Be Inspired

Delving into the world of the paranormal is a leap for author Cora Carmack, who usually writes sweet, romance books like her 2012 release, Losing It, and recent release All Broke Down.  Despite the newness of the paranormal world in her writing, she does a superior job combining both the romantic elements we all love with other worldly elements, thus creating another amazing story line that definitely drew this reader to the edge of her seat.

Inspire, is the first in what is going to be the Muse Trilogy.  This story begins with Kallie, who is a muse (and a bit manic) that has lived a thousand life times seducing and inspiring men to create masterpieces.  She knows the only rule is to not get attached to any of them.  What happens though when she is tired of living like this and wants a stable life, a normal life, a mortal life?  What happens when she meets Wilder Bell?  Sometimes you want what you're not supposed to have, and Kallie finds herself very much wanting Wilder. The question is:  is she willing to trade everything to be with him?

Kallie tries throughout the story to stay away from Wilder but the two have definite sparks between them and he's not willing to give up on his pursuit of her.  The story leads us to believe that they have this magical connection that no matter what could've happened, that they would still have met and fallen for each other.  That it is their destiny to be joined.  I'm not sure I'm into believing that part of the story, but I guess when you're dealing with paranormal and fantasy then you just have to go with the flow and believe that anything is possible.

Part of the paranormal and fantasy stuff deals with Greek mythology, muses, and gods.  It's a different element for a story line and interesting.  Carmack weaves bits and pieces of this into the story but we don't see a lot of it really coming to the surface until the end of this book.  I'm assuming this fact and the huge cliffhanger are to lead us right into the second in the series, where we're going to see a whole lot more. Carmack herself has even hinted at possible spin off story lines following other muses (Kallie's sisters) and other characters.

There are still many of the typical romantic aspects in this story that we tend to see in other novels by Carmack, so it's not a huge stretch of her writing to add this unique twist to it.  She does a great job developing these two very complex characters, who each for various reasons have a lot of baggage they're bringing to the table.  I mean, hello?  Kallie is a flippin' mythological muse who's like a billion years old!   Then there's sweet, sensitive Wilder... who has his own issues to deal with.

I really enjoyed this book, although it honestly started a bit slow and took a little longer than usual to get into.  I loved how kind and patient Wilder was with Kallie and how he just wouldn't give up on her.  I really enjoyed the paranormal element of the story because it was something really different and added a very fun spin on what would've been a more typical romance story.  I even liked the HUGE cliffhanger ending...mostly because it ensures that there will definitely be more coming!