Review: With All My Soul by Rachel Vincent

Title: With All My Soul
Author: Rachel Vincent
Series: Soul Screamers, 7th & final book in the series
Publisher: Harlequin Teen
Publication Date: March 26, 2013
Source: purchased
Purchase: Amazon | Barnes & Noble

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....

I don't feel quite as gutted with this series' ending as I did with the last one I read, but I'm not going to lie, I did shed some tears.  I didn't discover this series until the fourth book was out and I'd won a copy, but you'd better believe that I rushed out to catch up and then waited not-so-patiently as each subsequent book was released.  And with each new book, I loved this world, the story, and the characters that much more.

Kaylee Cavenaugh and friends have survived a lot.  Okay, maybe survived is the wrong word.  Not everyone has come through this war with the Netherworld unscathed...or even alive.  We've lost some friends along the way, but we've made some new ones, too.  These characters have moved past heartbreak, overcome addiction, and triumphed over evil time and again.  And what's ahead for Kaylee in this final installment leaves her at the edge of a precipice, facing a decision that no one, dead or alive, should ever have to make.

"These beautiful blue eyes show me all the things you'd be willing to do for the people you care about. The things you would give up. The pain you would put yourself through for anyone you love--including me--and I can hardly stand to look into these eyes sometimes, because when I do, I know that you're going to do what needs to be done, even if that might take you away from me. From all of us."

Kaylee has never been opposed to taking risks to protect those she loves.  And she is no less gallant in With All My Soul.  But she is entirely too impulsive in her decisions this time around, leaving others wounded and hurt in the process.  In fact, it almost felt like she was channeling Faythe from Rachel Vincent's Shifters series.  And Faythe annoyed the crap out of me for much of that series, so it's a safe assumption that I found Kaylee infuriatingly frustrating for a big chunk of this book.  But her motivations are pure, and though her intentions weren't always clear, it was obvious she'd considered every angle before acting.

One of my favorite things about this series is the dialogue.  And not just from the swoony Tod, though I am admittedly partial to him.  It's realistic.  It's sarcastic.  It's witty.  It had me laughing and crying and swooning every step of the way, and I'm going to miss the banter between the characters something fierce.  But I am mostly going to miss all the sweet, romantic words from one very hot reaper.

"I want you for all of you. Each individual part and the sum of them all. I want you for everything you are and everything you will ever be. I will never have enough of you, because there's no such thing."

This series is one of the few times I've actually approved of a love triangle.  Because in reality, and especially at the age these characters are depicted at, it is entirely possible to outgrow your first love and find solace in another.  And after everything these characters have been through, it felt right for the romance to take the path it did.  It was refreshing to see the emotional growth of these characters throughout the series, but I was especially elated at the resolution provided in this final Soul Screamers book.  Hurt feelings or not, I think this is the way it was always meant to be.

There were some plot developments here and there that I could have done without or that I thought would have taken an entirely different turn than they did, but overall, I still consider this one of my favorite series.  I mean, first of all, it's the only one I know of focused on wailing banshees.  That in itself is pretty awesome, but when you couple it with intriguing characters, intense interactions with sins personified as villainous hellions, beautiful world-building (centered around my hometown, no less!), and a well-crafted storyline, well, you can't really go wrong, can you?


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Labels: banshees, favorites, harlequin-teen, must-read, rachel vincent, soul screamers