Shadows On The Soul [Mass Market Paperback]

While Gabriel is not going to earn his wings anytime soon, with Jezebel's help he definitely has a shot at regaining his soul. Jenna Black did a wonderful job in Secrets in the Shadows (The Guardians of the Night, Book 2) of creating an immensely powerful, evil and seeming sadistic villain in Gabriel. She does an equally wonderful job of exposing the truths about Gabriel that he himself doesn't realize and taking him through an amazing transition in Shadows on the Soul.

The catalyst for Gabriel's change is Jezebel. Jezebel is the brutalized victim that Gabriel "turned" at the end of the last book and Gabriel intends no more than to use Jez to infiltrate his father Eli's Guardians and gather information to set a trap to kill Eli. Little does he expect to find a kindred spirit in this wisecracking slip of a girl. After all what could a former goth chic, have in common with a powerful 500 year old born vamp. Beneath that badder than bad exterior Eli is a mess, small wonder as his father once tried to kill him and his mother now is more than eager to finish the job. Gabriel's bond with Jez as maker to fledgling has the unexpected side effect of her being able to sense the feelings that he himself denies having. Having suffered emotional abuse from the grandmother who raised her after Jez's addict mother died, the grandmother that thought Jez was the devil's spawn, Jez recognizes Gabriel's coping mechanism. Understanding his pain, she uses the connection of their bond to crack the walls around Gabriel's soul and helps him to see himself beyond the monster image he cultivated to avoid any further rejection.

While Jez is attempting Gabriel's psychological redemption, Gabriel's mother is out for revenge against both Gabriel and Eli, both of whom she blames for all the misfortune in her life. Camille was the vamp master that Gabriel dethroned in the last book. This time she brings powerful backup and an old enemy of Gabriel's. They capture and torture Gabriel and fully intend to kill him once they've finished using him as bait to trap Eli. Jez is only a fledgling, but she will do whatever it takes to help save Gabriel even if it means sacrificing herself, so that not only will he live but he will know that at last there is someone who loves him unconditionally. She's going to need the powerful Eli to help rescue Gabriel, but can she trust Eli to save the son she thinks Eli secretly still loves. What if she's wrong?

This is the third Guardian's of the Night book and Jenna Black's vampire paranormal romance series just keep getting better. In order to truly appreciate Shadows on the Soul, you need to at least read the Secret in the Shadows so that you can truly hate Gabriel before you grow to love him here.

How many books have, as their hero, a mass-murdering sadistic psychopath? How many books have, as their heroine, a former HIV-positive wild child? In that respect "Shadows On The Soul" is very different with Killer vampire Gabriel the hero and new vampire Jezebel the heroine. Gabriel made Jezebel a vampire after she was gang-raped by a lot of other vampires in a previous book but, in making his first fledgling, he set himself on an entirely new course.

Gabriel is angry with his father Eli, leader of the Guardians (a group of vampires who don't drink human blood and who try to dispatch vampires that do). Clearly Gabriel is one of the Killers that the Guardians need to dispose of and yet Gabriel knows that his father has hardly had an innocent life. When Gabriel decides to travel to Philadelphia to kill his father, Eli, and takes Jezebel with him, he finds things not exactly working out as he expected. Particularly as his mother Camille, in league with the evil Bartolomeo di Cesare, and along with a powerful born vampire Brigitte, is also after Eli and has a special method of disabling Eli that might just work.

In the first scene of the book we are with Gabriel as he kills a woman by drinking her blood. However, right at this first part of the story, it becomes clear there's more to Gabriel's sadistic psychopathic murdering than meets the eye. He doesn't choose his victims at random and he has some strange other attributes, such as being unable to see children hurt without trying to get revenge on those who hurt them. As the story unfolds and Jezebel and Gabriel find themselves linked in terms of emotions - they can feel what the other is feeling - Jezebel begins to learn more about Gabriel's true nature and whether, underneath the scary exterior, there's more to him than the others realise.

In some ways I felt the book copped out a little in terms of its bold start. As it becomes clear that our mass-murdering sadistic psychopath isn't those things but that there are reasons for everything he does and that he doesn't actually like the sadism, it's just something he's been told, we begin to discover that Gabriel is almost one of the goodies. The author continues to drip-feed us information on Eli and his history and his apparent omnipotence and his great goodness are continuing to be chipped away. Drake, the only Killer within the Guardians, is getting so disillusioned by all that he learns and the end of this book sets him up as the hero of the next one, starting in a different city. So the bold and strong start is rather filtered down by the time the book ends and our shocking hero and heroine seem significantly less shocking.

Jezebel's role in this story, as the heroine, is quite understated. She's not really a woman of action, more of emotion, and as we learn about her appalling history it becomes apparent why she might be attracted to Gabriel - an attraction to someone who has suffered and who understands, perhaps. I was a little surprised that the Guardians seemed to forgive her for being a spy on several occasions but overall she did come across as a sweet and nice girl in rather over her head with Gabriel the monster.

The pacing of this book was rather better than "Secrets In The Shadows", the previous book in this series, as more events took place and much more attention was paid to the characters which made the book more satisfying. This was a good read which provided some interesting food for thought although perhaps not utilised as fully as it could have been.

[...]

I enjoyed this third book in the Guardian series. Gabriel is a Killer vampire, he feeds from humans but only the scumbags. Jez is his fledgling, a tortured soul with a bad past. She had a junkie for a mother and was infected with HIV because her mother used her needles and she is treated like a leper by her grandmother. Gabriel and Jez made a good pair. The author fleshed out Gabriels character very well in this book, and kept him true to his bad boy ways. Of course, love conquers all and he redeems himself in the end. This was a good book. I enjoyed the characters, Gabriel, Jez, and Eli, the leader of the Guardians. We learn a great deal more about Eli's character and it was truly fascinating. We also get a more in depth look at Drake and I assume he will have his own story. This was well worth reading.

› Go to Amazon.com to see all 6 reviews  4.8 out of 5 stars