Thousands of years ago, the nymph Adrasteia was forced by the goddess Rhea to raise her son Zeus in seclusion, away from her family and everything she had known. After defeating his father Cronus and taking over his rightful place as king of Olympus, Zeus betrayed Adrasteia, sentencing her unfairly to a life in continued seclusion or worse, losing her physical form completely. It wasn’t until Hades offered her a new purpose that Adrasteia finally had a chance to live, and to seek her revenge. As Nemesis the goddess of retribution, Adrasteia brings the souls of the damned to Hades for sentencing, and looks for a way to one day seek her revenge on Zeus and Themis, the woman who she believes turned Zeus against her.

Kane Montague is one of Themis’ Zodiac Warriors in her battle against Enyo, goddess of war, for the balance between good and evil in the world. He is a Scorpio warrior and lives the life of an assassin when he is not working with the rest of his Warrior group. Kane had once been the captive of the dark mage Emmett, who is looking to use other immortals to achieve true immortality. Emmett left Kane cursed to suffer from unbearable pain due to poison in his blood. The pain from the poison works in a cycle, reaching its zenith in late May before receding for another year. Kane has looked for the dark mage for years in his efforts to search for a cure to the poison with no success. Although Kane hates his condition, he has gotten used to it and does his best to get through it when the pain comes.

Unbeknownst to Kane, Emmett has been waiting for the right moment to take down the Warrior once and for all. He involves Nemesis in his plan before she really gets to know Kane. Emmett does not anticipate the almost instant connection between Kane and Nemesis, who now chooses to be called Ilsa. Neither does Kane and Ilsa. Now Ilsa and Kane must find a way to deal with her initial betrayal, his curse, and the danger in which Emmett places them. Add to that, the goddess Enyo and her plans to use them for her own purposes, and things get really complicated.

The second novel in Addison Fox’s Sons of the Zodiac series is an entertaining read. The characters are interesting and there is good chemistry between them. The secondary characters are just as appealing as the main characters, ensuring the viability of the series for some time. Fox’s heroes are the strength behind her novels. They are the driving force of the stories and it’s very hard not to be interested in the outcome of each Warrior’s happily ever after. You want them to succeed and be happy because they are just that likable. I am not very fond of the villains however, and it’s not just because they are evil. I find Enyo to be one dimensional and not very interesting. The same can be said for Emmett. The story moves fast and there are few unexpected. While there are some holes in the plot, I assume they will be filled in somewhere in future installments of the series. Overall this book was a fun read and I will be keeping an eye out for the next installment in the series. Denise