When teenager Kaylee screams, someone dies...So when teen pop star Eden dies onstage and Kaylee doesn't wail, she knows something is dead wrong. She can't cry for someone who has no soul. The last thing Kaylee needs right now is to be skipping school, breaking her dad's ironclad curfew and putting her too-hot-to-be-real boyfriend's loyalty to the test. But starry-eyed teens are trading their souls: a flickering lifetime of fame and fortune in exchange for eternity in the Netherworld - a consequence they can't possibly understand. Kaylee can't let that happen, even if trying to save their souls means putting her own at risk.
Ok before I start wittering – it’s late, my brain has switched off, I cannot guarantee sense! – let me say I really enjoyed the book. There were a few things I wasn’t so fussed on which I’ll get into below, but I want to start on a positive and say that I really love the series and they are well worth a read.
The first book was sheer genius. It was fresh and exciting and a new angle on the urban fantasy genre, and it completely swept me up in the story, so I was really excited to get the second book in the series.
This second book didn’t quite get to me in the same way though. It was slower – yes we had a big mystery to solve and by the end it really was a race against the clock, but I found the story less compelling, so it took me a lot longer to get involved.
Whilst the first book was all new and exciting, the second was working on expanding those ideas, which was great and I loved seeing new element to a world we’d barely glimpsed in the first book, but it meant that I struggled to become invested in the book in the same way. Spoiled pop stars are dropping dead after selling their souls. It just felt a little bit, hm, there choice, they’re morons. Whereas the girls dying in the first book had no choice and it was all a little omg, someone save them!
The concept is brilliant, don’t get me wrong, it just took me a lot longer to care about these new characters. Some of them longer than others. Kaylee keeps saying that she has no reason to help these people, she can’t just stand by and let them die though. And it really felt like that – there was no real investment for her, why was she being a moron and endangering not just herself, but Nash too?
It just was all a little bit forced for me.
It just was all a little bit forced for me.
However, once we really started to get into the race, I fell in love with the series again. Rachel Vincent writes brilliantly, I love her books, and whilst I was a tiny bit disappointed with the first half of the book, she really makes up for it with the second half.
Whilst the steam between Kaylee and Nash was still there, it only happened occasionally, and I was a bit grumpy with Nash in general. The first book he’s all clever and involved and super hot and exciting (I know, I know, I’m incredibly shallow when it comes to fictional guys…) but in this book he was a bit… Boring… Which was sad, because I love him, and I wanted him to be all kick ass again. I’m hoping the kick ass returns in the third book.
So I feel a bit mixed. On the one hand I completely recommend Rachel Vincent’s books in general, but particularly this series, they’re brilliantly written, fast paced, exciting and engaging. On the other, I don’t feel that this book was as good as the first book. I still really enjoyed it though, and am really looking forward to the third book being release in the UK next month. Lets hope Nash gets kick ass and takes his shirt off more in the third one…
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