Borrowed Souls: A Soul Charmer Novel

by Chelsea Mueller

Callie Delgado always puts family first, and unfortunately her brother knows it. She’s emptied her savings, lost work, and spilled countless tears trying to keep him out of trouble, but now he’s in deeper than ever, and his debt is on Callie’s head. She’s given a choice: do some dirty work for the mob, or have her brother returned to her in tiny pieces.

Renting souls is big business for the religious population of Gem City. Those looking to take part in immoral—or even illegal—activity can borrow someone else’s soul, for a price, and sin without consequence.

To save her brother, Callie needs a borrowed soul, but she doesn’t have anywhere near the money to pay for it. The slimy Soul Charmer is willing to barter, but accepting his offer will force Callie into a dangerous world of magic she isn’t ready for.

With the help of the guarded but undeniably attractive Derek—whose allegiance to the Charmer wavers as his connection to Callie grows—she’ll have to walk a tight line, avoid pissing off the bad guys, all while struggling to determine what her loyalty to her family’s really worth.

Losing her brother isn’t an option. Losing her soul? Maybe.

• ISBN10: 1940456827
• ISBN13: 9781940456829
• Publish Date: 18 May 2017 (first published 2 May 2017)
• Publish Status: Transferred
• Publish Country: US
• Publisher: Skyhorse Publishing
• Imprint: Talos
• Format: Paperback (US Trade)
• Pages: 320
• Language: English

Reviews

[llamareads]

Callie was raised to put family first, so it’s no surprise she’s broke from trying to stay on the good side of the law while constantly bailing out her druggie brother. This time, though, he’s gone too far. He’s deep in debt to the local mobster, and the only way to get him freed is for Callie to rent a soul and commit a crime for the mobster. Renting souls is dangerous business, and the Soul Charmer, a creepy old man, has cornered the business, but the interesting part (to the mobster and police at least) is that it muddles your fingerprints and DNA. Callie can’t afford the rental, so she agrees to do odd jobs for the Soul Charmer, like repo’ing souls from various colorful characters. As her week proceeds, and after the Soul Charmer imbues her with some of his magic, Callie finds herself drawn deeper and deeper into the shady side of Gem City. Can she save her brother – and her own soul?

The Soul Charmer series is gritty urban fantasy with a strong romantic element. While this definitely suffers a lot from “first book” syndrome (notably in the uneven pacing), this was still pretty fun to read. I’m not usually one for too much of the “working for the mob”/morally grey stuff, but the paranormal element was intriguing. The premise is certainly original and the book left me wanting to know more about how the whole soul rental business worked.

[Beth C.]

Callie has to save her brother. Again. And the only way she can do that is to rent a soul and accomplish a task. A huge, and very illegal, task. But when Callie goes to rent the soul she needs, she doesn't have enough money and ends up bartering her services - and things quickly go from bad to worse. Callie's mom is hounding her, her brother's jailer is pressuring her, she still needs to work her job AND work off the soul she is trying to rent...and to top it all off, she has to have a partner for the souls business, and he appears one who would rather knock heads than anything else. Can it get any worse?

Overall, I enjoyed the book - though the romance seems to have hit the ground running without ever taking a moment for a breath. The idea of renting souls - with the permission of the church - is a new twist that gives the book its interest. What if everyone could rent a soul and anything they did would not count as "sin"? It's an intriguing idea, and Mueller runs with it.

Callie is both interesting, and frustrating. She is basically a doormat for her family, and there were times that I wanted to smack her upside the head with the book. However, as the book progresses, so does Callie - and it is all to the good.

Overall, it's an enjoyable book and would be a decent summer read. It's quick and fun and steamy!

[Cocktails and Books]

I really wanted to like this one more. I wasn't sure if it was the storyline that I didn't get along with or if it was actually the characters. The more I read, the more I realized there was just something about the characters that I couldn't connect with.

full review to come

[EBookObsessed]

3 1/2 stars

This is a creative new concept for an Urban Fantasy series.

In Gem City, you can feel free to cheat on your spouse, steal or even commit murder, just make sure you borrow a soul from the Soul Charmer before you do it. Not only will your soul remain untainted from your action but any fingerprints or DNA left at the crime scene will be tainted. That’s why the Police are gathering evidence to make soul borrowing illegal. That’s why Callie Delgado gets dragged into the sleezy world of soul renting.

Callie’s brother has an issue with drugs and has gotten in deep with the mob. In order to save him, the mob want Callie to break into the police station and steal all their research on souls. In order to get away with it, Callie will need to borrow a soul from the Charmer.

The Charmer takes an instant like to Callie and won’t rent a soul to her unless she works for him for a few weeks to earn it. The Charmer hooks her up with Derek, one of his collectors, who rounds up all those individuals who forget to return their borrowed souls. It seems borrowing souls gives the borrower a sort of high, first from the energy the soul releases and also from the freedom to do as they please without consequence.

In order to assist Derek in collecting the souls, the Charmer forces some magic on Callie which helps her determine who is a soul borrower and who has more than one soul in their body.

This was a very interesting and unique concept for an Urban Fantasy. While unique is good, it also requires the author to spend a lot of time mapping out the basics rules for the audience. If you give ma vampire story, I know what a vampire is and I just need an author’s specific twist, can they walk in the light, can they be seen in mirrors, etc. Here we need to understand who’s borrowing souls and why, what happens if they hold onto them too long. We also need to understand why sometimes Callie’s hands go ice cold while other times they are burning hot. So there is a lot of ground work to be introduced here while still telling an interesting story.

The beginning of the story was slow going and maybe I was too tired, but I had to re-read a section now and then in the first thirty pages trying to focus on what was being introduced. I will admit that at first introduction, Callie isn’t my favorite Urban Fantasy heroine. Not only does she spend all her time being pushed into everything by others, her drug addicted brother who always wants her to get him out of trouble, then the mob making her become a criminal, and then the Charmer who won’t accept money from her because he wants her to work for him, and then there is a rival for the Charmer’s business who is trying to get Callie to switch sides. Derek is the only character who doesn’t try to use Callie.

I was also a bit disappointed that Callie would stand up against someone, the mob, the Charmer, the new villian in town, and as soon as they pushed back, she was folding like cheap Ikea furniture. Many Urban Fantasy heroines put up a fake front of bravery to the bad guy, while inwardly shaking and hoping their bluff doesn’t get called, but they do that inwardly. They don’t crumble at the first pushback. Again, this is the first book, and there are still secrets to be uncovered. So hopefully we will see a lot of growth from Callie in the future stories and she becomes more involved and comfortable with the business of borrowing souls.

This was certainly an interesting concept for an Urban Fantasy, you just need to keep in mind it will be a slower read while we are introduced to the basics of Gem City and Soul Borrowing.