Review: Soul Thief by Jana Oliver

 

Published Date: August 30th, 2011
Finished Date: September 9th, 2011
Publishers: St. Martin's Griffin
Format: Paperback
Pages: 339
Series: The Demon Trappers Book 2

Blurb from Goodreads: Riley Blackthorne is beginning to learn that there are worse things than death by demon. And love is just one of them…

Seventeen-year-old Riley has about had it up to here. After the devastating battle at the Tabernacle, trappers are dead and injured, her boyfriend Simon is gravely injured, and now her beloved late father’s been illegally poached from his grave by a very powerful necromancer. As if that’s not enough, there's Ori, one sizzling hot freelance demon hunter who’s made himself Riley’s unofficial body guard, and Beck, a super over-protective “friend” who acts more like a grouchy granddad. With all the hassles, Riley’s almost ready to leave Atlanta altogether.

But as Atlanta’s demon count increases, the Vatican finally sends its own Demon Hunters to take care of the city’s “little” problem, and pandemonium breaks loose. Only Riley knows that she might be the center of Hell’s attention: an extremely powerful Grade 5 demon is stalking her, and her luck can't last forever…

My Review

I tried to make myself like Soul Thief. I swear, it was an honest attempt. But it fell flat and dull, and I just couldn't bring myself to continue turning its pages.

My Summary for the first quarter of the book
(because that's where I stopped):

Riley Blackthorne goes in search for her father.

End of first quarter of Soul Thief.

Can you believe that? With an average rating of 4.30 on Goodreads(which is uncommonly high), you'd think that it'd be a phenomenal page-turner, a mindblowing novel that'll leave you thirsting for more, right? Well, I didn't enjoy THE DEMON TRAPPER'S DAUGHTER all that much, but decided to forego my better senses cause I thought that there would be more interesting characters that would come under the spotlight - mainly Ori and Beck:D. And need I say? I was sorely, greatly, and downright freaking disappointed.

Similar to its prequel, Soul Thief delved to much into the periphery. Too much side details that bored the bejeezus outta me. Not only that, nothing's ever happening! Riley just keeps going around, looking for witches and necromancers (ppl who raise the dead and in so doing, binding the newly reanimated's will to their own) and enquiring about her father's whereabouts and who the hell reanimated him. That's practically it!

The only bright point of interest for me is the mysterious Ori. Riley's romantic relationship with him was only just a subtle hint. Which, by the way, started from the previous book. Ori is stalking her, tho no perverted ulterior motives other than to protect her from the Grade 5 demon which seemed to have developed an unhealthy level of interest in our dear Miss Blackthorne. He only got three-liners at max and has dialogues lesser than Hello Kitty.

I-have-no-mouth Hello Kitty

Beck is still looking out for her, and she's still acting like the world's greatest and brat-tiest ingrate to him. I hate - not dislike, it's just too mild a word to use with Riley - and absolutely loath the way she treats Beck. He can be a jerk and bitch at times, yeah, but she's forgetting that he is putting his life on the line for her time and time again, looking out for her, protecting her, supporting her, and just, arh. But everytime he asks something of her to protect her, which she bloody hell knows, she just yells some rude crap at him and then brushes him off. Hate the hater attitude.

It was uneventful, the pace was impossibly slow, the protagonist had a hater attitude which pissed me off, and I didn't like the excessive scenic descriptions which had no relations whatsoever to what Riley was doing. (Now I know why my English teacher hates it when we insist on writing every bloody detail).

Bored me senseless. Did not finish.

My Rating