My Soul to Take (Soul Screamers, #1) in SOS: Serious Overload of Series

Oct 11, 2010 Desperado rated it liked it

Shelves: paranormal-ya, young-adult, smack-a-bitch-upside-the-head, reviews

I read the first book in Rachel Vincent’s urban fantasy series, “Shifters” a few years ago. I was not impressed, nor did I feel the urge to give it another try. But when I found out she’d written an urban fantasy YA series from friends on Goodreads, I figured, why not?

Kaylee Cavanaugh is a junior in high school who has felt the urge to scream uncontrollably on a few occasions, which she believes are panic attacks. Living with her seemingly oblivious aunt and uncle and her popular cousin, she fee I read the first book in Rachel Vincent’s urban fantasy series, “Shifters” a few years ago. I was not impressed, nor did I feel the urge to give it another try. But when I found out she’d written an urban fantasy YA series from friends on Goodreads, I figured, why not?

Kaylee Cavanaugh is a junior in high school who has felt the urge to scream uncontrollably on a few occasions, which she believes are panic attacks. Living with her seemingly oblivious aunt and uncle and her popular cousin, she feels like a total outcast. That is, until she bumps into Nash Hudson during a night out with her friend Emma at a dance club. It is there, on possibly the best night of her life that she feels the urge to scream again. She knows the girl gyrating on the dance floor is going to die. She can feel it in her body, in her soul and most importantly, in her lungs. When she confesses this to Nash, he doesn’t freak out. He doesn’t call her a loser. He not only believes her but helps her keep her cool. What follows is Kaylee’s quest to find out what exactly she is and what that means for her future.

While this book didn’t knock my socks off, I did enjoy it to a certain extent. It was fascinating discovering about Kaylee’s origins. I enjoyed reading about her aunt, uncle, cousin and father. In the beginning, they seem like the typical family but you quickly learn that there is a lot more beneath the surface. Kaylee and Nash’s investigation into how & why their classmates were dying had me on the edge of my seat. I do wish that there was more time spent on the Irish folklore & that Nash wasn’t always so quick to come to the rescue. I was also a little disconcerted by how quickly his and Kaylee’s relationship progressed. There was an explanation as to why but I still felt like I got whiplash from Insta-love.

Aside from that, my biggest issue was with Kaylee herself. She was not a character I liked being stuck in the head of. For someone to have gone through what she did-there’s a stay at a mental hospital in her past, among other things-she came off as a petulant child. It seemed like she was stuck on two settings: irate and confused. When she didn’t get her way, she had a fit, yelling and glaring all over the place. When the people who loved her warned her about things, she not only ignored their advice but accused them of hiding things from her and not caring enough about the innocent. To be honest, I’d hide things from her too since all she did was halfway listen and run off with the information like Super Girl Gone Emo. There were way too many times while reading this book that I wanted to smack the crap out of Kaylee for thinking she could handle things she had no real understanding of. She definitely brought this book down a few grades.

Overall, I thought this was a decent YA novel. The ending was amazing. I totally did not see those new developments coming. Kaylee has the potential to be a great heroine if she would just shut the hell up and listen. If she manages to accomplish that, the places her revelations about herself could take her could make this series very entertaining.

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Jan 19, 2011 cc rated it it was ok

Shelves: 2011-read, young-adult, urban-fantasy

My Soul to Take tells the story of a teenage girl –Kaylee- who can sense when someone is about to die, and when that happens she can scream and “hold” the person’s soul so it is not instantly taken away by a Ripper. She will find this out along the book, with the precious help of a cute guy who happens to have paranormal powers as well, since her father and uncle never cared to tell her. In this story, death is seen as a business (which I didn’t really like -it sounded rather silly), with an hie ...more

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Feb 04, 2012 Cee rated it really liked it

Shelves: young-adult, romance, demons

My first encounter with Rachel Vincent a few years ago didn't go so well. I read her urban-fantasy book Stray which I kind of hated. People assured me her YA series was better, and with the memory of the catastrophe Stray fading, I decided to give her a second chance.

In My Soul to Take Kaylee thinks she's going crazy. She can see dark shrouds around people that are going to die, and when teenage girls around her start dropping like flies she starts doubting her mental health. But Nash, the schoo My first encounter with Rachel Vincent a few years ago didn't go so well. I read her urban-fantasy book Stray which I kind of hated. People assured me her YA series was better, and with the memory of the catastrophe Stray fading, I decided to give her a second chance.

In My Soul to Take Kaylee thinks she's going crazy. She can see dark shrouds around people that are going to die, and when teenage girls around her start dropping like flies she starts doubting her mental health. But Nash, the school's hottie, suddenly has interest in her, and he seems to know more about what's going on with her than he's willing to let on.

Usually I start reviews pointing out the good. This time, however, I feel like starting with the bad. First off, the weird romance. I'm not sure what this was supposed to be. I'm glad Ms Vincent didn't make Nash the new kid at school (cause you know you've read THAT before) but once again, he's the popular kid that suddenly pays attention to Kaylee. Is it just me, or is being ignored for years and ALL of a sudden being the focal point of one's interest not romantic, and on top of that weird and suspicious. They almost instantly went into relationship mode without falling in love first, and they are terribly clingy. But hey, maybe that's just how teen romances are. I feel like I'm getting old.

There's one thing about Ms Vincent's writing that I noticed in Stray, and saw again in My Soul to Take. Her writing is, I don't know how to say this more politely, immature. And not all that great. She can describe things, she can write scenes, but that's about it. She resorts to expressions like "it felt sooo good", and when this happens two pages in a row, that's just bad writing. Luckily, it's not all that annoying in a young-adult book. It's still not good writing, but it's less annoying than having to put up with that kind of language in an adult book.

Now the good: there are different kinds of interesting supes! I enjoyed the plot, and the last part of the book was engaging and hard to put down. There is enough going on to keep you interested, but not too much that you're getting a headache from all the action.

My Soul to Take isn't the best written book and it has some common young-adult faults, but it's definitely not a bad addition to the genre, and I'm looking forward to the second book. ...more

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Sep 22, 2011 Moondance rated it liked it

Shelves: urban-fantasy, young-adult, family, mythology, unusal-talents, bean-sidhe, reaper

"Come on!" Emma whispered from my right, her words floating from her mouth in a thin white cloud.

Kaylee Cavanaugh sees shadows around people that are soon to die. She has already spent time in a mental ward due to her "gift". High school jock, Nash, suddenly takes an interest in Kaylee when he realizes something is not quite right about her. Nash reveals Kaylee's secret to her and introduces her to Tod to help her come to terms with the knowledge.

Interesting start to a series. There is some good ...more

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Oct 12, 2010 Francesca the Fierce (Under the Covers Book Blog) rated it liked it

Shelves: banshee, books-read-2010, genre-young-adult, fae

I enjoyed this series a bit more than the werecats story, even though I think the werecats it's a great world! This was def not the typical storyline, or even characters, which might be why I enjoyed it, and I do think it was well written for being a YA story. Looking forward to keep reading this series. ...more

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