All Things Urban Fantasy's Reviews > Borrowed Souls
Borrowed Souls (Soul Charmer, #1)
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*** Review Courtesy of All Things UF ***
BORROWED SOULS started out really strong! Promising characters were surrounded in a richly developed world with an awesome magic system… That’s all there ever was though. I wanted to love this book, but the great start fell flat as nothing happened throughout the rest of BORROWED SOULS.
I love finding a new and interesting world to explore, because a lot of the time Urban Fantasy got start to feel all the same. So I’m always excited when I find a book that really has a new and unique world. BORROWED SOULS has that. A world of soul magic and how a deeply religious city would react to such magic.
But nothing happens in BORROWED SOULS. Callie has to work for the soul charmer for a couple of weeks to allow her to pay off her brother’s debt to the mob. It’s interesting to see Callie working for the soul charmer, and in the process she uncovers an interesting side plot that I think will become the major plot of the next book. However, there are no twists to the side plot. It’s interesting, but nothing more. Despite the craziness and potential action when working for a soul charmer and the mob, there isn’t any. The only part that could’ve had action was done off screen.
Some of my favorite books have no to little true action, see the JAG in Space series as an example. But those books have strong characters driven stories. I was never able to relate to Callie, and the romance was flat. I was excited when the romance didn’t start out as insta-lust, but I never felt any strong chemistry between Derek and Callie.
I’m willing to cut the first book in a series a little slack, and if BORROWED SOULS was an audiobook I would probably listen to the second book in the Soul Charmer series, in the hopes that it would pick up the pace. As it stands now, I find it unlikely that I’ll pick up the sequel.
Sexual Content - One Sex Scene
BORROWED SOULS started out really strong! Promising characters were surrounded in a richly developed world with an awesome magic system… That’s all there ever was though. I wanted to love this book, but the great start fell flat as nothing happened throughout the rest of BORROWED SOULS.
I love finding a new and interesting world to explore, because a lot of the time Urban Fantasy got start to feel all the same. So I’m always excited when I find a book that really has a new and unique world. BORROWED SOULS has that. A world of soul magic and how a deeply religious city would react to such magic.
But nothing happens in BORROWED SOULS. Callie has to work for the soul charmer for a couple of weeks to allow her to pay off her brother’s debt to the mob. It’s interesting to see Callie working for the soul charmer, and in the process she uncovers an interesting side plot that I think will become the major plot of the next book. However, there are no twists to the side plot. It’s interesting, but nothing more. Despite the craziness and potential action when working for a soul charmer and the mob, there isn’t any. The only part that could’ve had action was done off screen.
Some of my favorite books have no to little true action, see the JAG in Space series as an example. But those books have strong characters driven stories. I was never able to relate to Callie, and the romance was flat. I was excited when the romance didn’t start out as insta-lust, but I never felt any strong chemistry between Derek and Callie.
I’m willing to cut the first book in a series a little slack, and if BORROWED SOULS was an audiobook I would probably listen to the second book in the Soul Charmer series, in the hopes that it would pick up the pace. As it stands now, I find it unlikely that I’ll pick up the sequel.
Sexual Content - One Sex Scene
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Reading Progress
December 6, 2016
– Shelved
December 6, 2016
– Shelved as:
to-read
March 17, 2017
– Shelved as:
received-for-review
March 18, 2017
– Shelved as:
reviewed-by-james