My Soul to Steal (Early Review)
My Soul to Steal by Rachel Vincent
Soul Screamers #4
Trying to work things out with Nash—her maybe boyfriend—is hard enough for Kaylee Cavanaugh. She can't just pretend nothing happened. But "complicated" doesn't even begin to describe their relationship when his ex-girlfriend transfers to their school, determined to take Nash back.
See, Sabine isn't just an ordinary girl. She's a mara, the living personification of a nightmare. She can read people's fears—and craft them into nightmares while her victims sleep. Feeding from human fear is how she survives.
And Sabine isn't above scaring Kaylee and the entire school to death to get whatever—and whoever—she wants.
At the start of this book, Kaylee is still "licking her wounds" from the events of the last book. She still loves Nash but for now needs some space to get herself together. She figures she has plenty of time, but then Nash's ex, Sabine shows up. Sabine makes it obvious she wants Nash back and will stop at nothing to get him. She is a mara, literally Kaylee's worst nightmare, so she has an entire arsenal up her sleeve. Kaylee will have to decide whether to step aside or fight for what she wants, and in the end the best girl will win.
When I first read the description for this book I was convinced I would hate Sabine, just because I wouldn't like anyone who could come between Kaylee and Nash. So imagine my surprise when it turns out that I actually like her, a lot. Sure on the outside she may be very manipulative and vindictive, but that's only the surface. Underneath, she is very fragile and has a lot of issues, which considering her past, this is completely understandable. She really loves Nash, and he has been the only constant thing in her entire life so she is convinced that she cannot survive without him. Everything she does to Kaylee, and trust me some of it is nasty, is only because she loves him, not because it's a game to steal Nash from her. I think perhaps in time Sabine could become strong enough to stand on her own two feet and not need Nash so much, but only time will tell.
In this book I was simultaneously proud of and frustrated with Kaylee. She really held to her guns in needing space from Nash and refusing to just jump back into his arms. That took a lot of strength and guts and that is why I was proud of her. However, the reason I was frustrated was that I felt she took the separation to the extreme. She loves him and wants to be with him, but then refused to see him the entire time he was going through withdraw and even longer after that. I just think that if she really wanted him to stay clean, then she needed to help support him, because it only makes it so much harder to resist without love and support. I understand that he did some pretty horrible things, perhaps unforgivable, but the point was that she wanted to forgive him, so she shouldn't have hung him out to dry while he was trying to recover. It's going to be a long bumpy road ahead and I can only hope the two of them will find a way to make it work.
I really enjoyed this book, even more so than the last one. It read very fast and ties things up pretty well. The ending isn't really a cliffhanger, so that is a little relief compared to the cliffhanger of the previous book. I am still very eager to read the next book as things seem to be headed in a very interesting direction. I look forward to more of Sabine, and of course my favorite character, Tod. I can only imagine the trouble that is in store for them and I can't wait to find out how they handle it. The only reason I'm not giving this a perfect rating is due to Kaylee's lack of support for Nash, but otherwise, it was a very good book that I highly recommend.
(Received from the Author for review)
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My Soul to Steal (Soul Screamers, Book 4)
Please, don't be too hard on Kaylee. Maybe it's like this:
ReplyDeleteNash is an addict. I imagine that Kaylee is working hard not to be a co-depedent. Addiction is addiction; the addict is physically and psychologically addicted to a substance and the co-dependent is psychologically addicted to the addict. As a bean sidhe, Kaylee has been dependent on Nash her male counterpart upon whom she needs to depend. She also loves him & he's her first bf. Indeed, Kaylee is sort of physically addicted to Nash b/c the whole m/f bean-sidhe relationship. That's a co-dependency waiting to happen. One characteristic of co-dependency is excessive support of the addict by the co-dependent. While some support can be helpful, most of what an addict does to recover is something they have to do on their own.
Boy or girlfriends may be the one of the best potential co-deeps around, esp. as teens who aren't emotionally mature enough to handle the restraint needed to be a functional but not co-dependent, support. There are reasons that hitting bottom for the addict is often the break-up.
Is Sabine a co-dependent? Addicts, I believe, are supposed to stay out of new relationships for a year. Too easy for new love to "help" the addict. An ex becoming a current love; willing, to do almost anything to get him back, would be really likely to get Nash whatever he needed to stop the pain of physical withdrawal.
The Bean-sidhe thing and the trust that Kaylee has a dependency on Nash for would add a huge variable to the equation. She is really helping herself and him by pulling away. The only behavior we can control is our own and often the hardest thing to do is the best.
Trust, betrayal, addiction, love and sexl. woot, woot! what fertile ground for a novel! It sounds like everyone in the book grows up some! I have no idea if Rachel intended the relationship to play like this, esp not having read the book yet. Steph
Fangs, Wands & Fairy Dust