Title: Soul Keeper
Author: Cathryn Marr
Genre: Fiction/ Romance/ Vampire/ YA
Source: NetGalley
Rating: 2/5

Favourite Quote: ‘He was a beast of darkness and shadow, born among angels and sent down by his own considered actions to dwell among devils. He had not wanted anyone, human or not, in more millennia than could be easily counted, but he wanted her. Craved her warmth, her light, no matter how badly her song, her radiance, could hurt him. And she could hurt him. She had more power in her fingertips than he’d ever dreamed of possessing. And he’d dreamed, once.’ 

*I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review via NetGalley.*

(Goodreads Synopsis)
He’s a heavenly outcast. She’s a mortal woman with unearthly gifts. Can they ward off a rising apocalypse?
Fallen angel Luceire Garard has spent an eternity chasing redemption. So, when he’s given a mission to find and protect a defenseless young psychic, he jumps at the chance. But he never expected the beautiful woman who could help his mission to slam him in the chest with an impossible power.
Aurora Montgomery has always had a special connection to kids with disabilities. As more and more children reach out to her in pain, she knows she has no choice but to join the darkly handsome Fallen on a death-defying mission. But when a serial killer targets the innocent children, saving them may require tapping into an ancient, unexplainable gift.
As Luceire and Aurora hunt down the murderer, they discover his attempt to sacrifice souls could resurrect an ancient, indestructible darkness. And the only way to stop the end of the world may require shedding innocent blood.
Can Luceire and Aurora avoid the unthinkable and stop the end of humanity?

I’m not sure whether I really liked this book. I was drawn to it from the description, a fallen angel, mortal psychic with ancient powers, a serial killer hunting children and vampires roaming the world. My interest was peeked. Unfortunately it wasn’t exactly what I expected. Whilst I liked certain aspects, such as the different types of vampire’s (psi and blood vampires) and their ability to absorb the essence of human emotions around them to get their fill, I had issues with the storyline and the main protagonist Aurora and her abilities. I couldn’t get my head around it a majority of the time. What exactly is her unearthly power and how is she able to just know what to do and when? I thought the amount of power she was given and master in a short time was too much. I honestly couldn’t keep up. I was too busy trying to figure out what she was doing with her abilities and how she was able to suddenly make them work than the actual story itself, I had to keep going back to re-read the story to understand what on earth was going on.

As far as I understand it; Aurora has been hidden away and watched carefully by her ‘friends’, or so they think, when in fact, a high level vampire who controls the city is absorbing her essence from a distance to make her weak right under their noses. Great start. A mysterious dark vampire brotherhood fallen angel of sorts, Luc, comes to her rescue (or something) and has been contracted to work with her to find a missing child without knowing how or why. Now she’s back to ‘normal’ without the high level vampire absorbing her essence, but she begins to have uncontrollable (yet able to control somehow with Luc around) abilities such as astral projection and the ability to contact, not to mention absorb, the souls of the dead through her mind. Or something. Using her abilities causes her to be on every vampire’s radar so the mysterious but attractive vampire fallen angel (who isn’t drawn to her essence in that way as far as I can tell, or is he?) is determined to protect her but actually just wants to fuck her, which isn’t allowed because of the celibacy pact he made with his brothers on his quest for redemption, which makes no sense, which he breaks to fuck her to bring down her overwhelming overpowering ability that almost consumes her, or something. All the while a serial killer kidnaps, rapes and murders children and teenagers in order to absorb their essence to unleash hell upon earth… OR SOMETHING. I mean, WHAT? I feel like I need to read it again, but honestly, I really don’t want too. So this is my mess of a review for the mess that is Soul Keeper.

‘She was a riddle wrapped in an enigma wrapped in a package so bewilderingly bright and unselfconsciously sensual and sexy that he could barely think straight.’

..Yeah, Luc, couldn’t have said it better myself… except the sensual, sexy part.

I do have to give credit when credit is due though, so as much as I feel this book wasn’t for me, I want to make sure my review highlights all points. The storyline has so much potential! It had a great atmosphere to it, the settings were dark and dangerous which was perfect, but there was so much going on in them that I felt like the author had to just throw in information out of nowhere in order to put parts of the story together, there was too much unnecessary details that just threw more confusion into the mix where it wasn’t needed.
I would have like to have more character build up instead to really get to know the characters and their decisions within the plot. I have to say, as much as Rory ‘Aurora’ intrigued me, she also frustrated me with her slang and inability to make a sensible decision without putting herself and everyone else in danger then getting defensive all whilst unlocking a new ability with confidence. OR SOMETHING. I can’t begrudge her for wanting to save everyone, but she is too naive in the world that’s changing around her with her powers and the fact that she has a target on her back. It would have been nice to see something other than lust for Luc too, I felt like there was nothing else between our two main protagonists at times which overclouded the story.

I’m not sure what to make of Luc’s character. He’s a fallen mess who is desperate for redemption however seems to throw everything out of the water when it comes to Rory. He’s completely infatuated with her, which I understand the premise, she’s an attractive mystery who makes him feel completely powerless but he’s determined to save her and to prove himself. He felt really lacking in some areas, it didn’t exactly feel like she was the first women he’d felt anything for in some millennia. Some of the other characters I felt were unneeded or hard to connect with without enough build up or backstory.

Overall I appreciate being given a copy via Netgalley, I felt the story had so much potential but it wasn’t for me.

Goodreads Review:
He’s a heavenly outcast. She’s a mortal woman with unearthly gifts. Can they ward off a rising apocalypse?
Fallen angel Luceire Garard has spent an eternity chasing redemption. So, when he’s given a mission to find and protect a defenseless young psychic, he jumps at the chance. But he never expected the beautiful woman who could help his mission to slam him in the chest with an impossible power.
Aurora Montgomery has always had a special connection to kids with disabilities. As more and more children reach out to her in pain, she knows she has no choice but to join the darkly handsome Fallen on a death-defying mission. But when a serial killer targets the innocent children, saving them may require tapping into an ancient, unexplainable gift.
As Luceire and Aurora hunt down the murderer, they discover his attempt to sacrifice souls could resurrect an ancient, indestructible darkness. And the only way to stop the end of the world may require shedding innocent blood.
Can Luceire and Aurora avoid the unthinkable and stop the end of humanity?