Customer Reviews

Soul Catcher (The Outsider Series) (Outsider Trilogy)

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

Livia Belane is an old soul reborn over and over, but she doesn't remember her past lives. In this incarnation, little Livia Belane receives a message. Draw them. Trap them. Burn them. This scares her, but her mother's reaction is even worse. She locks her in the closet. As Livia watches, her mother is slowly torn away, leaving a demon is her place. One by one, each member of her family is ripped away. And she stands accused of the heinous crime of killing her mother and brother.

After spending time in a mental facility, Livia is released and she returns to Asheville, NC, the only home she has ever known during her many lifetimes. She lets no one get close to her, she's like a death sentence, those she loves die.

Even as she fights to be alone, an eclectic group forms around her, refusing to leave her in peace. A couple of hippie artists, a bar owner, and a street performer surround her, making up an eccentric unit that becomes her family.

Then, one evening as the bar closes, she's attacked viciously, raped and left for dead. But her rapist is none other than the demon of old, Pig Face, who has been tracking and killing her throughout many lifetimes seeking his revenge. And this time, he's just getting started.

The one thing that might save Livia is to remember her past lives as a soul catcher, one who can trap the demonic soul and banish it permanently. But to do so, she'll also have to recall her one true love and soul mate, Ian, soul hunter to her soul catcher. Paired together throughout time, her protector and lover.

The Soul Catcher by Leigh Bridger is dark urban fantasy that takes a walk on the wild side. We meet our kick ass heroine as her cringes away from what her life demands. No ties, no strings. She just wants to be left in peace. But the demon sees her solidarity existence as a weakness, one to be exploited. As her group of friends surround Livia, she comes to realize that they are her guides and protectors, pushing her to find what she has lost, Ian. Ian is a strapping Scot-Irish soul that is called to Livia again and again. But, having watched him die horrifically, Livia banishes him from her memory, and it isn't until she's almost killed that she starts to remember bits and pieces of what her life once was. If she is to survive, she must regain what she has denied. Souls never really died, they're reborn in different bodies, old and young alike. Bodies are temporary housing for souls to be replaced when the old one has been used up. And this is what happens to Ian. When Livia finally calls him back to her, she makes a horrible discovery, he takes the body of the one possessed by her demon attacker. In the core of her soul, she knows Ian is her one true love, but how do you learn to love a body that once tried to kill you?

The Soul Catcher is wonderfully dark urban fantasy, a quick read and a page turner. There is graphic violence and sex involved and hard language, so if this isn't your cup of tea, try something lighter. It brings together Cherokee legends, myths, and traditions of old and mashes it together with modern times, very unique world building. I thoroughly enjoyed it. Livia is shaped by the violence she endures to become the kick ass heroine that the story needs to banish the demons from her life and those that she comes to love. Because at the heart of this dark urban fantasy, is a love story that out lasts time and cannot be denied. If you love dark urban fantasy, I highly recommend this book.

I found Soul Catcher to be an entertaining read but I think it could have used more structural work. I don't agree with the one star reviews though, there is an interesting storyline here and it held my attention despite it's flaws. The writing itself was basically good and I would consider picking up follow-up book.

Livia, the main character, has a rough childhood. Demons begin their attempts on her life at an early age with tragic results for her family. By the time the main story begins she is a very troubled young woman and a bit difficult to like. You get small clues here and there that Livia has managed to pull her life together somewhat and has some good things going (friends, her non demon related art) but all we really get solid information on are the horrible things that happen. And they really are horrible. Death, torture and rape are all common themes in her many lives. While much (but not all) of it happens off screen the more squeamish readers might want to skip this book. There is also some fairly graphic sex but it isn't the main focus of the story.

The main premise of the book is that souls are eternal and that some of them are dedicated to fighting evil. Livia is a Soul Catcher, a soul dedicated to riding the world of evil beings through capturing and destroying their essence. Livia's nemesis is the Pig Faced Demon. A demon that she crossed in an earlier life and who has dedicated his existence to stalking and killing her every time her soul begins a new life. Livia has lived a very solitary life but she learns that not alone in her fight. She has a partner dedicated to fighting with her (main romantic interest) but she is avoiding him for reasons she herself doesn't know.

There are also a whole host of secondary supporters, souls that follow her in different ways throughout each of her lives, attempting to keep her alive and help her however they can. Unfortunately there are a lot of these helpers and while they have seeminly important roles in the story you don't get to find out much about any of them. I think it would have been a good idea to cut the number of major helpers down and flesh out the ones that remained.

