Customer Reviews

Sins of the Soul (Hqn)

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Sins of the Soul is a pure paranormal delight! Silver creates sexy soul-sucking heroes and ruthless heroines for an irresistible combination! Fans of Gena Showalter or Kresley Cole will enjoy Silver's dark humor and passionate characters.

Beginning right where Eve Silver's previous release Sins of the Heart leaves off, we join the Krayle brothers in the search for their brother Lokan's killer. Born of a human woman an underworld god know as Sutekh, the brothers are used to traverse between worlds to collect dark souls which sustains their fathers power.

In Sins of the Soul we follow Alastor as he desperately searches for clues before his brother's soul moves on to the afterlife and is truly lost to them forever. Time is running out and the last thing Alastor needs is to be distracted by the stunningly beautiful and ruthless assassin Naphre. Naphre has her own secrets as well and when Alastor is forced to bargain her soul for answers about his brother's death he must make a choice: Sacrifice Naphre for information, or loose this possible lead to identifying the murderer to keep her safe.

I would go so far as to say you cannot fully enjoy this book without reading the first. These books easily flow one into the next to tell an intriguing and suspenseful tale and to miss the first one would be somewhat confusing. Each character from book one and now book two play a part, no matter how significant, in finding Lokan's soul and his killer. These characters are all part of a paranormal universe that is quiet interesting. The brothers are soul reapers and in this story, the heroine is an assassin. Silver uses Egyptian history and terminology throughout to set up the rules for her world which adds an extra flare of dark elements and mythology to story.

Alastor is perhaps my favorite out of all the brothers. He is confident and embodies a masculine elegance that is very attractive in paranormal heroes. He is the one that would appear to never harm you, but really is a hidden predator, ready to strike and harm anyone who stands in his way. What becomes amusing is how Naphre does nothing but shake and anger his controlling nature. She is fearless, unwavering in allowing anyone to tell her what to do. Both have questionable morals and their occupations are certainly not paved with good intentions, but Silver writes them so carefully you just don't seem to care. Through this story you learn more about why they do what they do and become sympathetic to their cause. As a reader you hold high hopes that their lives take a turn for the better and they can find some kind of happiness.

Sins of the Soul is a pulse-pounding story and Alastor and Naphre are a very interesting duo. Their personalities are so similar. Both are self-sufficient, commanding, and always wanting control. So when they realize they cannot stand to be apart, it's a battle of wills that comes into play. Meanwhile, the various gods and villains of the underworld are causing trouble making themselves known and casting new suspicions and doubts around the identity of Lokan's killer. Little progress is made on discovering who killed their brother, but the series isn't over yet, so it's easy to assume all of this will be dealt with in the next novel.

Sins of the Soul is a very quick and light paranormal read. This is a page-turner that serves up all the best a paranormal book can offer. Whether it's the passion between the characters or the suspenseful action in the race to save Lokan, you are in for one wild ride with this novel!

Overall Rating: 4/5
Heat Level: 3/5

Lisa @ Once Upon A Chapter

Alastor Krayl grew up living a privileged life filled with wealth and love. All that was taken away from the day he learned his father was the Underworld god of chaos and evil. It was the love and bond between him and his brother's that helped saved him from himself. With the news of his youngest brother's murder, Alastor will do anything to find out how killed his brother which may include the surrender of the woman he finds himself falling for.

Naphré Kurata is a reluctant Underworld enforcer with secrets she has no interest in sharing. There are people who want her dead and Underworld gods fighting over who her soul belongs to. Her only hope in finding answers is trusting the dangerously seductive soul reaper Alastor who is hiding secrets of his own.

Naphré doesn't want to be an assassin but a deal she made with an unnamed demon left her with no choice. Since this is something she is forced to do she will only take assignments that target killers. I feel bad that she doesn't own her own soul and I admire her courage to stand up to demons and only go after those who hurt others Really, who is brave enough to tell a demon to piss off? I normally don't like stories where two characters fall for each other so quickly like Naphré and Alastor did but I could see how they fit together. They are each others missing piece. Like Naphré, Alastor's world is shaken up and they both need a sense of order to keep sane. What they are now is in large part (in Alastor's case there was never another choice) due to their parents so I learned to accept and enjoy their quick trip to the big admission of love. Although to me, it felt like their relationship was more about lust and control but I was ok with it.

