Review: My Soul to Keep, by Rachel Vincent

Author: Rachel Vincent

Title: My Soul to Keep

Series: Soul Screamers (#3)

ISBN: 9780373210053

Publisher: Harlequin (June 1^st 2012)

Buy your copy: Kindle | Paperback

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

“Kaylee has one addiction: her very hot, very popular boyfriend, Nash. A banshee like Kaylee, Nash understands her like no one else. Nothing can come between them.Until something does.Demon breath. No, not the toothpaste-challenged kind. The Netherworld kind. The kind that really can kill you. Somehow the super-addictive substance has made its way to the human world. But how? Kaylee and Nash have to cut off the source and protect their friends—one of whom is already hooked.And so is someone else…” GoodReads’ blurb

I finished this book ages ago, but I had to sit down and take a deep breath, or I’d write a rant-view instead of a review. I mean, yes, the world is still interesting. I still enjoy the myth behind it all.

But Kaylee and Nash were so infuriating! So much so, that I’ve written a review with spoilers. So, you’ve been warned.

After two books where the main couple get in trouble following the hero complex of a girl who believes she has the duty to save the world from itself, I should have been ready for the hook of the story being Kaylee getting concerned with someone else’s well-being.

So, when Nash’s best friends start taking drugs and she makes it her mission in life to stop them –and cut their supply short- I just rolled my eyes and went along.

Then, we discover that someone else is taking the drug. And that’s what pissed me off-and swore me off Nash for life.

He’s hooked. To Avary’s breath... and it’s all Kaylee’s fault, because that one balloon they used in book two that exploded in Nash’s face. Nevermind that the substance must have been terribly diluted, or all the fans of the soulless stars would be hooked too – he got high, and instead of fighting that one shot, he decided to go to Avary himself to take more in its purest form. And that was just the beginning.

Of course, when she learns about this, Kaylee’s guilt knows no bounds – also her anger that he’d lie to her, but specially the guilt part. And that’s what pissed me off.

I know that withdrawal is hard. I know that it’s a drama. I know that this fictional substance is supposed to be super-addictive and stuff. But I can’t see Nash as the victim. If his first shot had been an accident, he should have resisted. He should have talked to his mom. He should have sought help. He should NOT have tricked Tod into taking him to the Netherworld for a lungful of Avary’s breath (straight from the container). In my book, that makes him a coward. And it made me a very pissed off reader.

That was even before we learned all the other stuff – that aliens can possess people, that a certain alien is in fact doing it.

The good news is that the second half of the book gets better. It turns out Kaylee does have reasons to want to get involved, as Avary didn’t like to be tricked out of a soul in book 2 and has something very personal against her.

Also, by the end, she shows to have a backbone – and that’s about enough to make me sigh in content and get ready to move into the next book, hoping like heck that she won’t mess up the best decision she’s ever made. If you want to know what decision is it, or why exactly she takes it, or how certain people, *cough, cough, Tod* react to it... Then you’ll have to read the novel. I’ve spoiled way too much.

But hey, I feel much better now!