Review: My Soul to Save by Rachel Vincent

Title: My Soul to Save (Soul Screamers #2)
Author: Rachel Vincent
Published: December 29th 2009
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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...

Last week I said that this is probably a series that’ll improve with each book. I still stand by that statement and if it weren’t for some of the annoying things that took place in My Soul to Save, it would have been not just good, but a great read. Unfortunately there were some elements that annoyed the heck out of me so I cannot raise my rating, but before we get onto that part, let's go over the good things, shall we? 

“Sneak out." He shrugged, as if that should have been a no-brainer. But that was easy for him to say. He was dead. What else could they do to him, take away his birthday?

I’m beginning to adjust to Rachel’s writing style which is great, because it’s written in first perspective from Kaylee’s point of view, therefore I can get to know her better and relate to her more. She is one sassy girl who doesn’t take anyone’s BS and confronts everyone. She is always the one to suffer from helping others, but she’s still trying to do everything in her power to help. That’s what good people do, right? Oh, and she is like a magnet for trouble. However, Kaylee always finds a way out of bad situations. With the help of Nash, Tod and Harmony, she’s learning things about herself and watching her adjust to this new world is amusing to say the least.

Plot, as always, moved on quickly. It’s probably one of the best perks of Rachel’s writing that you don’t get bored that easily. Yeah, I may not agree with every twist and turn she puts on the road for her characters, but they’re all necessary when you think about the main picture. I love that these characters are all becoming their own persons and their sarcastic jokes don’t hurt either. In My Soul to Save we get the first real glimpse of the Netherworld and it’s freaking creepy! Netherworlders (is that even a world? I’m not sure how Rachel referred to them…) are somewhat comparable to Laini Taylor’s Chimaera but their society is very similar to the human world which is really interesting. I’m looking forward to exploring that.

As to what I didn’t enjoy.. Umm.. Let’s just say that the whole plot circled around Addison Page. First of all, that girl was just “meh”. Secondly, I could care any less about her when I want to read about our characters’ struggle, not hers. Ok, enough about her. Moving on, god forbid there’s another love triangle being set up. Nash and Kay seem like a great couple who complement each other in every way possible. Correct me if I’m wrong, but what happened at the end of this book seemed a hell of a lot like a love triangle on the way for our heroine. That just.. sucks. Hopefully it’ll not go all Vampire Diaries and be all triangles and squares or anything other love related mathematical object that includes more than two people.

“I see you all the time, but you've never seen me, because Kaylee said if I got too close to you, I'd suffer eternity without my balls."
"Jeez, Tod!" I shouted, my anger threatening to boil over and scald us all.

So, as I said in the first paragraph, this book could have been great, but since the main problem here was with Addison and helping her out of the consequences of her own foolish decisions, I didn’t enjoy it that much. The potential was there, though, and if it wasn’t for the whole book being about her, I probably would have given it 4 stars. I hope the next books (how many are there in total? Novellas excluded, 7? I think so) will give us insight to Kay’s relationship with her father, learning about her abilities and growing as a person. Some major action and sarcasm always get plus points from me. Fingers crossed!

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

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