All good things must come to an end and sadly I have finally finished reading Fates Fulfilled, the last book in Katrina Strauss' Eldritch Legacy trilogy. I've been lucky enough to have been able to review this entire series and on the whole it is one of the most enjoyable I've read in a long time.

We first meet the Eldritch family in long ago Europe in the first book of the series, Secrets Revealed. Travel forward a few hundred years and we run across some old friends and new in Lessons Learned, the second book in the trilogy. In this final episode, the Eldritch family has turned up in the new world in near present-day West Coast America.

As before, I must issue a word of warning that Fates Fulfilled contains BDSM and other alternate sexual situations, but this volume is considerably more tame than the previous two. If BDSM and light blood play are not your thing, you will want to stay away from this book.

The final installment begins by introducing Marissa Blackwell, a young woman who spent most of her childhood running from the Eldritch family. Eventually she was caught and brought into the fold despite wanting to make it on her own. Always one to show her own strength, she didn't enjoy the benefits of being rich that came with being an Eldritch.

Forced to live on their own for several years before inheriting their fortunes, Marissa and Devon Eldritch, her cousins, were doing the best they could to make ends meet. Marissa had finally landed a job, but Devon couldn't bring himself to work for a living. He was about a soft as they come.

Stranger things have happened to Marissa than meeting an incredibly attractive photographer at an art gallery who wanted to take her picture, but she couldn't shake the strange feeling she had that she had known Gareth Neville before. Instantly attracted to him, Marissa wasn't about to miss the opportunity to get to know him better and what better way than with some sexy pictures?

Gareth Neville had never seen a woman like Marissa before… or had he? As someone who dabbled in magik he knew it was possible to meet people you knew in a previous life. That was the only explanation he could come up with for his sudden and all-encompassing attraction to her. Taking Marissa's picture was going to be only the beginning of their relationship if he had his way and he usually did.

Devon Eldritch wasn't pleased that his cousin Marissa had agreed to meet some seedy photographer at his studio to take BDSM pictures. Didn't she have any idea what happened to young women these days? This Gareth guy could tie her up, whip her, or even worse, and nobody would ever know. Well, he wasn't going to stand by and let it happen. He was going along to check this guy out.

Not believing his eyes as he walked into Gareth's studio, Devon could only stare at the face of Celeste Dupree - his favorite goth pin-up girl. True, he knew what the rest of her looked like from her online photos, but her face alone left him speechless. He couldn't imagine what would happen if he got to see more of her. Well, he could imagine it but those sorts of things didn't happen to him. For some reason Celeste seems very interested in him even though he's just a geeky kid most women try to avoid. Had someone cast a spell on her or something?

Celeste Dupree knew her soul mate when he walked into Gareth's studio. Devon Eldritch was just what she had been looking for and she wasn't about to let him get away. Summoning her powers she quickly worked a black magik love spell to ensure they would always be together. The old wives tale says that if you use black magik it will come back to you three-fold, but she never put much stock in such warnings. After all it was only a simple love spell.

Katrina Strauss takes her time telling this tale and intertwining the lives of these four main characters and while it is interesting enough to those who have read Secrets Revealed and Lessons Learned, I do not think this novel can stand on its own. So please, if you have not read the first two books in the Eldritch Legacy series, please do so before you dive into Fates Fulfilled. I believe you will be very confused if you do not.

I have to admit that I was hoping that Fates Fulfilled would be the climactic finish to this wonderful trilogy and that I would be swept away in the story telling as I was in Ms. Strauss' previous books. Unfortunately I was disappointed.

Fates Fulfilled feels like a forced story that was outlined to get from point A to point B with no room left for depth and detail to make the story enjoyable. The first two books in the series were so carefully crafted that it makes it much more obvious that the care taken with previous stories is missing in Fates Fulfilled.

Also missing is the sensuality displayed in the previous two books. Secrets Revealed and Lessons Learned were both slow and seductive reads with arousing scenes between emotionally involved characters. The relationships between the characters in Fates Fulfilled are undeveloped and cold which leads to sexual encounters that lack spark and realism.

Though I would not recommend Fates Fulfilled to someone who has not read the first two books in the Eldritch Legacy trilogy, I would say that if you have read the first two you should read this one for the closure. Even though Fates Fulfilled is not up to the standards set by the first two books, it is still good to know where Ms. Strauss was leading her characters after all these decades and the trilogy overall is a very enjoyable one.
 
Reviewed By Sabine Maurier
© November 2007