shared, and people need to be warned of this. Not because there is a lot of gore, but because of how heavy the emotions are. There is no denying it will play with your heartstrings.

In addition to this deeply emotional story, L.D. Rose delivers a fantastic supernatural storylines. I like to think you can never go wrong with angels and demons, but you can. There are more bad stories out there than I care to accept. Sweet Sacrifice is not one of them. The classics of angel and demon stories can be found within this one, along with enough new stuff being introduced to make the story unique. You’re quickly pulled into the supernatural world, coming to love the world building and the characters.

My favourite aspect of this story was the way L.D. Rose kept us guessing until the very end. I once read an interview where a romance author spoke of how happily ever afters are a must. Romance is escapism, the fairy tale everyone is looking for. We expect to see rainbows and butterflies. L.D. Rose had me seriously doubting this. In the back of my mind, I was cursing the soul mate tree. It had to work – it just had to. Yet L.D. Rose had me seriously worried. The tension really does build in this regard. Mix it in with all the heavy emotions involved in the overall storyline, and you’re left a tight ball of tension throughout.

Without a doubt, this was a wonderful read. I cannot recommend this one enough, as it truly is beautiful.

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