The story from Sins Of The Heart continues in Sins Of The Soul. The youngest son of Sutekh is murdered and the remaining surviving sons are trying to find out who did. They are also trying to find his soul and remains so they can bring him back to life. The brothers are gathering more peaces of the puzzle and trying to figure out how they fit together. Even though we get a few scenes of Lokan (or rather is soul) and some more light shed on who was involved in his murder, the majority of the page time was dedicated to figuring out why Underworld goddess Izanami wants Naphré's soul so bad and the journey to her realm. As much as I liked the story between this two, I wished there would have been more to the Lokan story. A lot of questions were left unanswered and I hope to find more actual story in the next book, Sins Of The Flesh which will be out on October 1st.

Sins of the Soul is the second in Silver's series of Otherkin books, after Sins of the Heart (Hqn); the books' mythology is based on the Egyptian Book of the Dead and follow the story of three half-human, half-god sons of Sutekh, the God of Chaos.

This is absolutely a series that has to be read in order and isn't one in which you can pick up a book as a standalone. It follows the arc of the murder of the fourth brother that takes place in Sins of the Heart and there's information in it that explains the various gods, worshippers, guardians, enforcers and the parties that are involved that will have you lost within the first few chapters of this if you haven't read that first. Sins of the Heart is a terrific story alone and completely worth reading to get to Sins of the Soul.

Youngest brother Lokan was killed in Sins of the Heart, something that would ordinarily have been impossible. His body was dismembered, the pieces scattered, the tattoo on his chest delivered to his father as proof of his death. His body and soul separated, he's doomed to forever exist in between life and death; his brothers are desperately working to find and reanimate him and find his killers. Suspects include a mysterious sect that appears to worship Sutekh, the Daughters of Aset, followers of an enemy of Sutekh's, and probably more than one other god.

Second-eldest brother Alastor is following up a lead on a scuzzball that might have been there the night his brother was killed when he encounters underworld enforcer Naphre, who has just killed his potential witness. Alastor is a soul reaper, and collects the witnesses', but decides to keep his eye on Naphre too. Naphre turned her back on her destined path as a Daugher of Aset Guide, but jumped from the frying pan into the fire and ended up as a hired gun when she sold her soul to a demon she doesn't even know. Now she's also in the sights of a cult that worships Sutekh, and Alastor wonders if it's connected to Lokan's murder.

When he tries to deliver the soul he collected the night he met Naphre to his father to see if he can read any information from it, he finds out it's his father who owns Naphre's, and not only that, the soul with the information belongs to another god and to get it back, he'll have to bargain with Naphre's by delivering her to a goddess who may or may not want to hang on to her in the underworld forever. Not that Alastor has any intention of letting that happen. As with the first book, the action is fast and storytelling vivid; I'm not sure how much I enjoyed reading about the envoy made up entirely of maggots, centipedes, spiders and the like, but Silver did an amazing job bringing her to, uh, life.

Sins of the Heart was very much a book that laid the framework for the series and because of that, was a little dry romantically. Sins of the Soul is its polar opposite. This is a boiling pot. Despite his very proper British behavior and vocabulary, Alastor is absolutely smoking and despite her steely, hired gun, tough girl exterior, Naphre has it very, very bad for him. The scenes between these two zing; I loved the snappy dialogue, the little quirks each of them have, the way they play off of each other. There's always that little intangible "it" factor when you read a book and can tell when an author has really connected with his or her own characters and gained real affection for them and I think Silver really achieved that with Alastor and Naphre, and it made me fall for them all that much more. There's much less advancement of the murder plot here, but this is the emotional, raw and sexy book that Daegan's didn't have a chance to be. In a season of paranormals that was sort of a dud for me, this is a standout series and I can't wait to dig into Mal's story, Sins of the Flesh (Hqn).

Alaster is a soul reaper, the son of Sutekh, a powerful Underworld deity. He was raised by humans, spoiled and loved as the only "son" of a Baron. Upon adulthood, he was ripped from his privileged existence, taken to the Underworld by his real father. By the time he went Topworld again, many decades had passed and his human family had passed on. Alaster is still grieving for the life and family he lost.

Naphre is a reluctant assassin. She broke ranks with the Daughters of Aset because she did not want to become an assassin. After a potentially fatal car accident, she sold her soul to a demon in order to save her and her father's lives. A few months later, her father dies from Legionnaire's Disease, and she is pulled into service as... an assassin. Can't escape your fate.

These two are kindred spirits as they are honor bound to be something that is anathemic to each of them. However, they do their best to fulfill their duties within their own rules. Naphre will only kill bad guys. Alaster reaps souls for his father, but is confrontational with his father upon delivery. Both have control issues. Alaster's focus is on finding information pertaining to his brother's death, but when that runs counter to keeping Naphre safe, he finds himself torn. When Naphre finds out that Alaster has been hiding his knowledge of who holds her soul, she is furious with him. She finds it hard to hold onto the anger as Alaster puts her over his desire to bring Lokan's killers to justice again and again.

