Soul Wars Saga, Book 1
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Description (taken from Goodreads):
Everyone has a soul mate. But what do you do when your soul mate would rather give his soul to the demons than be with you?
Seventeen-year-old Erin has a problem. Seth has been hers forever, but now an ancient curse is tearing him away. And the demons who invoked it will stop at nothing – even murder – to claim him as their own.
How can she win against a curse so binding that it has damned countless others to this same fate – an eternity alone?
The answer lies in the past. To find it, Erin and Seth must risk all, travelling back in time to a dangerous world where love is forbidden, and life – and death – hang on a pledge.
Follow Erin and Seth as they travel to ancient Shenaya and confront the curse that has plagued their families for millennia. Caught in a war between the Angelic Guardians and the Gefallen, the disembodied dead, they must fight to keep their souls in tact and their love untainted.
This book has a lot of fantasy that I wasn't expecting. Soul mates, curses, prophecies, wars, etc. But I wasn't expecting to see a story of the past weaved into the present. It was a very different take to the fantasies I'm used to. And I believe it worked well.
Meet Seth and Erin, soul mates before they were born. I get that they were meant for each other, but it kind of made it difficult for me to see the romance between them since Erin was so accepting of the soul mate idea (can you tell I wouldn't be that accepting?). Anyways, the story starts with an African trip to meet their newlywed siblings. Seth's brother, Kyle, is on a quest to find some diamonds. And lo and behold, Seth and Erin happen to find a diamond. But it plunges them deeper into a fantastical story which is far from what they were expecting.
They find themselves in the middle of a war between the Guardians and the Gefallen, between good and evil. And they're forced to choose a side. I kind of felt for Seth the whole time because I wouldn't want to pick a side either. But they're thrown back in time to watch what happened in the past and how a curse prevents the citizens of Shenaya from truly loving and thinking for themselves. And this will help them choose sides and hopefully break the curse.
Here's what I thought about it: there's a lot of story-telling. I wasn't expecting to see the past through Erin's and Seth's eyes. And I believe this sets up the second book (which I'm hoping is more in the present than the first). Seeing all this prophecy, curses, and folklore was definitely different. Almost like angels-and-demons-feeling without the generic haloes and pitchforks. And I was a little confused with how the diamond plays into the story. I liked it, and I'm rooting for Seth...
This book is for pure fantasy lovers. Those who like the whole premise of good and evil would enjoy it. While it is young adult fiction, I would not recommend it to the young teens out there (there's some more mature themes in the book).
Thanks goes to Swallow Press for providing me a review copy.
Challenges: Debut Author Challenge and Young Adult Reading Challenge
Giveaway
Swallow Press is graciously offering five ebooks of Pledged to my readers. The winners will be emailed a coupon code that can be used to retrieve their copy from Smashwords.- This giveaway is open internationally (as long as you can access Smashwords).
- Giveaway ends on Thursday, September 6 (moved from Monday to give an additional three days).
- You can enter via the Rafflecopter form below. You can enter by doing one of the following:
- Free entry. Just click to enter.
- Leave a comment on this post. Answer the question: Do you believe in soul mates?
- Tweet about the giveaway. Leave a link to your tweet in the comments section
Have seen the book on a lot of blogs, but it doesn't really stand out for me. Maybe it's the cover. I do like fun dialogue and sweet characters! Great review.
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