There was probably just too much going on here. A myriad of different types of beings, both good and evil, to figure out. Some important, some less so, and very little of it filled in. Aside from Livia we find out very little about how the other beings work their magic. Which is too bad because I think there is a lot of potential there. Hopefully the second book will give the story time to slow down a bit and focus on giving us more information about how their world works.

Got as a freebie. I am inclined to pick up the next in the series, but I am not in a huge rush. 5he story had some rough spots and took a while to find its feet. the language and graphic violence may be a bit much for some. The (good) sex was also explict and the plot tone was very New Agey. If tose points are a problem for the reader thereader should not pick up this book.

Overall, however, this story kept me engaged and I wanted to know what came next. Only the tow main characters were really real, and even they were a little off at times. ihope the author iproves on her handling of exposition nad secondary characters as she continues the series.

"Soul Catcher," by Leigh Bridger, is an action-packed, adult, urban fantasy book. In the New Age center of Ashville, N.C., nothing is as it seems. Livia Belane lost her father at an early age and recently lost her mother. She's been in the psych hospital because she paints pictures of demons, even in her sleep, and if she hasn't any paint, she will use her own blood. After a brutal rape and beating, barley escaping with her life, she finds a group of people who have been looking out for her, now and in the past. With their help, she discovers her soul's purpose, her soul mate Ian, and her powers.

Bridger's story is packed with adult passion, meta-physics, fighting, demons, and magic. Livia lives in the fringe, and with her tattoos, old clothes, and psychotic past, she is very untrusting and unbelieving. The violence is, at times, brutal and descriptive but sets up the realism of the fight of good versus evil. But who is really good and who is really evil? Even demons have soul mates and mourn their dead.

This was an intense read. I found some of her ideas about reincarnation, souls, and reality to be well thought out and open-ended. There is just not a final answer, at least in this plane of existence. The life lessons that Livia and Ian needed to learn were just steps to progress, not the final result. Some of the adult scenes were pretty graphic, so this might put some off. However I found these balanced with the other elements to make this a powerful story.

I received this book through the LibraryThing Early Readers program.

Warning: I am rating this book DNF.

The premise has potential, Livvie is a Soul Catcher, gifted with the power to magically summon demons via painting them then banishing them by burning the painting. She is also a multi-reincarnated soul who is haunted by a soul mate and a demon who refuses to let them be together.

In execution though the book fails on nearly every level. Livvie is a character straight out of addict recovery show, rambling about relatively unimportant things one minute, setting up scenes the next only to ramble some more and finally update the reader on what they missed while she was rambling. It's like the author and character have teamed up to avoid actually showing the story. Not to mention Livvie's horrible drug use is more like Tylenol PMs and wine.

Apparently in the first few scenes Livvie dreams of Pig Face, the demon who has been killing herself and her soul mate for countless lives. Instead of burning the painting the painting flies out of Livvie's hands in a sudden and fortuitous gust of wind. This of course means Pig Face escapes the painting. However the only way I knew that this is what happened, and that it was a major plot event, is because I read other reviews that explained this. These "major events" are written in a style that makes them seem convoluted, utterly unimportant and routine.

Pig Face apparently possesses the body of a man Livvie shows interest in, gains her trust after a few exchanged lines of dialog and leads her outside where he beats her and rapes her. The actual action (not that I'm eager to read that scene) is all off screen and only explained after a chapter break in brief retrospect, much like all the action in this book so far.

Livvie receives aid from her landlords, who, as Livvie is barely conscious, sum up everything that's happened so far in the book (apparently they are all-knowing NPCs) in explanation to each other. These two go on to call what happened to Livvie "a downer" and explain that they are some sort of soul friends who know all about her, what she is, and who Pig Face and Ian are too. Rather than taking Livvie to a hospital to, you know check for brain damage and internal injuries, they just stitch her up themselves in their spare bedroom.

The hot mess of a plot continues to ramble on, with more actual on screen scenes, that don't make much more sense, until about fifty pages in when Pig Face attacks Livvie again (in a police station, with a bunch of cops nearby, where they were accusing her of killing a guy she worked with, who killed himself in public, and who had no other link to her). Only this time Livvie calls to Ian (who I'm assuming is haunting her) for help and Ian ends up possessing the body Pig Face raped Livvie with.