Alaster can't walk away from Naphre, even though he knows being with her compromises his mission to find his brother's murderer. They are so drawn to each other, and the love scenes have a great emotion to them, as well as being scorchingly hot. Alaster appreciates the fact that Naphre can kick butt on her own, and Naphre is smart enough to know when she is outgunned.

While there is a lot going on in the book, there is minimal arc advancement. Alaster's anger issues are foreshadowed heavily in both Sins of the Heart and Sins of the Soul, but nothing really comes of it. As a reader, that is one of my pet peeves.

I love the interaction between Alaster and his remaining brothers, Dae and Mal. The Underworld Ms. Silver has created is rich with detail and steeped in mythology. The series is fast flowing and imminently readable, lush with details. Naphre and Alaster are terrific together as they work through their issues to find their way to each other. Overall, an enjoyable read.

I read the first book in the series, Sins of the Heart, and that book was good, but for me Sins of the Soul just blows that book out of the water! I absolutely loved it! I thought the whole dynamic between the two was amazing. The heroine was really interesting to me, and she was so different than those that you usually read in this kind of book. You would think that an assassin would be hard to like, but somehow, no. And I loved the hero! He was so hot, but at the same time, because of where and WHEN he was raised, he had a certain old world charm. I truly adored seeing the two of them interact and fall in love! And the story line was brilliant -- even if there had been no romance, I would have thoroughly enjoyed this book! It was so intriguing - and unpredictable, too. I absolutely LOVE the last couple of chapters of this book, when everything is coming to a climax. Plus, I think the world that Eve Silver has created is just really, really cool - I like to read about all the different divisions and races and cultures. I can't wait to read the next installment! Well, in case you couldn't tell, I definitely recommend you get this book. Happy reading!

This is such a fun, mysterious, and engaging series. Each book is about one of the brothers and they are trying to find out who killed brother number 4, Lokan, to seek vengeance, and possibly bring him back. This book was centered around Alaster. We still get to see glimpses of Dagan and Roxy, who were the leads of the last book, which was great since I completely loved them!

Alaster was a great character. He was flawed and insecure in some ways, but also strong and completely yummy! He missed and mourned the family he had before he realized who he was, but he also let it make him stronger. Naphre was a great female lead. She's a Topworld assassin, an assassin on earth, carrying out the jobs for the demons. Don't worry though, Nephre has her own set of moral codes, she only kills killers. Naphre won't accept jobs that don't fit into the bad guy code. She's strong and funny, and a smart-ass, which I love!

This series is great because it's so original in it's paranormal element. I love all the twists and turns that the politics of the underworld takes. The mystery keeps me guessing, every time I think I have it figured out, another twist gets thrown in and I'm trying to figure it out all over again. Overall, this book was just a great as the first and I can't wait to see what happens next!

~* 4.5 Stars *~
Lokan Krayl, soul reaper and youngest son of Underworld god Sutekh, has been murdered. His death has rocked his brothers, incensed them, infuriated them...confused them. Lokan, like his brothers, are demigods. It isn't supposed to be possible for them to be killed.

His death has changed...everything.

Alastor, second son of Sutekh, is of one mind with his remaining brothers. Find Lokan's remains. Locate his Ka - his soul. Bring. Him. Back. Oh yeah...and find the person or persons responsible for this travesty and make them pay in ways not even Sutuekh himself could dream. Screaming and bleeding and dying in agony NOT optional.

They've followed every lead they've found, discovered alleged conspiracies, uncovered a traitor, and while some of the information that has come to them is shocking, they haven't found what they need to find, and for Lokan, time is running out. That could be why Alastor is less than thrilled when he tracks his latest lead to a cemetery in the middle of nowhere just in time to see a surly Naphré Kurata burying the man.

Naphré wasn't having a good night. Her mentor, the man who trained her to be the assassin she is, admitted to accepting a hit on her and she was forced to kill him when he carried through with the attempt. Disregarding the pain of that betrayal and loss - sometimes life was just that ugly - the fact remains that Naphré has no idea who wants her dead, or why. The badness doesn't come close to ending there, either. No, she's left with the unsavory task of disposing of the body, and no sooner does she get it buried than a soul reaper shows himself and makes her uncover it so he can get at the soul.

