Angels Archives - As I Lay Reading

Soul Summoner Series: Angel of Death

January 10, 2017 By Kellie Leave a Comment

Sloan, Nathan, Warren and the gang are back for the third book in the Soul Summoner Series!

If you are interested in reading my reviews for book 1 and 2, check out the links below:

Soul Summoner Series: The Soul Summoner (book 1)

Soul Summoner Series: The Siren (book 2)

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The Recap

When last we left:

Sloan, Nathan and Warren had been through a hell of a battle with Kasyade — Sloan’s angel birth mother. If you remember, Nathan died during battle but Sloan brought him back to life with her wicked healing power. She also notes that she is able to heal faster than before. Book two ended with a big surprise as Sloan Jordan finds out that she is pregnant with boyfriend Warren’s baby. Nathan is newly single as he finally breaks things off with Shannon and stops leading her on. Warren finds out that he is going to be deployed back to the middle east for some super secret special mission.

Onto the present!

Book 3

In the latest installment in the Soul Summoner series, we find Sloan Jordan pregnant, with new enhanced angelic powers and is in a state of semi-confusion for her love life. Her boyfriend Warren (an angel of death) has been deployed to the middle east and has asked Nathan to watch over Sloan while he is gone. Nathan, finally gets a chance to close a painful chapter in his life as he and his family lay his sister to rest.

Someone from Warren’s past arrives and shakes things up with new information concerning the dangers that currently surround Sloan and the baby. Kasyade coming back is not a question of “if” but rather “when”. Can Sloan, Nathan and Warren survive this latest danger?

Disclaimer: I review and discuss the book a bit more thoroughly beyond this point. Book spoilers may happen! So, if you don’t want to be spoiled, skip down to the rating. 🙂

The Angel of Death is a riveting installment in the Soul Summoner series by Elicia Hyder!

I have to say, I think this is probably my favorite book in the series. Nathan and Sloan continue to show character growth. New characters Azrael and Taiya have personalities that bloom and meld into the fold of the story nicely.

I am the kind of person who loves being drawn in to a story! I love when an author makes me feel something. There is nothing better than feeling a connection with all of the characters and feeling genuinely invested in their well being. The Angel of Death hit those marks for me.

I’m not going to lie, the coupling of Sloan and Warren still feels wrong to me. Her relationship with Nathan feels so much more organic. Whereas Warren is this character that sort of bullies his way in when he shows up in the story. In book 2 he tells Sloan that he will not marry her until she figures out what and who she wants. He knows there is a connection between Nathan and Sloan and told her that he was going to kind of leave their relationship open-ended so that she can figure it out. There were a few parts of book 3 that sizzled with some Sloan and Nathan action. When Warren found out (Sloan is honest to a fault), he beat the crap out of Nathan. So much so that Sloan had to heal Nathan’s face with her power.

Azrael is a great new addition to the story. He is Warren’s dad but has 10x the personality (in my opinion). He forces Sloan to work at getting better controlling her powers and he calls it like he sees it with her, which is refreshing.

Sloan finally makes a choice regarding her love life in this story, which is good. I am hoping we can put the love triangle business to rest for the rest of the series but something tells me that Warren’s new status might offer some unforeseen obstacles.

My rating for The Angel of Death (Soul Summoner Series Book 3)

Soul Summoner Series: The Siren

December 22, 2016 By Kellie Leave a Comment

The Siren is the second book in the Soul Summoner series, written by Elicia Hyder.

This book continues the story of Sloan Jordan, Warren Parish and Detective Nathan McNamara.

What if on the journey to find out who you are, you get more than you bargained for? This is exactly the premise of the second book. Sloan, Warren and Nathan head to Texas to find a woman named Rachel Smith. She was on the list of victims of the deadly serial killer caught in book 1. Sloan and Warren were sure that she was indeed a victim until the FBI shows a recent photo of her alive and well. This is where the adventure begins!

In this story we also learn that Sloan and Warren still aren’t sure what they are. Are they simply human beings with extraordinary abilities or are they something more? On their quest to find Rachel Smith, they get the answers they seek and so much more!

Disclaimer: I review and discuss the book more thoroughly beyond this point. Book spoilers may happen! So, if you don’t want to be spoiled, skip down to the rating!

Read the recap of the first book

As you know, I liked the first book enough to finish it but found it to be more fluff than anything. In that book, the focus was more on the romance and love-triangle than the serial killer story. The serial killer storyline was simply a plot device meant to show Sloan’s abilities, except it kind of didn’t.

Regarding the faux-love triangle in the first book: I didn’t like the insta-attraction between Sloan and Warren because it ruined the chances of romance for Sloan and Nathan (he got there first, yo!). Also, I like a slow-burn romance and though it seemed that was happening between Sloan and Nathan, Warren came in and ruined it with the Made-for-Each-Other trope.

Onward to the second book!

The second book in the Soul Summoner series was just as easy to slide into as the first. Elicia Hyder is a good storyteller! Now familiar with the characters, I knew what to expect.

Romance aside, the story was pretty good overall! I found more to love this time!

The Good:

Sloan and Warren find out what they are. I sort of saw it coming but the reveal was pretty great nonetheless
Sloan finds her birth mom! This was good because the author used this as an opportunity to present a twist. Also, we don’t know yet who her father is (though I have some ideas). I expect that reveal in later books
Great battle scene at the end
Shannon’s character was given more to do! Come to find out the girl can shoot!
The focus was mainly on the mystery (or mysteries rather). Since the romance is probably my least favorite thing about this series, I was pretty happy about that
Emotional moments. There is a big moment in the book where we see Sloan struggle with some recent events and realities.
Moments of enlightenment toward the end where the love triangle is concerned. Possible chance for Nathan?

The Bad:

There is a reveal at the end that kind of puts a nail in the love triangle coffin.
Shannon. She is actually kind of awesome but still only used as a plot device. We get some redemption and resolution for Shannon’s character but it still leaves me wondering why she is even in book 2 of the series. I had hoped that Shannon would officially be part of the gang after the trip to Texas but it seems she is more of an annoyance to them than anything. She can shoot but the author didn’t put that factoid to good use at all.
Adrienne is also a plot device. Sloan’s best friend only really shows up for emotional moments when Sloan needs someone. Which isn’t necessarily a bad thing as it reminds us that Sloan has friends outside of her two love interests but Adrienne is seriously under-utilized.
Sloan’s connection to her mom (not birth mom). Sloan is pretty busy in both books so in a way it is understandable that maybe the author wouldn’t have time to build that relationship. We get more tell and less show where Sloan and her mom are concerned. Comparatively, we have more connection to Sloan’s dad as the connection is built more organically and we see it in both books. There is a huge emotional moment for Sloan regarding her mom (not birth mom) and at times it felt like maybe I was projecting a bit as to how I would feel if that happened to me. So, I guess I wanted the connection between Sloan and her mom to be more organic before pulling the rug out from underneath the readers.

Overall, The Siren by Elicia Hyder was pretty good! One of the reasons that I love diving into a book series is so that I can connect with the characters and the stories on a deeper level. Picking up the second or third book in a series is like having a warm cup of coffee and a great conversation with an old friend.

Even though I liked book 2 much better than book 1, I have to give a similar rating. Hyder is a good writer and has managed to suck me into both books with her storytelling. However, there are moments in the story where I wish she went a little deeper. If I need to get used to the fact that Warren is end-game, then I want to see why. Even though I came away from this book with a much clearer picture of Warren as a character, i’m still not sold on him being the last man standing. Also, I want more than surface characterization where Sloan is concerned.