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Book Reviews & Occasional Author and Book - Fangirling

Veiled by Karina Halle – Book Review

November 13, 2017 By Kellie Leave a Comment

veiled karina halle book cover

Veiled by Karina Halle is the much-anticipated spin-off book from Halle’s Experiment in Terror (EIT) Series.

I cannot lie, I was so eager for this book! I scoured the internet for two years, trying to find any updates at all. I think Karina mentioned that the book was going to be released shortly after the final EIT book but she may very well have been burned out on writing paranormal romances for a while. All I can say is this book was worth the wait.

This book features Perry’s younger sister – Ada. Ada Palomino is now 18 years old.

When the book opens, we find that Ada has just finished her senior year of high school and has been accepted into a prestigious fashion school. Though she has always been a bit more level-headed than Perry, in the two years since her mother’s death, Ada has struggled at life emotionally. She struggles with depression and is kind of reckless. She leans heavily on Perry and Dex during this time.

Enter Ada’s re-occurring dreams, this is where the nightmares begin. Every night Ada dreams that her mother is being tortured in the afterlife and that she is not in heaven but somewhere in the veil. The veil is the world that separates earth from heaven and hell. As Ada tries to make sense of her dreams, in walks the ever handsome Jay.

She met Jay briefly at her sister’s wedding but hasn’t seen him since. He re-appears along with some mysterious new neighbors who might hold the key to making sense of Ada’s dream. As things get deeper with Jay, she discovers he has a dark past. Is the darkness behind him or is he the entity Ada should fear?

Spoiler Alert! My review continues below and may contain spoilers. If you do not wish to be spoiled, you can jump to the rating.


 

Even though Karina Halle took a short break from her Experiment in Terror characters, she jumped right back in as if no time at all had passed. Dex and Perry were not featured as main characters in this book. However, we got to catch up with them in this book. They took a backseat to main character Ada but their inclusion felt organic and not forced.

Ada’s relationship with Jay, while fast-forming, also seemed to clip along in a very natural wave. Though I was a little skeptical in the beginning (this is a standalone novel for now) about the impending instant-romance, to me, the connection made sense.

It was also nice to see some of the beloved characters from the Devil’s Metal series (which, I have read but not yet reviewed). It’s really neat how Karina Halle managed to build this universe inclusive of Jacobs, demons, the veil, and characters with paranormal superpowers!

My only frustration came in when Ada finds out that she is supposed to be this badass all-powerful demon slayer. The only trick up her sleeve is that she can put up crazy strong mental walls to block out the monsters. So, it’s like she can hide. We all know that Karina Halle can set up some suspenseful frightening scenes. So, I found myself anxious whenever Ada was approached by a demon or was forced to fight one. She never felt “ready” to me, even when she was supposed to be. We had some mentioning of her training with Jay but I never felt very confident overall that Ada was going to achieve badass status by the end of the book. There was a lot of “telling” not “showing” that she was powerful. I really wish this part had been fleshed out a little more so that it could be a bit more believable.

Other than that, I read this book fairly fast. It was that good. I couldn’t put it down.

I *think* I remember reading an article somewhere that mentions Veiled will become its own spinoff series. Though it did not end on a cliffhanger, the characters were left very open-ended, so this could easily turn into a series.

My Rating for Veiled by Karina Halle

Soul Summoner Series: Angel of Death

January 10, 2017 By Kellie Leave a Comment

Soul Summoner Series: The Angel of Death

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)

=========================================

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)

 

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