Review: If I Die, by Rachel Vincent

Author: Rachel Vincent

Title: If I Die

Series: Soul Screamers(#5)

ISBN: 9780373210329

Publisher: Harlequin (September 27^th 2011)

Buy your copy: Paperback | Kindle

My rating:4 of 5 stars

“The entire school's talking about the gorgeous new math teacher, Mr. Beck. Everyone except Kaylee Cavanaugh. After all, Kaylee's no ordinary high-school junior. She's a banshee—she screams when someone dies.

But the next scream might be for Kaylee.

Yeah—it's a shock to her, too. So to distract herself, Kaylee's going to save every girl in school. Because that hot new teacher is really an incubus who feeds on the desire of unsuspecting students. The only girls immune to his lure are Kaylee and Sabine, her boyfriend's needy ex-girlfriend. Now the unlikely allies have to get rid of Mr. Beck…before he discovers they aren't quite human, either.

But Kaylee's borrowed lifeline is nearing its end. And those who care about her will do anything to save her life.

Anything.” GoodReads’ blurb

If book 4 made me happy about sticking with Kaylee and her adventures, book 5 makes me love the series on a whole new level. Before I proceed, though, let me warn you: Major spoilers for book 4 ahead! The first sentence after the break’s going to be about the ending in My Soul to Steal. So, ready? Here we go!

Kaylee gets back with Nash. Not so much because she has forgiven him, but because she doesn’t want to let go, much less if that means handing him over to Sabine. But the fact remains... They’re not working together, not like they used to.

When Kaylee learns that she’s scheduled to die, she tries to cope the best way she can: saying goodbye, leaving everything tied, and having no regrets. This involves, of course, solving the issue with Mr. Beck—and, once more, she goes about it in an intelligent way. She asks for help, she accepts it, she plans and brainstorms and, while in the end everything is solved the “Kaylee way” (aka: winging it), at least this time I can respect her reasons for making the problem her own and her efforts to fix the situation.

Why did I say that she and Nash aren’t working? Because Nash is taking a backseat to Mr. Beck’s case. Moving the relationship with him forward suddenly is not as important... And then, she realizes what I’ve been saying for the last two books: that she has changed, he has changed, and this new people have nothing in common. Or they still do, but not enough.

As opposed to the sudden crush and burning love she had with Nash, we’ve been witnessing in books 3 and 4 the building of a relationship (unbeknown to her, but we saw it, didn’t we?). We’ve seen slow interest, friendship, and love born from that camaraderie instead of from the sudden blinding light that was Nash. Finally, here, we see how that storyline reaches its conclusion. We see that all the good qualities we saw in this character still apply, and, as the blurb says, there’s not limit to what those who care for her will do to keep her.

Even if, in the end... Wait. No. I can’t tell you the end (cackles in glee). You have to read it!

Anyway, the thing is that after pulling my hair out in the earlier volumes, I’m now in love with this series. The way the relationships evolve fascinates me, to be honest (that whole change and consequence thing I’ve mentioned before). And, plot-wise, it was really neat how the schedule was fulfilled (not going to say how or why, really, but I thought it was neat even when I could guess at it).

I can’t wait for Before I Wake. I sure hope the audio version is out at the same time, because the voice acting for this series is one of the best ever and I want to hear Tod’s voice again!