The Bellator Saga by Cecilia London Reviewed

Title: The Bellator Saga: First Trilogy
Author: Cecilia London
Publication Date: February 29, 2016

Two souls intertwined. One epic love story.

Get swept away in the passionate romance between political opposites Caroline Gerard and Jack McIntyre in the first half of The Bellator Saga.

This set contains the first three books in the series, Dissident, Conscience, and Sojourn.

Dissident
Rising Democratic star Caroline Gerard is reluctant to fall in love again after losing her husband. Can Republican playboy Jack McIntyre break through her grief and capture her heart? Told mostly in flashback and set against a chilling fascist backdrop,Dissident is a rollercoaster ride of political intrigue, passionate romance, and undying love.

Conscience
Caroline faces the biggest challenge of her life when confronted with the cruelty and sadism of her captors at The Fed. Hope fades quickly, even as she holds onto her one last bit of sanity and her unshakable belief that her husband will rescue her. But is that faith just a mirage?

Sojourn
Reeling from her experiences at The Fed, Caroline tries to forge ahead and create a new identity. But that’s hard to do with the ghosts of the past constantly whispering in her ear. She is determined to find the rebellion and move on with her life, but what will she find when she arrives there?

Includes bonus material featuring a deleted scene from Sojourn, a sneak peek at Phoenix, and a never before released love scene told in Jack’s first person point of view!

Book 1: Dissident

The way this book kicked off was highly intriguing and interesting that had me wanting to dig in into the book immediately. The way the story was told was also good since you get to see a little of what have been and what happened after the introduction took place.

I don’t think books like this is for everyone since this touch politics which not many people find interesting. But I like that aspect of it. Although living in another country, the Democrat and the Republican stuff got me confused. I have a general idea but I don’t really know how it works, thus there were times that I was a little lost when it gets to the technical aspect of that side of politics. It’s kind of a learning experience, too because I had to google a few things to understand them.

This book is also a little on the dark side and getting a little darker with the turn of every page. You get this feeling that none of it is gonna turn good in the end which will leave you hanging with all the questions because apparently, book 1 won’t give you any answer to whatever question you formed in your head. This book also made it hard to trust people in this book or rather series.

Emotionally speaking, I don’t really know how to describe how this book made me feel. But yes it’s interesting and if you’re into this kind of books, you’ll want to immediately devour the next.

Rating: 4

Book 2: Conscience

If you’re not into dark books and violence, I highly suggest you stay out of this book. Because man, if you’re not made of sterner stuff, I assure you’ll have some sort of trauma before you reach the end.

I’m not really one to curse, but I find myself saying “Fuck, this can’t end well” over and over as I read along. Honestly, I pride myself for not being shaken when reading books other people warned as too dark. But man, this book made me admire Caroline the leading female in this book. I just can’t imagine how she managed it all. I’m like, “give up already! Damn it.” (Which by the way will make this review need a whole lot of fixing before amazon will let me post this) But really, I don’t think any body can endure as much as Caroline did.

On the other hand, I admire the author. It must not have been easy to write this sort of thing. I feel exhausted after reading this book I needed to take a break before reading the next one. I still don’t think there’s a way for this to end up good which makes me want to bail and not read the last one but also am very curious how the author will play it through. This book must have undergone some serious thinking to be played this well this far. So I guess even if I can’t see how this will end up good for Caroline, I’m still curious to how this will end and how will she pull through. Can she still even pull through? Will she even have enough courage left to do that? I’m crossing my fingers.

Rating: 5

Book 3: Sojourn

This book is the most hopeful one yet and though I still have my reservations and still believe that there’s no way this will end up good there’s a bit ray of sunshine on this one.

I just wished the ‘the past’ portion didn’t take too much time in the book. I get why the past need to play a part in book one. And I really think it’s highly relevant in book 2 since it formed like a breather throughout the ordeal. But here in book 3, I felt like the “the past’ were a waste of space. I just want to read about the here and now and how will they get there and the past keep messing on the way. Honestly, I just skipped through most of them specially when it’s hinted that it’ll be another love scene. If it can’t be eliminated, I would have appreciate it better it there were less details into it.

This book is where they moved forward, for the characters, for the story and I guess for the reader too. If I take the past of the equation, this book made me feel on the edge in a different way than the second book did. I might have had to hold my breathe a time or two and did the long sigh afterwards. The ending was kind of something that I saw but I didn’t quite expect to really happen but then it’s a good thing that it happened.

Of course, it ended in another cliffhanger. I just hope the next book will come out soon otherwise, I might forget some important details to fully understand what’s to come next and I don’t think I have the energy to reread through it again just to remember those details.

Rating; 3.5