3/5 Stars
Soul Thief by Jana Oliver
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
Publication Date: August 30, 2011
Review:
Soul Thief begins right after the attack on the Tabernacle,
Riley has just made a deal with Heaven to spare the life of her boyfriend,
Simon, and is struggling with the changes that occur following the attack.
One of my favorite things about the last book was that the
end was so fast paced and action packed. I expected this book so start out the
same way. Unfortunately, the story begins slow and remains slow until the last
third of the book when things finally pick up. That is one of the reasons I
couldn’t give this book a higher rating I felt like I was always waiting for
the action to come. When the action finally did come though it was worth the
wait and I have to say the last third of the book was 5 star worthy.
Riley in this book has so much to deal with and still
manages to remain just as strong as she was in the first book. Riley was able
to get her job done while hunting down leads about her fathers re-animation,
the bogus holy-water, and dealing with her unlucky love life. The fact that she
can juggle all of these things and still remain a total badass show what a
great heroine she is.
From the outset it is obvious something is not right about
Simon. After his near-death experience he has a crisis of faith and Riley ends
up being the one he blames. Ori is there waiting in the wings when Riley’s
relationship with Simon begins to head south and I actually came to trust him
and hope for a relationship between him and Riley (I think that is why the
ending came as such a surprise to me).
That brings us to Beck. Oh Beck….he really pissed me off in
this book. It is apparent to everyone but Riley how much he cares for her and
yet still the two of them are constantly fighting over the stupidest things! I
both wanted Beck to be in every scene and was angry when he was around. He just
makes such poor decisions about both his personal life and the way he treats
Riley. I kept feeling like one of the master trappers needed to shake some
sense into him.
Overall, I enjoyed this book but the lack of action in the
first 2/3’s of the story and all of Beck’s bad decisions stopped me from loving
this story. I will definitely be picking up the third book though and I’m
excited to see what Jana Oliver has in store for us!
I'm sorry the beginning was slow and Beck's personality really lacked! I'd probably kill someone if I ever read a character who always picked fights with someone even though they obviously have feelings for each other. But I am glad you liked this overall and that Riley was a great heroine!
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