The reaper may be hot as sin in his thousand dollar suit, and definitely acts all mightier than thou about getting his own hands dirty, but Naphré has had just about enough of being everyone's b*tch and doesn't hesitate to let Alastor know that she's not without her own set of claws, regardless of how ineffective they are against him. She's a former Daughter of Aset and a soul-pledged assassin in her own right and no amount of sexy is going to push her around.

Even with his grim task, Naphré's fiery nature turns his head, and Alastor has a hard time shaking off their arousing confrontation. When he returns the soul of the man who may know something about his brother's death to his father, though, Alastor gets the third largest shock of his very long life. The soul is forfeit and its information unattainable...unless he brings Naphré to the Underworld goddess who has claim on it.

Something very peculiar is going on in Underworld, and the shifting tides of betrayal and murder are making the ground beneath his feet feel like quicksand. Still, nothing is more important to Alastor than his brother. He'll do anything, pay any price, to get him back - even if he has to use the one woman in centuries who stirs a heart he thought doomed to solitude.

~*~
I have to be honest here, I'm not entirely sure why I love this series as much as I do. That's horrible for a reviewer to say, isn't it? Especially one who's never at a loss for explaining in often excruciating detail just what she likes/dislikes/loathes about a book and why. Be that as it may, this series works for me in ways that other more widely popular series don't, and though I know what I like about it, I still can't figure out why that makes the series as a whole so appealing.

There's no doubt that the world is highly creative and original, and I thoroughly enjoy the backstory of the characters and the mythos created for the brothers' existence and purpose. Still, the narrative is often repetitive (admittedly, less so in this book than in the previous one), as Silver has a habit of reiterating information and themes throughout the books as if to emphasize the significance of key points. That tends to annoy me; I'm a reasonably intelligent reader who is capable of remembering information from one page to the next.

I have issues with the series plot arc, too. It's been very convoluted since the beginning and heavily burdened by the myriad of characters that seem to have a vested interest in Lokan's death, all their conflicting agendas, and all the whispers of conspiracy. I wasn't thrilled with the lack of progression of the arc in this book, either. Too many new questions and shady connections were introduced, far too few answers or information revealed. The focus on Naphré's storyline and her dubious past further blurred the lines of the investigation for me instead of clarifying it, and for an arc that was written as a trilogy, having the second book end with so few answers was a bit disappointing.

None of that sounds like it would warrant a four-and-a-half star rating from me, does it? I know. Those aren't small issues. And yet, despite them, I loved this book and I love this series.

Silver's strong, intelligent, kick-butt female lead characters totally work for me in every single facet. I loved Roxy in the first book, but Naphré is even better. I adore that she is an assassin - there just aren't enough female protagonists that are killers-for-hire in this day and age. These books definitely trend more towards the dark and sexual end of the urban fantasy romance/paranormal romance spectrum, and I dig that because that's where you find these sorts of gray-area heroines that I find so appealing. She's not a total roughneck, though. Naphré definitely has her own quirks and peccadilloes. The hand sanitizer alone made her easy to relate to - it humanized her.

And pair a completely appealing heroine up with a delicious alpha male like Alastor, toss a few soft spots or quirks into his character (age-old trauma works nicely...so does a penchant for English toffee - and don't even get me started on the yummy accent), making you want to both ravish him and comfort his physical and emotional wounds, then add a healthy dose of witty, humorous banter (especially tongue-in-cheek...I'm a sucker for tongue-in-cheek humor) and you've pushed just about every one of my happy-reader buttons. I can forgive a fair amount of technical and/or story issues if two eminently likable characters have chemistry that is smokin' hot, emotionally powerful, and in charge of the story. As it was in this book. It also helped that the romance arc between Alastor and Naphré was far more thoroughly and satisfactorily developed than the one between Roxy and Dagan in the first book.

Maybe I've been wrong about myself all these years. I've always thought I was a carefully objective reviewer who weighed every facet of a book before putting forth a judiciously chosen rating that accurately reflects not only what I felt about a book in its entirety, but what I thought about it as well. But maybe that's not the case, after all.

Maybe I'm just a total 'ho for the romance.

~*~*~*~
Reviewed for One Good Book Deserves Another.

The hunt for Lokan's killer and the search for his body continues in this second installment of Eve Silver's Otherkin series. This book picks up just days after the last one left off. Dagan, Alastor and Mal are no closer to figuring out who killed their brother. But they haven't given up.

