Fb2 Soul Thief (Demon Trappers) ePub

I'm pretty sure I'm going to have to pick up the rest of this series somewhat soon because... hello, shenanigans! That's right... THINGS HAPPEN! And I want to know how they play out.

It's been a while since I read book 1 *cough*2 years*cough*, so it took a bit for me to fall back into Riley's world. But I did and I got caught up in the crazy and then I was forced to engage in a full-on WTF?BBQ!PIZZA! *flail*.

Some of the things you could see coming. And some of them were decidedly unexpected. Riley's world is dark and dangerous and it's hard figuring out who to trust. Throwing the Demon Hunters into the mix -- a recipe for disaster for the citizens of Atlanta, if you ask me -- puts pressure on Riley as she gets put on the hot seat both as a female trapper and because of the events in book 1.

The love polyhedron gets resolved and then complicated again and then blown up like an unsanctified church when demons are on the prowl. Beck clearly has feelings for Riley, yet he keeps telling himself it's because she's his mentor's daughter and he's given his word to look out for her. Ha. Right, man. You just keep thinking that. I'm sure you've got it figured out.

Wait. I take it back. There was no resolution to any of the lovey-dovey stuff. Except a few contenders were knocked out of the running for Riley's affections after they took the epic douche-bag route with what they did to her. Jerks.

With how things ended in this book, I'm looking forward to the next. Riley's in a bad place right now and she's learning things she probably wishes she could unlearn. Come to think, that's kinda what growing up is like, isn't it? Except without the demons and slime and deals for a person's soul.

-Kelly @ Reading the Paranormal

Soul Thief begins right after the attack on the Tabernacle, Riley has just made a deal with Heaven to spare the life of her boyfriend, Simon, and is struggling with the changes that occur following the attack.

One of my favorite things about the last book was that the end was so fast paced and action packed. I expected this book so start out the same way. Unfortunately, the story begins slow and remains slow until the last third of the book when things finally pick up. That is one of the reasons I couldn't give this book a higher rating I felt like I was always waiting for the action to come. When the action finally did come though it was worth the wait and I have to say the last third of the book was 5 star worthy.

Riley in this book has so much to deal with and still manages to remain just as strong as she was in the first book. Riley was able to get her job done while hunting down leads about her fathers re-animation, the bogus holy-water, and dealing with her unlucky love life. The fact that she can juggle all of these things and still remain a total badass show what a great heroine she is.

From the outset it is obvious something is not right about Simon. After his near-death experience he has a crisis of faith and Riley ends up being the one he blames. Ori is there waiting in the wings when Riley's relationship with Simon begins to head south and I actually came to trust him and hope for a relationship between him and Riley (I think that is why the ending came as such a surprise to me).

That brings us to Beck. Oh Beck....he really pissed me off in this book. It is apparent to everyone but Riley how much he cares for her and yet still the two of them are constantly fighting over the stupidest things! I both wanted Beck to be in every scene and was angry when he was around. He just makes such poor decisions about both his personal life and the way he treats Riley. I kept feeling like one of the master trappers needed to shake some sense into him.

Overall, I enjoyed this book but the lack of action in the first 2/3's of the story and all of Beck's bad decisions stopped me from loving this story. I will definitely be picking up the third book though and I'm excited to see what Jana Oliver has in store for us!

Continuing right after the events in The Demon Trapper's Daughter, Riley now has some pretty important issues to solve: 1) Discover who took her father, 2) Uncover who is counterfeiting the Holy Water, and 3) Find out why Hell has such an interest in her. Add to this still having money and boy problems and Riley's life is looking more like Hell every day.

Again, I loved the setting and how it was described. The bankrupt city of Atlanta is sinking more and more into the old times. We get to see people using carriages, and even this is a battle to see who has the best one. I liked the witches and necromancer's street, it sounded really cool. Something like Diagon Alley from Harry Potter.

Not surprising Riley is back to hating Beck, even after the night they spent at the mausoleum. Their love/hate relationship really drives me crazy sometimes. I just wish one of them stopped being so stubborn and kiss and make up already. But no. After everything he does for her, she still doesn't trust him. Riley is back to being single since Simon is going through a faith crisis, that is only turning him into more of a zealot. He doesn't want to believe the Holy Water failed, because that would mean the power of God is not all powerful. And so he needs someone to blame, and he blames Riley.

Poor Beck is no better in life. He keeps trying to convince himself that all he feels for Riley is affection for his dead master's daughter, but he knows that's not all of it. Even when he finds someone else to occupy his... mind with, he still goes running to Riley when she calls. I completely hated Justine. I knew she'd be trouble from the moment her evil red head was mentioned. When she went to Riley almost gloating about what was going on with Beck, I knew that completed my evil-bitch-from-hell assumptions.

I didn't have the same reaction to Ori, though I should've known better. After all, there are a couple of scenes from mysterious Ori's point of view, and he keeps meeting up with this other mystery dude. And Riley already feels too much for him and that's never good. Never good at all.

Gah! Riley and Beck are such blockheads. They're both with the wrong people, and they know it, yet they won't change their minds out of stubbornness! And after what happens in the end, I don't even know how they'll ever fix that in the next book. But they better!

Bigger than their love problems are The Demon Hunters that have come to town to solve Atlanta's demon problems and capture anyone believed to be on the side of the demons. Their first suspect is, of course, Riley. But is getting rid of all evil really the answer? Heaven and Hell must keep a balance, and if the balance is not kept then Armagedon will rain down on humanity. So if God and Lucifer know this and keep to the rules, who keeps messing with the balance and pushing for war?

Riley seems to be in the middle of it all, and the things that she thought were pure and simple, might be darker than she imagined. When all goes to Hell (literally) Riley has only one person to turn to...Beck. But in the face of what she has done, he doesn't turn out to be the most reasonable person. Betrayal hurts.