Review: My Soul to Steal by Rachel Vincent

My Soul to Steal (Soul Screamers #4) by Rachel Vincent
Released:January 2011
Publisher: Harlequin
Source: Won from Rachel at Fiktshun (thanks Rachel!!)
Rating: 3.5/5

Goodreads description:

Trying to work things out with Nash—her maybe boyfriend—is hard enough for Kaylee Cavanaugh. She can't just pretend nothing happened. But "complicated" doesn't even begin to describe their relationship when his ex-girlfriend transfers to their school, determined to take Nash back.

See, Sabine isn't just an ordinary girl. She's a mara, the living personification of a nightmare. She can read people's fears—and craft them into nightmares while her victims sleep. Feeding from human fear is how she survives.

And Sabine isn't above scaring Kaylee and the entire school to death to get whatever—and whoever—she wants

My thoughts:

I was so proud of Kaylee at the end of book 3, she made a hard, but definitely right decision, and then in this book it seems like she undid most of her good work!  She became paranoid, desperate, irrational and, I’ll be honest, a little psychotic.  She fixated on Sabine and got all jealous and insecure and I just wanted her to remember how strong she was and that she did not need a man to make her complete!

Sabine on the other hand...I knew I shouldn't like her, but I really did. She had an attitude and she wasn't scared to go after what she wanted. She didn't play fair at all, but I liked her scheming ways, because really, I could see that her and Nash worked better than Nash and Kaylee. I just needed Kaylee to see that!! I did feel bad for Kaylee, she wanted time to come to terms with what Nash had done, to figure out if she could trust him again, and Sabine took that from her, made her fight for something she wasn't even sure that she wanted in the first place, and that definitely messed her up a bit. I could totally see her issue. But I felt she went at it from totally the wrong angle.

Nash...argh don't get me started on Nash. That guy. He's so weak and a total jerk, I completely wanted to slap him for most of this book! He messed EVERYONE around and he never seemed to be sorry about any of it! Tod on the other hand. Ah, Tod. Where have you been?? Why did I not notice you before?? Seriously, Tod was amazing in this book. So supportive and helpful to Kaylee, always there for her. He was less mildly creepy and a bit stalkerish and more of a good friend....possibly more of a friend, hmmm? I thought it was pretty clear how he felt about her, but poor Kay had so much going on she didn't seem to notice.

The plot of this was really clever, I was definitely fooled by what was going on, and you can see how Kaylee's obsession with Sabine influences her judgement on certain things. But how everything worked out was really clever, as I have come to expect from any novel written by Rachel Vincent. I missed out some of the dream sequences because I found them a little boring, and felt I could see their relevance to the plot without actually having to read them and I did figure out the whole thing with Alec early, but beyond that I was completely surprised by how everything unfolded.  I didn't enjoy this quite as much as the rest of the SS series, pretty much because I was a little disappointed in Kaylee, but also a little bit because I resented the idea that Nash was 'in charge' of Sabine,  I got why Kaylee had to appeal to him about her behaviour, but didn't like the idea that he could control what she did.

On the whole though, I adore this series, and cannot wait to see what If I Die brings!

Review: The Girl in the Clockwork Collar by Kady Cross

The Girl in the Clockwork Collar (Steampunk Chronicles #2)
Publisher: Harlequin
Release Date: 22nd May 2012
Source: eGalley for review from Netgalley

Rating: 2/5

Goodreads Description:

In New York City, 1897, life has never been more thrilling - or dangerous.

Sixteen-year-old Finley Jayne and her "straynge band of mysfits" have journeyed from London to America to rescue their friend Jasper, hauled off by bounty hunters. But Jasper is in the clutches of a devious former friend demanding a trade-the dangerous device Jasper stole from him...for the life of the girl Jasper loves.

One false move from Jasper and the strange clockwork collar around Mei's neck tightens. And tightens.

My thoughts:

I have come to realise that the main appeal of The Girl in the Steel Corset was, in fact, Jack Dandy. And therefore, without him, my enjoyment of this book was considerably lower.  

The Girl in the Clockwork Collar starts shortly after the end of the previous book, with Finley and co off to NYC to find Jasper. I did have high hopes for this book, but felt it was let down by bad writing and ultimately, a formulaic and highly predictable plot.

You can pretty much tell what will eventually happen from the offset, and I found that quite irritaing. Whilst lots of attention is paid to historical accuracy, steampunk gadgets and descriptions of outfits, the plot seems like an afterthought, an inconvenience. This was definitely a disappointment. I found myself reading it more to see if my suspicions would be correct than out of enjoyment for it.


The writing also felt fairly sloppy to me, it's not bad, it's just not good. The POV jumps around depending on which character it suits the author to speak through which I didn't like. It didn't feel as though there was much consistency as far as the narration went. 


There was little to no progress as far as the romantic subplots went. Finley and Griffin remain at an impasse; neither one apparently prepared to make the first move despite seeming to realise their feelings for each other. Finley constantly puts this down to Griffin's social ranking, but it seems more like a flimsy excuse than a genuine reason. Any relationship between Sam and Emily seemed forgotten, Jack Dandy was out of the picture (and lets be honest, he was never really an option in the first place, was he?) and Jasper is suitably distracted. 

I did like some of the characters we were introduced to, such as Wildcat who was pretty awesome. We learnt more about Jasper and he does seem like a pretty decent guy. Griffin is a bit too nice for me, and Finley had lost some of her appeal now the two sides of herself are pretty much reconciled, though she got into some awesome fights, both verbal and physical in this book.

Like I say, Kady Cross paints a wonderful picture of Victorian New York turned Steampunk, but I was disappointed by this book as a whole.