INSPIRE BY CORA CARMACK
Genre: New Adult, Paranormal Romance
“This is what it is to be a muse. I walk the line between want and need, between power and submission. And I make the hard choices.”
― Cora Carmack, Inspire
Series: The Muse
Synopsis:
Kalliope lives with one purpose.
To inspire.
As an immortal muse, she doesn’t have any other choice. It’s part of how she was made. Musicians, artists, actors—they use her to advance their art, and she uses them to survive. She moves from one artist to the next, never staying long enough to get attached. But all she wants is a different life— a normal one. She’s spent thousands of years living lie after lie, and now she’s ready for something real.
Sweet, sexy, and steady, Wilder Bell feels more real than anything else in her long existence. And most importantly… he’s not an artist. He doesn’t want her for her ability. But she can’t turn off the way she influences people, not even to save a man she might love. Because in small doses, she can help make something beautiful, but her ability has just as much capacity to destroy as it does to create. The longer she stays, the more obsessed Wilder will become. It’s happened before, and it never turns out well for the mortal.
Her presence may inspire genius.
But it breeds madness, too.
I am not totally sure still how I feel about this book. There were parts of it I really enjoyed and found intriguing. Then there were parts I found to be a bit boring and dragged causing me to skim over some (mostly the drawn out sex scenes). Carmack’s writing it beautiful and the way she strings together words and thoughts had me highlighting and rereading some passages.
Although I had mixed feelings about the dual perspective, I totally understand and appreciate what Carmack did with it. With the use of the dual perspective I felt like you could watch the progression of feelings and issues through the eyes of both characters instead of just getting one side of the story.
With the major issue that was presented I felt this method of story telling also showed the greater affects and involvement each character had which also played up on the mythology that was use throughout the book.
Speaking of the mythology used, I think the idea of muses is extremely interesting and something I haven’t read about in a book before. My only issue with it was there were times that I forgot this was a paranormal romance. I do not think it was incorporated enough until the very end. It wasn’t until the last twenty or so pages I became extremely intrigued and wanted more of the story and to know what becomes of both Kalli and Wilder.
Kalli and Wilder were both complex characters with their own secrets and issues. I did find Kalli to fall a little flat for me. There were a few time where you really get to see depth and inside her head. I felt like most of the time she was just all too consumed with the same things and it became a little repetitive.
I did find her backstory and some of the problems she dealt with that caused the internal struggle to be really captivating, you just wanted to know how she was going to solve the issues and make a life for herself.
Wilder is definitely a swoon worthy love interest. He too has his own internal struggles and things he is overcoming, but the love he has for his family is absolutely adorable. He has some rough edges, but is so caring and just makes you weak at the knees! I did find there relationship to be quite annoying at times because they were both keeping secrets from each other and cause so much drama that was just frustrating. There were some awesome secondary characters that have that artsy side and I enjoyed all the art and music incorporated throughout the book.
Overall I found this book to be unique and an interesting new adult paranormal romance novel. It definitely has a gripping ending that had me completely hooked and needing the next installment. It has some intense relationships layered with issues and secrets. I could have used some more mythology and paranormal aspects, but found what was presented to be intriguing. It is heavy on the romance and can feel a little insta loving at times but it works with the events of the story. There were not many sex scenes, but for me at least they were long and dragged when they were present. The writing is absolutely beautiful and had some great thought provoking and meaningful messages. I think anyone who enjoys New Adult Novels and Paranormal Romance will find this to be an enjoyable book!
