Tracy’s review of Now or Never (Wizards of Nevermore #2) by Michele Bardsley.
Tormented by nightmares of a woman’s death, Sheriff Taylor Mooreland is shocked to find the woman from his visions chained to an altar in the woods. He barely knows her, but something compels Taylor to protect the mysterious Lenore Whyte no matter what. Even if it means dealing with magic.
And when an investigation into a series of suicides leads Taylor deep into the town’s past, he discovers that the key to saving Lenore and the town of Nevermore may have a surprising connection…
Taylor Mooreland loves the quiet in Nevermore but that’s about to change. He wakes up from a dream about a woman he’s never met and is a bit freaked out. He decides to go on a run and ends up following a talking white raven despite the fact that he thinks he’s losing his freakin mind. He ends up finding a woman next to an altar where it looks like she was about to be sacrificed. When he sees her face he’s a bit freaked out as it ends up that she’s the woman in his dream.
Taylor is transfixed by the woman but since he and the guardian of Nevermore, Gray, are trying to figure out where she came from and what purpose she would serve in being sacrificed he decides he needs to hold off on making his move for a while.
Besides the appearance of Norie, the woman at the altar, there are other strange things going on in Nevermore. Two people who no one thought were depressed have suddenly committed suicide and Taylor can’t figure out why. Then there is the House of Raven investigator who is supposedly looking into someone’s death but everyone knows he’s there for another reason, they just don’t know what that is.
Eventually the story plays out and it turns out that Norie is a being that can either save or destroy the world – with a little help from friends and relatives. While the town and its citizens are trying to save the planet, Taylor is getting more attached to Norie every day and wants nothing more than to make her his forever.
The second book in the Nevermore series was a good one. But let me start off with what I didn’t like about the book. The romance – there wasn’t one. Taylor and Norie felt completely attracted to each other and yes, felt like they should be together. It was probably a fated mate kind of thing but it was so undeveloped as to practically be non-existent. They claimed to themselves the love they felt for the other but being in constant contact, having feelings of lust and actually liking the other person does not a love story make. I was quite disappointed in this aspect of the book as I know that Bardsley can write some fun, funny and touching love stories.
The rest of the book was kind of a paranormal fantasy/investigation story which I actually liked. The whole issue with who Norie was, why she was in town, and what she had to do with all the other players in the book was great. I thought that the world that Bardsley written is fascinating. She’s not afraid to kill people off and I think that adds to the whole of the fantasy world. I have to admit I’m a bit peeved that we were kind of left on a cliff about a couple of aspects of the story but whatcha gonna do, right?
I’ll definitely be reading more in the Nevermore series and hopefully the next book will have a great romance as well as all the other good stuff.
Rating: 3.5 out of 5
The Series:
You can read more from Tracy at Tracy’s Place
This book is available from Signet Eclipse. You can buy it here or here in e-format.
(Wizards of Nevermore) by 
in e-format.