Recent Reads Reviews 📚 A Soul to Keep

A Soul to Keep is the first book in the series and follows Reia who is known to be the harbinger of bad omens which resulted in Demons killing her whole family. She’s been shunned by the town ever since & they decide she is to be the next sacrifice to the Duskwalker who will place a protect ward around the town. She is given the choice to live the rest of her days in a jail cell or take her chances with the Duskwalker. We also have a dual POV with Orpheius, the Duskwalker who isn’t taking sacrifices in order to kill them but instead for companionship. Every sacrifice before Reia has been killed or ran but Reia is different. She isn’t scared and Orpheius’s desire heightens. But can he convince her to stay?

This book was a ride! I loved both Reia & Orpheius’s characters. As a large portion of the book is following only the two of them you get to know them very well and can’t help but root for them. Reia was a bit of a badass and Orpheius was just so precious and I loved seeing their walls coming down and learning to love each other despite everything. You do meet a couple other characters throughout and all of them felt very fleshed out and I enjoyed all of them.

My main issue with this book was the pacing/plot. While the romance was the main focus there was a decent plot there to follow but it only really came in later in the book. The first 1/4-1/2 was a little slow plot wise for me. I’ve always been more of a plot driven reader so this makes sense but I’m glad it got there in the end and we got some action in there.

The atmosphere & world building was something I really enjoyed throughout the book. There was no info dumping, instead, you slowly get introduced to more and more of the world and the magic system as Reia learns more. The world and magic system are very intriguing and I’m keen to learn more with the next books in the series.

As for the audiobook itself I really enjoyed the narration. I’m sad that the other books in the series aren’t available in audio form and I can’t find any information as to if they are going to be available at some point. I’m a bit intimidating by trying to read these physically as well as each book is over 500 pages… Might take the plunge one day though!