G. P. Ching

I received a free copy of this novel in exchange for my honest review. This is book 4 of The Soulkeepers Series. Staying true to the theme this series has been on, this book focused on only a few characters. In this portion, the Soulkeepers are in Eden training and trying to figure out what Lucifer will do next. Malini feels that Dane plays an important part in the search for the new Soulkeeper that is missing.

This was a great read, one that was very difficult to put down. It had quite a few twists along the way, to keep you engrossed. But, I’m giving it only 4 stars though. Only because the development of Dane’s relationship seemed to move slow. You could see the attraction from the previous novel, so why wait until the end on this one? All in all, a great YA fantasy. If you’re uncomfortable with homosexuality, or don’t want your kids reading it, then this may not be for you.
… (meer)

I really enjoyed this! In one way it's 'another' "teen girl discovers the world isn't what she thought it was" book - I must admit to reading quite a few of those - but in as another way its appeal was that it was familiar yet different and unusual *enough* to work. For a start, the protagonist being a young Amish girl was an interesting way to explain why the events that caused the dystopia it is set in had to be explained to her - no unnecessary exposition here - and I liked that it seemed a believable dystopia. Some of the ones I've read, you find yourself thinking that there's no way 'the people' would allow that, or I suppose no way the government would risk the response it would get if it introduced some of the new rules. (much as I like the series, I think the ones where its legal to 'kill' your teen for spare parts for example, may have caused a bit of a fuss).

I liked the characters, though wasn't completely convinced about the love triangle and its eventual outcome, and the adults were mostly a bit thin, but the main appeal was the story. It was exciting and swept you along from one interesting bit to the next, and right from the opening it kept my attention. The whole 'Spark' idea was fun and was described well - I could see it working really well visually, too, I'd watch a film of this!

Finally, the main problem with a lot of the young adult indie published books I've read recently (and some of the adult ones come to that) is the quality and/or style of the writing, but to me this had none of that at all, it read like a well-written pro book with a writer confident and comfortable in their writing, and rightfully so. I would read more in this series (if it is or became a series, very much liked that it was open at the end to happily be a stand alone book but could also be returned to in the future) - and I will also look out for more by the same author. For me, that's pretty high praise in itself! ;)… (meer)