Soul Screamers series by Rachel Vincent

SOMETHING IS WRONG WITH KAYLEE CAVANAUGH.

She doesn't see dead people, but...

She senses when someone near her is about to die. And when that happens, a force beyond her control compels her to scream bloody murder. Literally.

Kaylee just wants to enjoy having caught the attention of the hottest guy in school. But a normal date is hard to come by when Nash seems to know more about the need to scream than she does. And when classmates start dropping dead for no apparent reason, only Kaylee knows who'll be next...

Oh. My. GOSH.

I can't even express how much I loved this series!! Seriously. I started the first book (My Soul to Take) last weekend, and seven days later and only a few days before my final exams at school, I've finished the latest one (My Soul to Steal) and I they're all I can think about.

At first, I was a little reluctant to start. Not because the synopsis was bland and uninteresting (because it's really anything but), but because I found it kind of weird to read about a girl who has the same first name as me, when I've gone fourteen years and seven different schools without meeting anyone who shares it.

But now I regret not picking it up sooner.

First, I give this book a 5. It's just the kind of book that I love to read. The kind that keeps you up for hours thinking about it; the kind makes you question the little things in your life and compare.

Kaylee is an extremely likable character (Wow, it felt weird writing that.). I felt myself connected to her from page one. She's selfless, but not in a way that's cheesy, and has this sort of bravery about her that is really admirable. Even though she had spent most of her life kept in the dark about her bean sidhe (pronounced banshee) heritage, she thinks quick and comes up with clever plans that I hardly catch until she explains them.

Just like it's implied in the books, I find it really hard to dislike her.

Then there's Nash. Oh, glorious Nash. He's every girl's dream guy, hot and intensely protective, and understands Kaylee in a way that is heartwarming, added to the fact that he's a bean sidhe, like she is. Their conversations are so smartass that I crack up even in the most serious parts of the books, and I sigh in longing every time they touch, almost feeling exactly what my nameshare does.

They're so perfect for each other.

Maybe that's why I hated Sabine.

The mara--a living personification of a nightmare--made her first appearance in book 4, My Soul to Steal. She annoyed the heck out of me. At the end of the previous book (My Soul to Keep), I had been fresh in tears, so when Sabine entered and disturbed every chance of them getting back together, my frustration was dominant. And the fact that envy was the prime inhuman focus in that book made me stress even further.

Here's the thing though: I hated Sabine's role as a blockade and suspect, but not the person she was. It would've been easier if Rachel Vincent had made her a hate-worthy character. But she wasn't. She was infuriating and straightforward, but also brutally honest in a way that made it hard to hate her.

Believe me, I tried. I wanted to hate her as much as Kaylee wanted to, and failed just as much. Because despite her wicked persona, Sabine really did love Nash. And I believe that being a mara and feeding on given fear was really just her way of survival. She didn't want to be. She wanted to have friends just like everyone else.

And she was there for Nash when Kaylee didn't trust herself to be. That earned Sabine a few points, even though I wanted nothing more than to yell at Kay for pushing him away in the first place.

Not that I can talk like I know how she felt. After what Nash made her do, she has the right to feel betrayed.

That didn't stop me for vying for her to trust him the entire book, though.


But as much as I adore Kaylee, not hate Sabine, and think Nash is hotter than the sun (even with his flaws), I love Tod. Nash's dead, older brother Tod. Tod, who is a reaper with a sense of humor. Tod, who never fails to make me laugh. If there were teams, I would definitely have the three letters T-O-D printed all over my clothes.

Please don't kill me, Team Nash. 

He's just so damn funny! Tod always shows up at the worst times, says the most provoking things, and his sarcastic comments are the things I honestly love the most. He pisses off his younger (wait, older?) brother constantly with his selective corporeality, and the way he acts as a white knight to Kaylee when she needs him most. If anyone says that they've never cracked up laughing at something he said, I know that it's a lie.

Really.

Sometimes I just wish that Kaylee would drop her bigger-than-a-crush love on Nash and stick with the hilarious reaper. If that actually happened, I would squeal with joy and shower the author with a million boxes of chocolates (No,  this is not a bribe. *cough, cough*). Even though it probably won't. That doesn't stop my fangirl self from wishing.

And with the hints dropped throughout the books that there's even a slight chance at a possibility of Kay-Tod... ;D 

But the thing that  irks me the most is that, at times, I actually believe that Sabine does deserve Nash. Belongs with him. Like Tod said, two halves make a whole, and with Nash and Kaylee, it would be one and a half.

So I'm Team Tod forever (no pun intended).

But that's not the only thing that keeps me loving these books. Not just the characters, who I love, or the two hot brothers, who I love more. It's how there's a strict balance between life and death that shouldn't  be disturbed, and how there's an exact time and date stamped on everyone's lifelines, and only by sacrificing someone else can they change it. The sense of reapers and bean sidhes and hellions other Netherworld creatures... It's surreal.

And enticing.

The storyline is original and the characters are perfect, yet still humanly (or inhumanly?) flawed. The sacrifices and deaths are saddening. The cleverness and actions make it impossible to put the books down. The danger is real and Kaylee is smarter in those situations than I could ever be.

I love Alec. And Kay's dad.

I hate Sophie, but I hate Avari and the hellions even more.

It keeps you guessing to the very end, and is anything but predictable. I cried and laughed and nearly pulled at my hair in frustration and suspense, but I loved it a lot and can't wait for the next book, If I Die, to come out!

To chalk it up, if you haven't read the Soul Screamers series yet, do it! I promise you won't regret it! :)

-Kaylee (Magic, not Cavanaugh :P)