Soul Thief (The Demon Trappers #2)

Picking up immediately after the ending of The Demon Trapper’s Daughter, Soul Thief begins the morning after the battle with the demons and the fire at the Tabernacle. Riley is feeling down, but she’s still determined to find her reanimated father and get him back in his grave, where he belongs. She also has to keep in mind her deal with the angel that saved her boyfriend’s life. She can’t help but wonder why it was her the angel wanted rather than Simon. Then there’s that whole issue of the demons wanting her dead.

Unfortunately, Soul Thief did not live up to the first book. At all. I found myself quite bored with it from the very beginning. It was missing the excitement that made The Demon Trapper’s Daughter so engaging. Riley just goes about her every day tasks for the most part while the threat is very much in the background. Even what should have been the big showdown with the level 5 demon was pretty lame. It was over in about a page and that was that.

Another thing that dragged my rating down for Soul Thief was the romance. It’s now a love rhombus (or square, if you prefer), but not a very well thought out one. I was quite enjoying the Simon-Riley-Beck love triangle, but throwing in Ori was just a bit much. Simon has changed a lot after the demon battle, and he blames Riley. Riley all of a sudden rebounds with Ori, and their relationship develops quite rapidly. She says she’s not ready and that they’re moving too fast, but a paragraph later it’s a whole other story. There’s a twist with Ori, but I don’t think their super speedy romance was necessary for it.

What I did like about Soul Thief was that we got a little bit more world building. I’m loving this run down, demon infested Georgia. As Riley is going about her everyday life, we get glimpses of some of the problems in the city. There’s nothing essential, but it was interesting especially when Riley goes to the “deader” auction. We also get to know Beck a lot better. There’s a lot more too him than we get in the first book, but I just wish Ori hadn’t stolen some of the focus away from him.

In the end, Soul Thief was a majorly disappointing sequel. While there was some great world building involving the city and the necromancers, not much else happened. I don’t feel like the plot moved forward much. Sure we got a couple of complications, but basically nothing happens. Will I continue the series? Yes, but I’m not really in a rush to now. I do hope the next book is more interesting.

The Demon Trappers series may not be great literature in any way, but it is super enjoyable so far. Some elements, like her crazy religious stuff, which is getting more potent, annoys me, but I still read along at a swift pace, curious to discover what will happen next.

In its weak spots, Soul Thief reminds me of the House of Night series by the Cast mother-daughter team. This is definitely a bad thing. What saves the book from the horrors of that series is Riley. Although she's not the brightest, she does truly believe in her actions and she does what she can to help others. Unlike Zoey Redbird, she does not screw others over intentionally.

One really good thing that happened here was Simon going crazy. I really don't like Simon. Even at his sweetest, he kind of creeped me out and I never thought he and Riley made sense. I felt so justified when he acted like such a jerk after she saved his life. Beck is my favorite of the guys in her life, I guess, although I don't necessarily approve of his decisions (or his annoying accent). The whole protecting her by telling her what to do business is rather irritating; besides, he ought to know her well enough to know that ordering her around is going to have the reverse effect. Plus, if he really wanted to stop her, why not spend more time with her and less belly up to the bar?

Like the first book, The Demon Trapper's Daughter, this one is a definite thrill ride, filled with romance, betrayal and action sequences. This is a fun ride.