I gave up on this book not much after, when more rambling started. I personally despise rape-as-romance plots. No amount of this style of writing or these flat characters was going to redeem this book for me, especially if it continued to spend the next two hundred pages alternating between "Livvie is crazy", "Pig Face is brutally and gorily attacking everyone she's ever known" and "Livvie needs to trust this guy who raped her in the second chapter because they are true loves".

This book was just too convoluted, with Livvie's completely unlikable nature, Pig Face's cruel torturous slaughter for no reason other than he could, and the constant distractions from every ghost, animal, "boon" and spirit talking to Livvie (seriously, two spirits in the form of flies tried to protect her by buzzing around a cop's head to distract him). The world building is so confusing I never had any solid picture of the characters, the places, or even the rules of the magical world. I cannot recommend this book, because I cannot think of a single avid reader that I know of who would find it an exciting, enjoyable read.

Soul Catcher (Book 1, Outsiders Series) by Leigh Bridger is a very, very dark, gothic type Urban Fantasy that is a train wreck of epic proportions. The only positive thing I can say about this book is that synopsis does grab you, like it did me. I was very interested about the heroine, who has been reborn too many times to count and her quest to find her husband, who also has been reborn too many times to count as they both try to stop a "sadistic and vengeful" demon that's stalking the heroine. Instead, this is a very canned story, gruesome and shocking, for no reason.

By the time I read half-way through Soul Catcher, I couldn't figure out who was coming or going, what the motivation of the characters was, and why this demon villain was oh so bad. The demon is so horrid because his goal in life is to torture the heroine to the point where she has gone crazy. Other than rolling my eyes and shaking my head in disgust, nothing about Soul Catcher is worth recommending. And for the first time ever, in my history of reviewing I'm asking, how did this book get published? For the life of me I can't figure it out why. Well, I have a good idea why because the author, also known as Deborah Smith, who owns her own publishing house called Belle Bridge Books published Soul Catcher. That's the only thing that makes sense about this mess of a read.

The plot goes as follows: Livia Van Belane has more lives than she can count. She has been reincarnated over and over to the point where she is very damaged. She lives on the edge and has done it all, drinking till she passes out, popping pills and sleeping with strange men all to escape the nightmares that come to her each night. She is living on borrowed time because she's waiting for a demon she named Pig Face to find, torture and kill her. Pig Face and Livia have a great deal of history between them. Livia is what is known as a Soul Catcher, one who must rid the world of demons like Pig Face. Livia also has blackouts and doesn't remember them, where she finds herself painting horrible pictures that make her sick. Her only hope is her soul mate, Ian.

Livia is scared of this Ian as well as those who try to help her because she thinks they are out to do her harm and will end up dead anyway. The only way Ian can help her is if she calls for him. And things become very complicated because when Pig Face finds her, he has taken over a body of a good looking guy who she has become attracted to. He tricks Livia and rapes her to the point where she needs stitches in every single hole you can think of. But before he can kill her, Ian is able to get rid of Pig Face by Livia calling for him. Livia barely makes it out alive and some strangers come along and take Livia under their wing while she recovers. For some reason Ian is now able to take over a body. But the body happens to be the one Pig Face used when he mutilated and raped Livia. So now Livia's love from the past wants to help her, but he is inside a body of a demon rapist.

Livia keeps Ian at arms length as she trains in the arts of voodoo, dark magic and whatever else to finally eliminate Pig Face for good. Livia remembers when she and Ian first met and the bond have together as well of their interactions with Pig Face.

Soul Catcher had a great premise but was so boggled down with characters who have no dimension and a story with needless info dumping. Livia is a nasty character who would have been better as a villain. There is nothing redeeming about Livia and she goes through most of the book questioning her existence and why do all these horrible things happen to her. I really wanted to smack her at one point because she became so annoying. Scene after scene dragged in so many places and the action and snuff film like violence were so unnecessarily. Soul Catcher is much like a horror movie where there is no plot or reason as the serial killer stalks the helpless co-eds just to see their blood run.

I guess this is supposed to be a type of story that should twist you up inside as you read to the point your both sickened and appalled by what Livia and Ian must do in order to be together. Ian was the most boring character of all. His voice and very small personality grated on my nerves, even more so than Livia. For once while reading an Urban Fantasy such as this, I wanted to villain to defeat the heroine so I knew there would be no continuation.

