Dark Matter by Christie Rich

Elemental Enmity #2

"Rayla Tate’s dreams for the future shattered when she discovered she was an Elemental capable of manipulating matter. Thrust, once again, into the magical fae realm of Faeresia, she has an important choice to make. But now that she has Heath to contend with, deciding between Zach and Luke is the least of her concerns. Tall, dark and lethal to her will, her attraction to Heath eclipses all she has experienced with any other lord, but he is using compulsion to wear her down. If only she could trust her feelings? 

In a desperate attempt to escape Heath, she accepts the help of a little troll and finally gets what she wants; however, her relief is short-lived. Things go terribly wrong when a dark force closes in on her, threatening to steal her burgeoning power before she even has a chance to test her abilities. Now, with Rayla as their captive, the Order will stop at nothing to create a male Elemental, and willing or not, Rayla is the key. 

Caught up in the age-old battle for dominance between human and fae, only one question matters to her now—will she be able to save those she loves most without losing herself in the process? Or will she be forever haunted by the choices she alone can make?"

A lot can be said about this book. This is the sequel to Five, I read the first book almost a year ago. And while I liked it better than I thought I would, as a whole the book didn't really wow me the way I wanted it to. This sequel is a far better book than the first one. The first third of the book was rather annoying, and I was very pleased when the story took a turn from "who will I choose" to "how will I save the people I care about". Rayla is still unsure who to choose, but right now, I have a feeling that it will be Zach. Whenever anything happens, her first thought goes to him.

If it weren't the constant reminder that she holds some deep power that everybody wants, the number of men that are throwing themselves at her would have been really annoying and unbelievable. I mean, I know she is supposed to be pretty, but if it weren't because of her mysterious power it wouldn't make any sense. But on a different note, it does bother me that she has equal feelings for more than two people. I can understand having mixed feelings for two people.. but three? I can only hope that that gets cleared up in the next book.

One, I guess the negative thing I have to say about all this is, that often times the writing seemed to just glaze over when things were happening. I'm not sure if this is supposed to be a written encounter of events that happened in her past, or what. But more than once as I was reading it felt as if she was retelling the story in a kind of journal form. I still want to finish the series, I mean I like it enough to want to know what happens in the end.