‘Phantasma’ by Efthalia is the poorly edited first in a series I won’t finish

On April 12, Mill City Press released Efthalia’s debut novel, Phantasma. It’s a paranormal romance written about Greek characters in America by an Australian author and it really was as confusing as it sounds.

The book is the first in the A Phi Athanatoi series which revolves around a Greek organization of vampires and werewolves saving the world from demons. The main character is a Greek woman cop named Carissa who finds out she’s a demigod descended from Ares. The story basically goes like this: woman meets vampire hero at crime scene, vampire claims her with no courting, woman gets attacked, vampire saves her, woman finds out she has hidden powers, woman gets kidnapped multiple times, vampire saves her multiple times. The plot was very formulaic.

I like a romance with a strong plot. This story line was okay, not spectacular, but not terrible either. However, several things irked me. First, it was insta-love, no getting to know each other, just immediate relationship and claiming. It was definitely not realistic. Vampire Xen had an almost stalker vibe, which I didn’t like.

Next, Carissa had no qualms jumping straight into bed with Xen, yet she was supposedly a 20-something year old virgin. Why would someone who remained a virgin for that long immediately jump into bed with anybody, especially someone she barely knew?

The last few things are more language choice and editing issues. The Greek language that filled (almost) every page seemed forced. Like it was added just to make the story more Greek. Also, the book was supposed to be full of characters who lived in the United States, but more than once the Australian word was used for objects instead of the American version. Lastly, the book could use a major copyedit. Missing words and wrong words abound and not just once or twice, but often and noticeably.

If you like formulaic, insta-love romance novels then you might enjoy this, but for me it was too much of a stretch. Maybe her writing will improve as the series continues, but I won’t be reading on to find out.