Novel Review: With All My Soul (Soul Screamers, #7) by Rachel Vincent

Rating (Out of 5): ~4.5

Genre: YA Paranormal Romance

Publisher: HarlquinTeen

Publish Date: March 26th, 2013

Spoilers?: Minor.

Buy it here: Amazon. Barnes and Noble. Book Depository. Powells.

Teaser Tuesday.

Goodreads Synopsis:

What does it mean when your school is voted the most dangerous in America? It's time to kick some hellion butt...

After not really surviving her junior year (does "undead" count as survival?), Kaylee Cavanaugh has vowed to take back her school from the hellions causing all the trouble. She's going to find a way to turn the incarnations of Avarice, Envy and Vanity against one another in order to protect her friends and finish this war, once and forever.

But then she meets Wrath and understands that she's closer to the edge than she's ever been. And when one more person close to her is taken, Kaylee realizes she can't save everyone she loves without risking everything she has....

What Will I Miss?:

• The characters, definitely. Mainly them, I think. I grew close to pretty much all of them, I like the dynamic they had going. 
• I'm also going to miss the romance, of course, because I really liked the main couple.
• I'm going to miss the way that Kaylee, as the main heroine, took charge, and the surprises that Vincent took with the series.
  

Review:

I really like this series, and it’s sad to see it go. This is a good place to stop it, though, very fitting; it’s a good ending to this series. A bit surprising, though, which is also nice.

This book draws the conclusion to the series, and thus the conclusion to the Avari plot line. And while I did like how the story left off, I didn’t particularly believe the ending. Supposedly they won’t have to deal with Avari anymore, but I just don’t trust that things would end that easy. Not necessarily that how things ended was easy to get to, because it wasn’t, but still.

Maybe I just didn’t connect with the ending as well as I could have, though. Aside from the ‘reunion’ at the very end, that was really nice.

Aside from that, though, I really enjoyed this book. I like what happened with Kaylee and Tod; I liked their sweet moments, as well as their sexy ones, and just where their relationship was by the end of the book. Although there was this soul entertwining thing that I had to expend my disbelief for, even though it was supposed to be sweet (and actually was, in a way).

I really like what happened with Nash and Sabine, how Nash seemed to have grown and I was happy that things were working out for Sabine. Sophie and Luca seem to be in a good place. Emma, by the end, seems to be moving on very well, and I’m hopeful for how things are going for her sister and the baby. I’m happy for all of their parents.

I don’t think I really have too much to say. I’m rather happy with how everything ended, with where all of the characters are at. I’m going to miss them, but this is a good time to stop the series, and this a very good ending to do it.

Also, I look forward to whatever Vincent has planned in the future for YA, which is hopefully something, although that leaves time for me to actually start her adult series. 

The Cover:

I do rather like the cover of this book. The first few covers for this series were not very good, but they got better as they went, and I think this one is especially pretty. The fact that a dress similar to the one the model is wearing is actually in the book helps, too. The Embarrassing Factor isn't too horribly high, either, which is nice.

Novel Review: Before I Wake (Soul Screamers, #6) by Rachel Vincent

Genre: YA Paranormal Romance

Rating (Out of 5): ~4.5

Publisher: Harlequin Teen

Spoilers?: Yes for previous books, vague for this one.

Goodreads Synopsis:

I died on a Thursday—killed by a monster intent on stealing my soul. The good news? He didn't get it.

The bad news? Turns out not even death will get you out of high school…

Covering up her own murder was one thing, but faking life is much harder than Kaylee Cavanaugh expected. After weeks spent "recovering," she's back in school, fighting to stay visible to the human world, struggling to fit in with her friends and planning time alone with her new reaper boyfriend.

But to earn her keep in the human world, Kaylee must reclaim stolen souls, and when her first assignment brings her face-to-face with an old foe, she knows the game has changed. Her immortal status won't keep her safe. And this time Kaylee isn't just gambling with her own life….

Something Specific:

• This book made me cry.

Review:

This was, by far, my favorite of the Soul Screamers books in a long while. The last few I read were, while very good in content, a little hard to get through. There were just a lot of slow spots that you had to read before getting to the exciting parts. This one, though, seemed to go by much faster, and I had no trouble getting through it. I even ended up reading it faster than I had planned.

And I was not prepared for the emotional trip that this book took me on. Not prepared at all.

In this book, Kaylee is dealing with the fact that she’s dead and has decided to continue going to school and why any of that matters when she sometimes forgets to breathe. She’s dealing with something that I hadn’t really thought about before, but makes total sense with the fact that she’s dead. And it’s very nice that she has Tod during all of this, since he’s gone through all of it before.

I love Kaylee and Tod together. Tod is so sweet to and good for her, and they need each other. I loved all of their little moments together, and the step they’ve taken. I don't think I was fully sold on them before, but I definitely am now. Plus Kaylee’s dad (who is a fantastic dad) has to deal with them being a couple, as well as Nash.

