My Soul to Take [Paperback]

Kaylee Cavanaugh is not your average teenage girl.

There's something a bit off about her.

Whenever she's near someone who is about to die, she can sense it. When that happens, she feels the urge to scream loud enough for everyone to hear.

Kaylee wants to be a normal girl. Being a normal girl to Kaylee is going out on a date with her crush, Nash, who also happens to be the hottest guy in school. But going out on that date has to take a backseat when classmates start dropping dead for no apparent reason. Nash doesn't seem as in the dark as Kaylee feels, and she needs to know why.

Who will die next? Only Kaylee knows for sure.

Wonderfully written characters that are portrayed as typical teenagers that possess extraordinary powers. A fast-paced,engrossing read that you won't want to put down. A story that I wouldn't mind sharing with my preteen, although she'll have to wait until I am done.

MY SOUL TO TAKE is a wonderful beginning to a series that fans of Ms. Vincent's adult SHIFTERS series will definitely be rushing out to buy. A book like this is one of the reasons that I add authors to my auto-buy list. This is definitely a keeper.

Reviewed by: Breia "The Brain" Brickey

My Soul to Take by Rachel Vincent is the first book in the Soul Screamers series aimed for older teens. I was disappointed that the relationship between the protagonist, Kaylee, and Nash, developed too fast. Thus by page sixty, the two were already kissing. There were numerous parts in between that I lost interest in what I was reading and was hoping that those parts would quickly finish.

This novel has mystery and romance. The concept of the story was interesting, with banshees (bean sidhes), grim reapers, and other creatures that inhabit the underworld. The abilities of banshees and grim reapers were the most fascinating to read about.

Overall, it was a quick read, but I'm not sure if I want to continue reading the series. After reading a few teen novels, I am seeing repetition in the stories, and feel like I am looking for more from a story. There isn't even a slight hint of a moral to this story, like many others in this genre; they are written merely for the purpose of entertaining. Maybe the many novels of this category will please younger readers, but not those that are looking for something satisfying to read.

Kaylee Cavanaugh lives with her Uncle Brendon, Aunt Val, and cousin, Sophie. Her mother died when she was three, and her father resides in Ireland. Sometimes Kaylee faces problems if she encounters someone that is supposed to die soon while she is in a large crowd. Once that person is spotted, Kaylee can no longer speak. She has an urge to scream that doesn't die until the person dies or she gets away from them. Unfortunately, Kaylee doesn't know why she has this urge and who she truly is.

The story starts with Kaylee and her friend, Emma Marshall, sneaking into a club called Taboo because Emma's sister, Traci, works there. Emma is beautiful and Kaylee feels lucky to be her friend. There, as Kaylee watches Emma dance with any choice of partners available to her, Nash Hudson shows up and actually tries to have a conversation with her. Nash is one of the most good-looking guys from Kaylee's school and has a reputation of having a lot of girlfriends in the past.

While Kaylee and Nash dance, she spots a beautiful blond girl in her teens who seems strange. Then, with a drink in her hand, Kaylee spots the blond again with an odd shadow around her. In an instant, Kaylee can no longer do anything but to try to stop herself from screaming. She knows that the blond will die very soon.

How will Kaylee recover from the humiliation of Nash seeing her in such a state? Will Nash still talk to her when they see each other in school? Why is Nash talking to her and what is he hiding? Why are teenage girls dying without any cause?

2.5/5

I have no idea why I randomly picked up this title, but I'm definitely glad I did!

I'm going to start with the things I didn't like just because I think this review should end on a good note just as the book did. The beginning was quite cliche (the "super hot unreachable boy who is nothing but surprisingly insightful and understanding for unexplainable reasons and is therefore too good to be true" story line has been done and done again), and for that reason was a little too much on the predictable side. Aside from that, some rather large plot holes near the end of the book left me with the feeling of "well that's a little random" which I'm not going to say too much about since it will most definitely ruin the story for all. I will say though that both of these are minor problems that the great story definitely makes up for.

Now where to begin with the good things? Having read what seems like hundreds of teen paranormal-romance novels as of late, I have definitely grown tired of the same story being rehashed with new names, and am finding it quite hard to be really surprised anymore. That being said, My Soul to Take definitely caught me off guard at moments.

I really feel like every character in the book was created with purpose and therefore found no real dislike for any particular person. As a matter of fact, most of the characters were really likable as well as relatable.

The dynamic of the different types of paranormal beings was really interesting and all fit together like a puzzle in terms of how they interacted with each other. And the two main species of people are two that have not popped up in other novels recently and thus were very refreshing to read about.

To put it together, this book was just refreshing and a great start to a new series. I've already ordered the next few books and can't wait to read them. Highly recommended.