Review: Shattered Souls by Mary Lindsey (Souls #1)

Title: Shattered Souls by Mary Lindsey

Published: December 8^th, 2011 by Philomel / Penguin

Source: Library

Format: Hardcover

Challenge(s):

Grade rate: A++

Lenzi hears voices and has visions - gravestones, floods, a boy with steel gray eyes. Her boyfriend, Zak, can't help, and everything keeps getting louder and more intense. Then Lenzi meets Alden, the boy from her dreams, who reveals that she's a reincarnated Speaker - someone who can talk to and help lost souls - and that he has been her Protector for centuries.

Now Lenzi must choose between her life with Zak and the life she is destined to lead with Alden. But time is running out: a malevolent spirit is out to destroy Lenzi, and he will kill her if she doesn't make a decision soon.

My Review

I don’t know why it took me so long to read Shattered Souls.  I absolutely loved it!  It was one of those books that you start and you cannot put down (you know what I mean, right?).  I started reading after work around 5:00 and I couldn’t stop until I was done around 11:00.

Where to start?  Shattered Souls introduces a new world in which there are Speakers, beings that hear lost souls and are always partnered with a Protector, someone that help them in any way they can to achieve their purpose.  They are reincarnated, living many ‘cycles’, but the problem is that Lenzi (Rose) cannot remember her previous lives and when she starts hearing voices, she logically thinks she is going insane.  Even if this premise seems familiar, I mean, at the beginning I was comparing it to Angelfire, this is where the similarities end.

I love Lenzi and Alden’s relationship, and although the whole story in this first book takes place in about a week, their relationship doesn’t feel rushed; after all, they have been in love for years and years, and many lives.  The characters are amazing.  Lenzi is afraid and brave at the same time. She is loyal, realistic, and very loving.  Alden is wonderful; he is also loving, loyal, full of knowledge, and very responsible.  He would do anything for Lenzi, and that is just plain hot.  Zak is bad news and I didn’t like him at all from the beginning. 

The plot is original, and the story started slow and quickly picked up.  I’m glad that Lenzi wasn’t left ‘hanging’ wondering for months if she was going insane.  The ending was just right, not a cliffhanger and with enough closure for me.  This is a good thing, because book #2 is still untitled and not due until 2014!  I do hope this was a typo, has to be, right?

About the cover: Just gorgeous!

Did you read Shattered Souls?  How did you liked it?  Do you like books about reincarnation?

              

Review: The Alchemy of Forever by Avery Williams (Incarnation #1)

Title: The Alchemy of Forever by Avery Williams

Published: January 3^rd, 2012 by Simon & Schuster

Format: Hardcover

Source: Purchased

Challenge(s):  TBR Pile

Grade rate: B-

Seraphina has been alive since the 1300's, made immortal when the boy she was beginning to love back then, Cyrus, saved her from death with a strange liquid - a method of alchemy that lets them swap bodies with any human being. But now, in modern day America, Sera has decided that she can no longer bear the weight of stealing people's lives so she can keep living on. So she decides to run away from Cyrus and end her stolen existence once and for all. Her plan goes awry when she accidentally takes the body of a dying teenager and feels forced to take over her life. When the lines between Sera and Kailey's identity begin to blur, Sera finds a reason to desire to live once more. But she can't shake the guilt of having taken Kailey's life, even if she was dying. And what if Cyrus finds her?

My Review

I had high expectations for The Alchemy of Forever and I’m sad to say it didn’t entirely meet them. 

Sera is a strange character.  She has been alive for a long time, and has finally had enough of living and of taking lives in order to do so.  I do understand her disillusionment and eagerness to just stop, I just don’t agree with the way she went about it.  She did make an awful number of mistakes with her escape plan; I don’t want to go into details so I don’t spoil the story for you.  Sera is a good person, but also a bit lost since Cyrus always took care of everything.  When she takes over Kailey’s life she has to pass herself for a teenager, without having a clue how to act.  It’s apparent that Kailey was very controlling, a bit volatile, with strong opinions on everything and a snob.  Sera/Kailey acts in a complete different way that it’s out of character, but since the changes are good everyone is will to accept them at face value.

Cyrus was an evil, controlling, and intolerant and I don’t understand why Sera didn’t find a way to get rid of him instead (sorry of the violent thoughts!)   Noah was actually very sweet, he is Kailey’s childhood friend and he is obviously in love with her.  Their romance was believable, and didn’t feel ‘instant’.

One of the things I love the most was Kailey’s family dynamics, this is actually a very close knitted family, which is always refreshing to see. 

The plot is a new approach to alchemy that involves ‘body hopping’, but unfortunately the ‘body’ needs to be dead for the alchemist to take over.  This part is a bit creepy and totally unnatural; I wish that there was more background information about it and about the life of the coven.  The story is quite short, the writing is easy to read and with a comfortable pace.  The ending was a cliffhanger which I never appreciate :(

Overall The Alchemy of Forever is a quick, easy read.  The next installment, The Impossibility of Tomorrow, will be published in January of next year and will patiently (*cough*) wait for it.

About the cover:  The cover is truly beautiful, with a little sheen to it.  In it we see Sera and various reflections of her.