Nash is just a problem all his own, and I’m having a hard time with him. Because, first of all, yea, maybe she should have been there for him more when he was going through his addiction, but what he did to her is unforgivable. And then I understand why he’s mad about being framed, but Kaylee had her reasons, and she did all she could to get him off the hook. I want to feel more bad for him than I do, but he just needs to move on with his life. He’s stuck in a depressed, self-centered state of mind, and he just needs to get over it already. And he needs to wake up to the fact that he has Sabine.

I don’t mind Sabine so much anymore; although I didn’t much from the beginning, either. She’s very straightforward, which I like. And maybe she doesn’t always do the best things, but she has her reasons for them, and she’s very open about those reasons.

Sophie, Kaylee’s cousin: I’m not a big fan of her, for obvious reasons. But she kind of interested me in this book. Mainly because of Luca, a new character we met in this book. And the fact that she met him in the Netherworld in an e-book that I have not read but want to. This book especially made me want to know how, seeing as I want to know more about their relationship and how they met.

Quite a bit happened in this book, and it made it very obvious that something big with Avari, the demon they’ve been slowly fighting for a while now, is going to happen. I think it has taken way too long for Kaylee to get actually mad at him, but it has finally happened, and I am excited to see what goes down in the next, and final, book. Something big near the end of this book happened with Emma, and I’m intrigued to see what comes of that in the next book. And something happened with one of the characters that made me cry a little; a character that I liked but didn’t think I had such big feelings for. I’m not going to ruin it, but I wasn’t expecting it until it happened, and something seemed off, and then I was right and I really didn’t want to be.

I’m just looking forward to the last book, but definitely not the wait for it.

Review: If I Die (Soul Screamers Book 5) by Rachel Vincent

4 of 5 Stars

Publisher: Harlequin

Goodreads Synopsis:

The entire school's talking about the gorgeous new math teacher, Mr. Beck. Everyone except Kaylee Cavanaugh. After all, Kaylee's no ordinary high-school junior. She's a banshee—she screams when someone dies.

But the next scream might be for Kaylee.

Yeah—it's a shock to her, too. So to distract herself, Kaylee's going to save every girl in school. Because that hot new teacher is really an incubus who feeds on the desire of unsuspecting students. The only girls immune to his lure are Kaylee and Sabine, her boyfriend's needy ex-girlfriend. Now the unlikely allies have to get rid of Mr. Beck…before he discovers they aren't quite human, either.

But Kaylee's borrowed lifeline is nearing its end. And those who care about her will do anything to save her life. 

Anything.

Review:

[Contains some spoilers]

I've read all the other books in this series and loved them. They just keep getting better. I was expecting some things from this book because of what Vincent has said on her blog, and so I wasn't surprised by what happened in the book. As I read farther on, I could kind of tell that certain things were going to happen, and I was kind of glad when they did.

In this book, there's a new teacher at their school who is something not human, and they have to deal with that. Oh, and Kaylee's name is on the reaper list so her time is almost up. I wasn't particularly bothered with the teacher throughout most of the book, probably because I didn't think much of it. It's obvious, now, what part in the book he had, besides just an evil presence, and to take Kaylee's mind from her impending death. And I wondered throughout most of it how they were going to solve that problem. I'd guessed the solution at one point, but didn't fully consider it until later on in the book. Although I was a little off, I got the over all solution correct. Kaylee's coming demise did take up most of the book, which is understandable, and I liked, no matter how sad it was, how everyone dealt with it and reacted.

What happened with Kaylee and Tod, I was very much expecting. Mostly because of the hints that Vincent gave, and I was excited for this. I like Tod, probably more than Nash, but I was unsure how I would feel about him and Kaylee together. I'm still a little unsure. I think I didn't believe their connection or something, even though there is full reason to. It made sense for it to happen, and everything about how it happened and everything after made sense, but it just felt a little flat or something. Part of it is probably also that I'm unsure how I feel about Nash, and so I'm unsure how I feel about Kaylee moving on from him, although I'm warming to the idea that they shouldn't be together. I'm hoping that in the next book it feels better to me, because I really want to like Kaylee and Tod together.

As I said, I'm having mixed feeling about Nash. Because I want to like him and I liked him when he was with Kaylee in the earlier books, but then (SPOILER!) he started using frost, and then did it again in this book, and I do not like that. But I am warming to the idea of Nash and Sabine being together. They'll probably be good together. Now I just need to warm more to the idea of Tod and Kaylee, and I really hope that I feel better about them later. Because I like them so much separately, together they should be fantastic.

I do like Kaylee. She might not always make the best decisions, (not to say that she makes bad one,) but she's usually pretty smart with what she's doing, and she can think on her feet. In this book, she had to deal a little bit with the mental hospital she's stayed at for a little bit, and that was interesting. Mental hospitals are just interesting, though, in my opinion.

Now, the ending. The scene with the teacher was bad (in an intense, thrilling way), probably as bad as it was supposed to be, but I feel that the last bit, (SPOILER!) where she stabs him, could have been done better. It just seemed sudden and felt a little flat to me. The rest of the book, though, was pretty amazing. I was kind of hoping through most of the book that something like this would happen, so I'm glad that it did. I'm looking forward to seeing her in the next book in the new position she's in, as well as seeing more of her and Tod.