Soul Thief (Demon Trappers, #2)

by Jana Oliver

[Angie]

Picking up immediately after the ending of The Demon Trapper's Daughter, Soul Thief begins the morning after the battle with the demons and the fire at the Tabernacle. Riley is feeling down, but she's still determined to find her reanimated father and get him back in his grave, where he belongs. She also has to keep in mind her deal with the angel that saved her boyfriend's life. She can't help but wonder why it was her the angel wanted rather than Simon. Then there's that whole issue of the demons wanting her dead.

Unfortunately, Soul Thief did not live up to the first book. At all. I found myself quite bored with it from the very beginning. It was missing the excitement that made The Demon Trapper's Daughter so engaging. Riley just goes about her every day tasks for the most part while the threat is very much in the background. Even what should have been the big showdown with the level 5 demon was pretty lame. It was over in about a page and that was that.

Another thing that dragged my rating down for Soul Thief was the romance. It's now a love rhombus (or square, if you prefer), but not a very well thought out one. I was quite enjoying the Simon-Riley-Beck love triangle, but throwing in Ori was just a bit much. Simon has changed a lot after the demon battle, and he blames Riley. Riley all of a sudden rebounds with Ori, and their relationship develops quite rapidly. She says she's not ready and that they're moving too fast, but a paragraph later it's a whole other story. There's a twist with Ori, but I don't think their super speedy romance was necessary for it.

What I did like about Soul Thief was that we got a little bit more world building. I'm loving this run down, demon infested Georgia. As Riley is going about her everyday life, we get glimpses of some of the problems in the city. There's nothing essential, but it was interesting especially when Riley goes to the "deader" auction. We also get to know Beck at lot better. There's a lot more too him than we get in the first book, but I just wish Ori hadn't stolen some of the focus away from him.

In the end, Soul Thief was a majorly disappointing sequel. While there was some great world building involving the city and the necromancers, not much else happened. I don't feel like the plot moved forward much. Sure we got a couple of complications, but basically nothing happens. Will I continue the series? Yes, but I'm not really in a rush to now. I do hope the next book is more interesting.

Read more of my reviews at Pinkindle Reads & Reviews.