Soul Catcher is a harsh, grating on the nerves read and because of that my review is just like the book. If there is one book not to read or buy this year, Leigh Bridger's Soul Catcher is one of them.

Katiebabs

I finished reading the ARC I received of Soul Catcher by Leigh Bridger. The copy I had was a bound uncorrected galley, so I'm not going to comment on typos and such. I hope those will be corrected by the time the book goes to print.

In Soul Catcher Bridger has created a world where demons do exist along with angels and assorted otherwordly creatures. Her protagonist is Livia. Livia is an old soul, although she can't remember her previous lives. She's also a Soul Catcher in that she has the power to vanquish demons and other nasty beasties.

To help her on this quest she's assisted by some friends from previous lives that make arrangements with host bodies to move in. The process there is left a little murky as to how the transferrence occurs.

In this particular incarnation Livia must fight what she calls the pig faced demon. To help her she also summons Ian, the soul of her long lost husband.

Bridger leads off with a prolog that is entirely unnecessary for the book. It doesn't really add any needed info, and I hope gets dropped by the time the book is published.

Livia is a very disagreeable heroine. She's crude and crass with very few redeeming qualities. It's difficult at first to see how any of these other characters would put their lives on the line for such a "friend," but by the second half of the book Bridger has redeemed her heroine at least bringing her some semblance of humanity that the reader can more easily identify with.

In my opinion the strongest parts of this book come from the exploration of the previous lives of Livia and Ian. It gives the characters a strong history together, showing how uniquely bonded Livia is not only to Ian, but to the other characters that appear to help her.

The general pacing of the book is rather slow in the beginning. There's a lot of world building to go through, but there were times when the story seemed to stagnate a bit. It did pick up towards the end though. Overall it was an interesting story competently told. I hope that if Ms. Bridger decides to continue with this world, the books will improve in the areas of pacing as she no longer will have to be building the world.

I got this as a Kindle freebie, and after reading it I am so thankful I did. My review is actually comprised of two parts: the first 3/4 of the book gets a solid 4 stars for good writing, excellent imagery, and a solid, quick pace. However, in was in the final 1/4 of the book that my suspension of disbelief popped like a soap bubble. I was pretty much banging my head against the wall going "Why? Why? Why would you write this?"

I enjoy a nice piece of sci-fi, sci-fantasy or paranormal/horror. I can get into ghosts, demons, and I find it fascinating in the right hands - think Buffy, Charmed, Steven King, Peter Straub, etc. I've always loved the Star Trek franchise (TV, movies, old generation, next generation, etc.) and one of my favorite storylines involved Dr. Crusher and a ghost lover, Ronin. I can buy into almost anything happening until it just doesn't seem plausible in that storyline, in that manner it is told or if it goes against character development in the story. Unfortunately, the author hit the Trifecta of disappointment when Livie decides to have sex with a ghost. The character just didn't seem the type to jump into bed like that, but I could have accepted it. But when she merges the two and it became all about this is how you kill the demon after you? Basically it was taking it from any level of attraction (which would allow mind to transcend body as well as the space/time issue) to a survival one (which sort of detracts from the romance of the moment, particularly now that she's in love with a man from another place and time). It just didn't work for me.

I wish I could give this book two separate ratings: a 4 for the story and only a 1 for the writing style. The book starts when the heroine is only 7 years old, but the first person narration didn't feel like a seven year old's voice at all. It was very jarring, and almost made me stop reading. Fortunately the book quickly jumped forward in time to the narrator's 20s, and then the voice fit a little better. It didn't have the intimate quality that a good first person narrative should. The narrator was distant, flippant, and there was a lot of telling instead of showing. I felt that the narrator was discussing emotions from afar, not feeling them. While perhaps this was a stylistic choice to reflect the heroine's attitude, it didn't change during the section of the heroine's previous life, in which she supposedly was not as aloof and uncaring as she is in her current incarnation.

Writing problems aside, the story was entertaining. There was nothing in it that surprised me--I saw the major events coming pretty easily. It was a quick read and the story moved at a good pace overall (though some groups of scenes had pacing issues), so I was able to forgive the writing style enough to enjoy the book.

This was a very interesting story, and it was an enjoyable read. I found that it had a good mix of action and story. A few things were a bit confusing, but were explained later in the book. I will read more of the series at a later date - it wasn't so engrossing that I HAD to buy the next ebook RIGHT NOW, but I was tempted.