A Book Obsession..: Review: With All My Soul by Rachel Vincent

Review: With All My Soul by Rachel Vincent

, by Kt Clapsadl

With All My Soul by Rachel Vincent

Soul Screamers #7

What does it mean when your school is voted the most dangerous in America? It's time to kick some hellion butt...

After not really surviving her junior year (does "undead" count as survival?), Kaylee Cavanaugh has vowed to take back her school from the hellions causing all the trouble. She's going to find a way to turn the incarnations of Avarice, Envy and Vanity against one another in order to protect her friends and finish this war, once and forever.

But then she meets Wrath and understands that she's closer to the edge than she's ever been. And when one more person close to her is taken, Kaylee realizes she can't save everyone she loves without risking everything she has....

Even though Kaylee Cavanaugh isn't technically alive, she's still determined to live her unlife to its fullest. So when Avari starts his usual games of trying to claim her immortal soul by taking someone she loves, she finally snaps. She knows he will never stop coming after her and the ones she loves are just cannon fodder for him. She's determined to finally bring him down once and for all, no matter the price in order to keep her family safe. Even if that means sacrificing everything.

As much as I love the heart pounding plots of this series, what really takes the show for me is the characters, and in WITH ALL MY SOUL, they really shine. For starters, it is absolutely amazing to see how all of them have grown over the series, most of all Kaylee. Gone is the timid girl from the first installment, she's seen and experienced too much to ever be the naive girl again. But more importantly, while she was growing, she never once lost what makes her shine, her fierce protective nature and the willingness to sacrifice everything. That shining will was thoroughly tested in this book, and yet she never once faltered despite knowing what it would cost her. Of course the others have grown an incredible amount as well, and I love the place in my heart that Tod and surprisingly, Sabine have carved. But getting onto the other thing that makes these characters so amazing is the bonds between them. All of their complicated relationship dynamics are so fully fleshed out that it all seems incredibly real. In WITH ALL MY SOUL I felt that strong family dynamic more than ever, as it proved that family doesn't only mean blood ties. This group would do anything for one another, and that is a true rarity. What they have is incredibly special, and I have to thank Rachel Vincent for giving me the opportunity to experience it.

I have a small confession to admit, I was a bit worried about reading WITH ALL MY SOUL. Considering just how much I love these characters, and the fact that I feel like I've been there every step of the way through everything they have been through, I just don't think I could have handled an open ending. All the tears, happiness, and pain just bled right off the pages and into my heart, so I knew that Rachel Vincent had an impossible task set in front of her. I couldn't imagine how she could possibly settle this amazing world while still staying true to the boundaries she had set. I have never been happier to have been proved wrong. I can only call the ending a twist of insane brilliance that I never saw coming. It was beautiful, it was shocking, and it was everything I had ever hoped for.

I've been chewing over how to write this review for days now. There just didn't seem to be the words to express everything I feel about this book, but I've tried my best. I've always felt that Rachel Vincent's writing was stellar, but WITH ALL MY SOUL makes all of her previous novels look like child's play. To put it simply, I loved this book, and quite frankly I think it may just be my favorite YA read of all time. I cannot think of another book that has made me feel so much emotion in such a short amount of time. Honestly, WITH ALL MY SOUL is the kind of perfection that writers spend their entire career trying to create. I don't have a single complaint about even one moment of this book, it was just that incredible. Do yourself a favor and make sure you have a solid block of time set aside to read, as once you start WITH ALL MY SOUL, you will absolutely not be able to put it down.

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