Lady Fiona Campbell is a renowned children’s book illustrator. She donates to charity and, by day, lives a perfectly respectable English life. But at night, she’s the Scarlet Ninja, a thief who has never been caught and who fences the stolen items and donates the money from their sale to charity. The Siren is her next big heist, so when she finds out she’s not the only person trying to steal it, she isn’t a happy camper. However, the man who is trying to steal it is very intriguing. So intriguing that she accidentally lets him see her without her mask.

So, long story short: he blackmails her into a partnership to steal the gem, she accepts, and together they try to find the gem that has just gone missing, stay alive as the Vampires and the Shifters are also after the gem, and try to keep their hormones in check.

When I picked up Atlantis Betrayed and read the back cover write up, I went, “Are you kidding me? Warriors from Atlantis? Ninjas? Seriously?” To be honest, I had no idea how all of this was going to go together. But it did! So I have to give Alyssa Day some serious props for taking such an outlandish plot and making it work. I really liked Atlantis Betrayed. It was fun, sexy, and a real page-turner.

The chemistry between Christophe and Fiona is electric. Both are stubborn and strong personalities. Both never cease to surprise the other and they fall into sync very, very quickly.

This blend of fantasy and romance satisfies. Atlantis Betrayed is set both in present day London and Atlantis. The two worlds stand in stark contrast to each other, and while both are populated with fantastical elements, Atlantis is portrayed as a utopia, where London is shown more or less as a dark and foreboding world on the brink of war. I enjoyed the parallel between the two worlds and found that it helped mirror Christophe and Fiona as they both come from backgrounds that dabble in the fantastic, but also in the dark and normally disastrous areas of the human psyche.

The supporting characters are a mix of dastardly and evil, charming and funny, and straight-up sex kitten. I particularly liked Hopkins, Fiona’s butler, who is both a father figure, but also one bad ass uptight British butler. He’s very proper, but it’s made obvious that he wasn’t always a butler, and in his time before being a butler, he knew how to handle a firearm and how to take down both humans and supernatural creatures alike. He’s also ridiculously sarcastic, and since I’m a real fan of sarcasm and dry wit, this worked for me.

The sex? Very well written. Not for the faint of heart, mind you (hence the R rating) but if you like a little oomph in your romance novels, this one has quite a bit.

So if you’re looking for a great fantasy book to read his holiday season, consider Atlantis Betrayed. It’s got a little of everything and, oddly, it all works.

--Lindsey Seddon