Rogue Gadda by Nicole Murphy

Rogue Gadda by Nicole Murphy is the final instalment of the Dream of Asarlai trilogy. You can read my reviews of the first book, Secret Ones, and the second book, Power Unbound, at their respective links.

Rogue Gadda is definitely the best of the trilogy. Murphy’s writing has steadily improved over the three books, culminating in the the final instalment with the resolution of the over-arching plot. I found Rogue Gadda to have a more complex plot with more layers than the previous books including an unexpected twist in the middle.

As with the first two books, Rogue Gadda follows the stories of two characters, one of which is a Guardian of the gadda (the magic race based in Ireland) and the other a somewhat outside gadda. Being paranormal romance, of course they end up together after some plot-based ups and downs. This time, the male lead was Hampton who made some appearances in the earlier books and who is heavily involved with working with the other guardians to retrieve the forbidden texts that the villain stole in book 1. The female lead is Charlotte, one of the lost gadda who broke off from the main group centuries ago. She lives in Boston running an aromatherapy oil (sort of) shop and doesn’t know very much about the gadda until hers and Hampton’s paths cross. Because the main characters change from book to book, each of the trilogy could be read as stand-alone. Even though the over-arching climax takes place in Rogue Gadda, Charlotte is relatively new to the world of gadda and needs things explained, not in a repetitive boring way, but in a way that would probably help a reader who just picked up this book.

I have to say, I wasn’t a big fan of Charlotte. She wasn’t a poorly written character, nor did she behave stupidly or annoyingly, I just got the feeling that in real life we definitely wouldn’t be friends. Obviously, this is a completely subjective opinion that I wouldn’t particularly expect others to share, but I did get a bit sick of her towards the end.

Overall, I enjoyed Rogue Gadda the most out of the trilogy and I highly recommend it to lovers of paranormal romance, even if they aren’t able to get a hold of the earlier books.

4.5 / 5 stars