Alastor is following a lead when his path first crosses with Naphré. She is a Topworld Assassin who has turned her back on her heritage as a Daughter of Aset... the sworn enemies of Alastor's father, Sutekh, the Lord of Chaos. Things aren't going well for Naphré. Her mentor, Butcher, has betrayed her and taken a job to kill her. Naphré manages to turn the tables, but just as she buries his body, Alastor shows up. He knows Butcher could have information about who killed Lokan, so he harvests the man's soul to bring to his father for answers. But Butcher's soul belongs to another deity and she wants the soul that is due to her.

There is an immediate awareness and attraction between Alastor and Naphré. Both characters are strong, but stoic. They have both known deep loss, but keep a tight reign on their emotions. Neither is looking for love, but they can't ignore what is growing between them. I liked these two much better than Dagan and Roxy. It's probably one of the reasons that I liked the book better, as a whole. Neither was reckless or full of bluster. Neither was obnoxious. But when push comes to shove, both can and do kick ass. The burn is a slower build between them, which is good. It feels like it takes forever to get to the consummation, but the payoff is good.

Another plus for this installment is the fact that the world building is already in place. It makes the storytelling less cumbersome and the book moved much faster. There was a lot of action and intrigue surrounding all the different gods and factions. The ending was pretty abrupt, though. And while the state of our couple's relationship is resolved, there is virtually no movement in the mystery of Lokan's murder. Yep, it's another cliffhanger. That would really annoy me if I didn't already have the next book lined up to read. 4 stars.

from Murphy's Library

We finished Sins of the Heart with the death of a traitor, and we start Sins of the Soul the same way, just in a different perspective.

Alastor, Dagan's brother, is determined like his brothers to find Lokan's parts to put him together and find out who the hell is his murderer or is plotting everything. They still suspect the Setnakhts have not only a finger, but a whole hand in this story, and the fact that they keep bumping into people from the cult while trying to find tips is just too suspect to ignore.

This books show us a little bit about Dagan and Roxy, we have a very fast idea of what's going on in their side in just a chapter, but the center of this story is Alastor and his mate: Naphré. Naphré is a mix, literary speaking. She was a Daughter of Aset, has a blood heritage because of what she was promised to another Underworld god and made a bargain with another one. How messy can this get? Well... Can get messier when she ends up involved with the handsome man she saw at a strip club--just before she ended up killing her mentor--, a son of Sutekh, Alastor.

From this on, the story shows little about the main problem of the series: the death of Lokan. The problem the main couple have is a little different, but meanwhile a lot of important details were shown to us. It's a intermediary book, but can open your eyes to what's going on if you are really smart.

Alastor is absolutely amazing, and, like I told Maeva just yesterday, I would love to be his pet any time. He has an awesome humor and is a sarcastic man, so, yeah, I think I finished Sins of the Soul crushing just a little on him. Shame on me!

It's Alaster Krayl's turn in the spotlight as the second Soul Reaper son of an Egyptian god tries to claim a soul which may have crucial knowledge about his brother's death. Unfortunately, Alaster's attempt to retrieve the info is foiled when the goddess, Izanami, announces a prior claim on said soul. When Alaster attempts a to bargain for the soul, the exchange his father offers on Alaster's behalf presents a real dilemma for Alaster - because as much as Alaster wants to save his brother from limbo, this bartered soul is one that Alaster wants to keep for himself.

Despite the setup, not much happens towards the series arc in Sins of the Soul. But that didn't bother me since I really liked the leading pair - Naphre, is smart a capable assassin who rejected her heritage as a Guardian daughter of Asset, but still didn't escape her fate - but still she manages to maintain a moral code of sorts when accepting assignments. And Alaster, who is the cultured son of a god - but beneath his polished veneer, something wild and anguished lurks. Both Naphre and Alaster have interesting backstories - I really enjoyed the way that author Silver used a Japanese myth to parallel Alaster's - and I appreciated that Silver allowed their connection to develop slowly and let the tension between the build instead of rushing the consummation.

I liked Sins of the Soul book a great deal, and am really enjoying Eve Silver's Soul Reaper series and three Soul Reaper brothers who find forbidden love while searching for the soul of another brother who was murdered. And I am fascinated by the mythological underworld tie-ins from different culture's death mythology that Silver has included in her series - in her first book Sins of the Heart (Hqn) they were mostly Egyptian and in Sins of the Soul the Japanese diety associated with creation and death, Izanami, plays a significant role which added that extra something for me.

Now I am anxiously waiting the final book in the trilogy and final brother Mal's story. Sins of the Flesh (Hqn) is coming the beginning of next month. If you are looking for a bit more of Silver's soul reapers you may want to check out the standalone e-prequel Sin's Daughter.