Review: My Soul To Save by Rachel Vincent

So, you may recall that I'm participating in a lovely event (hosted by Fiktshun) called the Soul Screamers Reading Challenge. (In fact, it was part of the inspiration for the Maximum Ride Reading Challenge Ella and I are hosting. That one starts today! Go sign up for it? Pretty please?)

Anyway, this month is all about My Soul To Save, the second book in the fantastic series. (Remember, it's not too late to join the challenge, whether you've read the first book yet or not!) I loved My Soul To Save, and, like My Soul To Take, I loved it even more the second time around.

My Soul To Save by Rachel Vincent

When Kaylee Cavanaugh screams, someone dies. 

So when teen pop star Eden croaks onstage and Kaylee doesn't wail, she knows something is dead wrong. She can't cry for someone who has no soul. 

The last thing Kaylee needs right now is to be skipping school, breaking her dad's ironclad curfew and putting her too-hot-to-be-real boyfriend's loyalty to the test. But starry-eyed teens are trading their souls: 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….

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OOOH, man, here we are: Another review of a fantastic Soul Screamers novel. I can't tell you guys enough how much I absolutely ADORE these books (And not JUST because I'm in love with Tod, though I most definitely am).


Kaylee is finally moving past the horrible things that happened six weeks ago, the events that led to her discovery of her true heritage as a bean sidhe (that would be banshee to the uninformed). Now things are mostly back to normal, and Kaylee can spend her time hanging with her friends, her previously absentee father, and her boyfriend, Nash.


And then people start dying without their souls.


Kaylee is just as strong, smart, selfless and funny in this book as she is in the first, and the action and mystery  is still awesome, too! The thing about Kaylee is that she refuses to back off of something she knows is right, even if she risks her own life. It's what makes her an awesome heroine and an awesome person.


Beyond that, the story itself is just incredible. Rachel Vincent has created a world that it's so easy to get fully immersed and lost in. As scary as it is, it's a world that would be awesome to live in, especially if you'd get to meet cool bean sidhes like Kaylee and Nash and supercool, superfun reapers like Tod! Well, Tod's basically the coolest/funnest reaper there is, so maybe just Tod. No other reapers. It's probably best to avoid them.


This book totally gets <*><*><*><*><*>


Now, I'd like to take a little time to talk about the characters and their development, as I did with my review for MSTT. So just beware that this next bit could be a bit spoilery for the entire series. (I'll try to keep later-book spoilers vague).


Either way, though, read at your own risk.


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First thought: TOD TOD TOD TOD TOD! I'm so glad he got a bigger role in this book. I didn't realize until the rereading how little he's actually in the first one. And as an absolute Taylee shipper (and simply a Tod lover), I'm always glad to see some Tod :)


Then there's Kaylee and Nash. As you guys probably know, in the later books, I don't like Nash. I really, really don't like him. But I have to admit, going back to the beginning it's hard not to fall for him again. Even though I know how everything is going to go down, I still remember why I loved Nash, and why Kaylee loves Nash. That makes this hard. 


I really admire Addison's character, too. Even though she's made some mistakes, she always did the wrong thing for the right reasons, and I can't hold that against her. In the end, she made the proper, selfless choice to try to set things right. Some people might try to compare that to what Aunt Val did in the end of My Soul To Take, but it's not nearly the same thing, in my opinion, because while Val's choice tried to negate the bad things she'd done out of selflessness, Addy's sacrifice was just the final in a line of many.


Moving right along, we have Emma. Ah, I love Emma. She's the same tough, cool chick from My Soul To Take, and that's a good thing, because dealing with Kaylee's bean sidhe business isn't exactly EASY. But Emma can handle it! She's always there for Kaylee, even when Kaylee can't be entirely honest with her or give her all the details. Really, she's as much of a heroine as Kaylee.


Now I want to go back to Tod. Watching him in this book is so sad. Tod's made mistakes, too. He makes them with good intentions, though, even when he knows he's wrong. It's so heartbreaking to watch him suffer and try so hard to save Addy. But despite that, I can see that Kaylee's wrong, and that he isn't still in love with Addison. He loves her as his friend, yes, and he wants to help her, but I think he's being 100% honest when he tells Kaylee he's not still in love with her. And I'm not just saying that because I know what's going to happen. I remember thinking the same thing during my first read.


Anyway, those are my thoughts on reading My Soul To Save the second time.


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(:D)
~Mag