I received an eARC of this book from the author. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Oh Desmond *swoon* The Emperor of Evening Stars by Laura Thalassa is everything I wanted and didn’t know I needed from The Bargainer series. Told exclusively from the King of Night’s perspective, this novella is a glimpse into the life of Des, before and after Callie entered it.

Des is my favorite male character written by Laura Thalassa (sorry Pluto). So getting a novella from his POV was, to say the least, exciting. Des is a complex character that I don’t think I understood fully until reading this book. I knew that like Callie he was a tortured soul. But I don’t think I got just how tortured he was. This is a man who witnessed the death of his mother and killed his own father….why didn’t that register with me until now?! Everything Des does is in direct contrast to his father. He wants to be his opposite. Where his father was cruel, Des wants to be just. He has built his kingdom on the ashes of his father’s barbarity.

I think the reason I loved this novella so much is because as the reader I got to see some of my favorite scenes from the perspective of Des. All the stories he’s shared with Callie (even a few Malaki shared) from Des’s perspective. This helped to flesh his character out, not that he wasn’t already, but it does help in understanding his motives. There is even the story of how he became the Bargainer which I think I fell in love with the boy more (which I didn’t think possible) after reading it!

Overall I loved this novella! I loved seeing Des in a new, vulnerable light. I loved the scary parts and the hurt parts and the all-consuming love parts. This is a man who would die for those that love him and his thirst for vengeance hasn’t quite been quenched yet. While there is no new information, fans of the series will love Des’s story.