Book Review: My Soul to Save - Rachel Vincent

Published December 29, 2009 by Harlequin Teen

Goodreads description:

"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….  "

Like the last book, My Soul to Save started out slowly enough, but of course, that didn't last for long. Although this was a re-read for me, I thoroughly enjoyed it and pleasantly discovered things that I barely noticed the first time going through or just skimmed over and forgot about them.

In the beginning, Kaylee, Nash and Tod attend a concert, which starred Tod's ex-girlfriend, Addison Page as well as another singer named Eden. Sounds normal enough, right? Well, that's where it started to get weird. In the middle of her act, Eden just collapses without warning and what was strange was that Kaylee didn't even get a premonition of her death. Turns out that this singer, who has it all, has sold her soul to a demon, or hellion to be exact. And from there, the show biz industry suddenly got shadier as Kaylee and the others realize with growing horror that many others have done the same.

I really enjoyed seeing the characters develop in this sequel. Kaylee, who was insecure about her insanity in the previous book has grown so much stronger here. Her intelligence and the ability to think through a crisis really reeled me in. Also, I could say that her selflessness was also a big win in my books. Despite the danger that was laid out in front of her, Kaylee still jumped in with both feet to help someone that was of no relation to her. Her boyfriend, Nash, showed some more qualities to him, which included: anger, protectiveness, loyalty and lust. He knew of the danger of taking the mission and was widely opposed to Kaylee taking it up, but as a protective boyfriend, he followed her through. As for Tod, the ever-present reaper, I was very happy to get a chance to know him better in this sequel. It was really good too see that he still had a lot of humanity still left in him especially when he decided to risk everything for the girl that he loved, despite being dead. There were some cases where I was a little annoyed with Tod since he held onto some vital information that could have risked Kaylee's life, but in the overall, I grew to love him more.

Plot-wise, I thoroughly enjoyed the book, though I couldn't help but wince at the idea of teenagers selling their soul for fame and power. Surely they've seen enough movies or heard enough stories that selling your soul never comes to a good result, right? But I guess when you want it all, you have to be willing to do anything possible. What I really liked about this book was that we learned a lot more about the Netherworld and it's locals, which I found that concept to be really interesting. It just gave us a bigger peak into the alternate world of demons and other what-not. The ending was bittersweet and it broke my heart a little, but I guess not everything can always turn out to be a bunch of rainbows and unicorns.

Source: Borrowed
My rating: 4 Coffee Cups (Enjoyed it immensely)