Check out Rabid Read's book giveaway contest!

Hi all! I'll be posting my own book contest in a few days, but until then check out this contest by Rabid Reads!




She's giving away books by some of her favorite authors, Kelley Armstrong & Rachel Vincent- check it out, it's pretty easy to enter!

Book Review: My Soul to Steal by Rachel Vincent

Title: My Soul to Steal (SoulScreamers #4)
Author: Rachel Vincent
Publisher: Harlequin
Release Date: 01/01/2011
ISBN:0373210272







Before I start, let me just let you know that if you haven't been following along in the series then this is not a good place to start. There's a lot of back story that needs to be read & the first three books in this series are well worth reading. If you're curious about the series, yet can't get to a bookstore or library right away, you can still read the prequel to the series My Soul To Lose free from Vincent's website.

Trying to work things out with Nash—her maybe boyfriend—is hard enough for Kaylee Cavanaugh. She can't just pretend nothing happened. But "complicated" doesn't even begin to describe their relationship when his ex-girlfriend transfers to their school, determined to take Nash back.

See, Sabine isn't just an ordinary girl. She's a mara, the living personification of a nightmare. She can read people's fears—and craft them into nightmares while her victims sleep. Feeding from human fear is how she survives.

And Sabine isn't above scaring Kaylee and the entire school to death to get whatever—and whoever—she wants.

Following up on the events of the previous book, Vincent strives to give her characters depth as Kaylee not only tries to get over the idea of someone wearing her skin like a glove, but also that Nash is truly sorry for what he did as a result of his addiction. Vincent might not show all of the negatives of getting over an addiction, but that's not the drive of this series.

Along for the ride is the new character of Sabine, a character that will have many readers either squealing with glee at her mean girl personality or huffing in frustration at the things she does to our heroine. No worries about disliking her to the point of disliking the book- there's enough likable details to Sabine to keep her from going too overboard. She definitely gives Sophie a run for her money in the "complete jerk to Kaylee" contest. I won't spoil things for anyone, but some of the nightmares she gives Kaylee are pretty horrible. While the introduction of a rival for Nash's affections is intriguing, there also seems to be a few potential love interests developing for Kaylee as well.

I was honestly intrigued by this book & I can't wait for the next volume to come out. There's a few interesting suggestions brought up in this book (mostly surrounding Kaylee & her love life) that I really would like to see explored more in the next book. As with the previous books, this series is just plain fun to read, whether you're 14 or 40.

(ARC provided by NetGalley)

Book Review: My Soul to Keep by Rachel Vincent

Title: My Soul to Keep (SoulScreamers #3)
Author: Rachel Vincent
Publisher: Harlequin
Release Date: 06/01/2010
ISBN: 0373210051









If you haven't read any of Rachel Vincent's SoulScreamers series, then you are seriously missing out. Young & old alike can find a lot to enjoy in this series. For the adults, there's well written plot lines, great characters & for the younger readers there's just as much to love. They get to enjoy all of the stuff that the adults would like but they also have the joy of knowing that at no point does this book "write down" to them. As a teen I'd often get irritated at the overly perfect characters & the preachy morals that many authors tried to insert into their work. (The good girls never drank or stayed out late, always studied...) Vincent tries hard to avoid those cliches & worn out ideas in her series- and succeeds.

Kaylee's had it rough. Not only has she spent most of her life assuming that there's something wrong with her, but even after she discovered her bean sidhe heritage it hasn't been easy. She's had to fight demons, save people from death- or worse, & put up with her bratty cousin. Kaylee's just hoping that she'll finally get some time to relax with her hunky boyfriend & be as normal as she possibly can be. Unfortunately for her, someone's smuggling Demon's Breath into the mortal world- a substance so incredibly addicting that coming down from it can kill you. It's up to her to find out a way to stop the distribution of it before her entire school becomes addicted.

Once again Vincent manages to write a fantastic & fast paced read. Kaylee manages to remain an intriguing & sympathetic character that many teens will find themselves relating to. Also interesting is the character of Nash, Kaylee's boyfriend who may or may not be more in love with the fact she's a bean sidhe than with Kaylee herself. He goes through a lot of character development in this book, which is a good thing- he needs to prove himself to the audience & to Kaylee.

There's also new characters introduced in this book, one of which will hopefully turn into a new suitor for Kaylee. (Hey, Nash needs competition.) Teens will love the pacing of the book & parents will love that the book deals with sensitive subjects like drug addiction & sex (Nash wants it now, Kaylee wants to wait) in a way that won't alienate anyone or go over the top.

This is a great entry into a series that has been strong from the start & looks like it will be going strong for quite some time. If you haven't been reading the series, I highly suggest that you start from the first book in the series as well as reading the free "chapter zero" available on Vincent's site.

(ARC provided by NetGalley)