My Soul to Save by Rachel Vincent

Author: Rachel Vincent

Publishing Company: Harlequin Teen

Pages: 288

Genre: Urban Fantasy

Website: rachelvincent.com

Rating:


Summary (rachelvincent.com)
The last thing Kaylee needs right now is to be skipping school, breaking her dad’s ironclad curfew and putting her boyfriend’s loyalty to the test. But starry-eyed teens are trading their souls for a flickering lifetime of fame and fortune in exchange for eternity in the Netherworld—a consequence they can’t possibly understand. Kaylee can’t let that happen, even if trying to save their souls means putting her own at risk...

Review

The cover once again amazed me beyond words. Harlequin Teen must have a flair for beautiful covers, because the Iron Fey series has beautiful covers, and so far, all the books that they've published are just amazing. Everything about that cover to me wails (sorry, I had to put the bad pun in, I seriously couldn't resist!) an awesome book. And I was right...for the most part.

Let's start with the problems first and then make our way to the good parts. Last review on the first book, I complained for the lack of action. Well, now I get that it's not an action book, so if any of you only like that stuff, I wouldn't read this. So that complaint sort of canceled out, but I can say that there was a little more action than before.

Some parts were super confusing, in my opinion. Either I was skipping over paragraphs, or one second Kaylee was somewhere, and then another second she was elsewhere. I got really confused, and wish Rachel had put a little more depth in her surroundings.

The good parts of this were definitely the fantasy aspect and Kaylee's guilt for letting so many souls go and her determination to save this pair. You really see her grow as both a bean sidhe and a person. Once again, I loved how the problem smacked you straight in the face within the first few pages. Usually, I wouldn't exactly care if a problem faced itself within the first few chapters, or maybe even in the middle, but having it smack-dab on the first page is great.

Here's what I don't like about a continuous series: each problem is disconnected. In a trilogy (my new favorite type of series), each problem has something to do with the next. That's basically the reason I usually only stick to trilogies now. Also, continuous series tend to drag things out, unless it's a big series like Harry Potter. Unless it was planned to be a certain number, and the author didn't just decide to add another book (the Iron Knight by Julie Kagawa being the exception. Everyone knows we needed that bok for Ash and Meghan!) for the sake of it, it's sort of slow. Of course, unless each book has to do with this big finale, then I can make an exception. UNLESS, there's been like ten books before it. Then it gets plain boring.

To make my long review short, this gets four snowflakes because Rachel's writing was very good and the book was capturing, if you could get past a few frustrated moments. And if you can deal with having to read the continuous series. As I've mentioned before, I feel that trilogies are much better.

My Soul to Take by Rachel Vincent

Author: Rachel Vincent

Publishing Company: Harlequin Teen

Pages: 384

Genre: Urban Fantasy

Website: rachelvincent.com

Rating:

Summary (rachelvincent.com)

She doesn't see dead people, but she senses when someone near her is about to die. And when that happens, a force beyond her control compels her to scream bloody murder. Literally.

Kaylee just wants to enjoy having caught the attention of the hottest guy in school. But a normal date is hard to come by when Nash seems to know more about the need to scream than she does. And when classmates start dropping dead for no apparent reason, only Kaylee knows who'll be next...

Review

This book was in the back flap of the Iron Knight, so I said, "Why not?" and gave it a try. When I saw it in the library, the cover just captured me and made me borrow the book! The cover is really magnificent, and really pretty! 

Despite the lack of action that I usually crave within a book, this was really good. I loved the idea of being a banshee or bean sidhe, and how she and Nash went on quests to make sure souls are properly kept in their spots. The idea overall is really ingenious and well played out.

The problem here started very early in the book, which is really good. Many books wait until the middle to say the problem, and it's good that in this novel, they start it in the very beginning. Rachel's writing is really good, and it captured me without a real explanation. I just really enjoyed her description of everything.

But, when she described the banshee's singing, I felt like there wasn't enough there to fully support the sound. Rachel described it as "magnificent" and used a few other words. I wish she elaborated on that a little more, but it was satisfactory overall. The story felt only a smidgen undeveloped to me, but it was still better than other books I'd read. 

I recommend this book to anyone who enjoys reading romance and fantasy. If you can get past a few very minor problems here and there, then this is the book for you!