Caught Between Death | “Allegiance” Review (Causal Enchantment, #3)

Cynthia Ayala ’16 / Emertainment Monthly Staff Writer 
By: K. A. Tucker
Published: September 25, 2012
Publisher: Papoti Books
Series: Causal Enchantment
Genre: Urban Fantasy, Paranormal Romance, Young Adult
The curse is off, but it has been replaced by another more deadly one.  After dealing with the magic of the Tribe, an unknown poison courses through her veins, slowing morphing her into a killing machine, spelling doom for her and Caden.  However, not even the deadly curse can keep her safe from the love-struck pair of vicious vampires, Mortimer and Viggo, should they find out that she is keeping Veronique’s very-much-alive nature a secret from them.  Always the naïve human caught in the web of Vampire lies, Evangeline is now weaving her own dangerous web in order to keep her friends alive, save Veronique from the torturous Sentinel, and stop the war from coming that could mean the end of the human race.  As new frenemies enter the folds, the plot thickens with dark mystery and gripping mayhem.
K. A. Tucker certainly knows how to weave a tangled web of deceit and intrigue.  Picking up where Asylum left off, Evangeline removed the curse of the pendant off herself, only to fall into another trap, one of her own making.  The curse that she has placed on herself is more of a danger to others than it is to her personally.  It has created a self-imposed rift between her and the other characters as the tension and the stakes revolving around Evangeline’s fate rise.
Evangeline isn’t the most captivating heroine, and at times her narrative becomes a bit off putting as she struggles with what she knows and how she is trying to handle her emotions win that respect.  It raises the tension between her characters and others on the one hand, but as her incessant screaming inside her own heads continues, readers will find the book tedious at most, which takes away from the novel.
However, it’s the tension and the secrets that will grip the reader, causing them to wonder how this is all going to end.  For fans of the series and the couple Caden and Evangeline, the fact that they are together but forced to stay at arm’s length makes their romance something worth reading.  The writing surrounding the couple is far from cliché; it’s full of complications, although not real and applicable in reality, the tension of keeping secrets and the damage it can do to a relationship feels grounded.
The plots twists and the twists the writer threw into the novel keep the plotline solid and fast-paced, propelling it forward.  The inside plot with Evangeline was off putting, but revolving around Sophie, it was captivating.  So much has happened to her that would crumble her from the inside out, but even when she is about to break, she holds herself together and is able to stay strong.  Her strength and ability to hold herself together make her the better written heroine of the two in the novel.
An entertaining book full of angst on a very believable and mysterious level that captivates reader.  ★★★☆☆ (B-)