Tag Archives: Pantheon

Hailey delivers yet another headrush of emotions and tensions

Soulbound-6-FullSizeAn Echo in the Sorrow by Hailey Turner

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I need more stars and time to process the total head rush that makes up this book’s story!

Every time I read a new entry in this series from Hailey Turner, I have to take a breath to absorb what she’s just blown my mind away with.

Book Six is no exception, in fact, it’s probably the most complex so far in all the Soulbound books as there are a multitude of big WTF moments that I won’t be spoiling at any point in this review 😁

As the tension builds in this penultimate chapter of the series long arc, we find Patrick and Jono dealing with an escalation of attacks against their pack while trying to chase up the missing Morrigan’s Staff (this book picks up almost immediately after On the Wings of War with Ashanti’s return still at the forefront.

As with all the other utterly brilliant books in this series, Hailey mixes mythologies with a deft hand, bringing the Egyptian pantheon into the mix, as well as the lesser known Hawaiian War God and his Nightmarchers.

This is one of the aspects of the Soulbound series I love the most. I am a mythology nerd and I freely admit it, but my knowledge is mostly related to the most commonly found pantheons – Greek, Roman, Norse, Egyptian, South American – so I am always delighted when someone new pops up to give me another rabbit hole to fall into.

As for Patrick and Jono, and the rest of the gang, things are as complicated as ever, but the strength of the bond between them is solid. The way Patrick and Jono’s relationship has developed throughout this series is another solid thread which binds the narrative together.

They are each other’s lodestone, and both are forced to call on that certainty at points during this book where I wasn’t sure if they’d get through it unscathed. Hailey is so good at driving an escalating sense of foreboding where you’re really not sure everyone you love is going to make it.

Here she drives the tension to the extreme, and that’s why, once I picked up this book, I didn’t put it down until I had finished it, the plot was simply too captivating to let loose and I couldn’t bear to wait to find out whether everyone comes through unscathed.

Emotionally, this book holds the reader captive from the start, we are taken through a multitude of different highs, lows and all points in between, before being flung out at the end with a exhale of mixed relief and disbelief at just where the narrative has ranged.

Book Seven will be both an anticipated release and a bittersweet one, as I am sure there will be more pain to endure and joys to celebrate before Patrick and Jono can safely take a breath and go on that vacation to Maui.

And I cannot wait!

#ARC kindly received from the author in return for an honest and unbiased review

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Another stunning blending of world mythologies into a thrilling UF

All Souls Near & Nigh (Soulbound, #2)All Souls Near & Nigh by Hailey Turner

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Arhgggghhjjjuhhvvcc – that’s the noise my brain is making at how bloody brilliant this book is.

Full review to come when I’m at my laptop and I can get some semblance of order back!

***

Righty, brain back sort of functioning so here we go.

A bit more detail about why this book is so bloody brilliant. As with Book One A Ferry of Bones & Gold Hailey takes well know mythological Pantheons (Greek, Roman, Norse) and mixes them up with the lesser known ones.

In Ferry it was the folklore of West African, Egyptian and European cultures, here we’re in South America with the Aztec Gods – Quetzalcoatl and Tepoztēcatl, the Mexican/Catholic death cult Goddess/saint Nuestra Señora de la Santa Muerte as well as the Native American trickster God Coyote or Altse Hashke and it is this blending together of powerful beings into a seamless narrative which is the hallmark of this series.

This plot is a complexly woven and intricately detailed navigation through an urban fantasy world which feels familiar to the reader but which has that otherworldly tinge to it. The after effects of the actions of Book One are still being felt at the opening of this one.

Patrick and Jono have settled into a sort of routine which is just starting to feel like normal when everything starts to kick off. As with the first one, I’m not giving away anything of the actual plot. These books deserve to be read blind and given the chance to work their clever magic on the readers.

I will say all the usual suspects are on hand, we see Hermes, (who I always picture as a used car salesman in my head 😀 ) and the Tempest Pack, Lucien the Master Vampire, (who is still hating on Patrick for the death of his mother Ashanti) and his crew, and the rotten to the core New York God Pack alphas Estelle and Youssef, who I want to punch in the face every time they’re on page!

I’m not sure how many books Hailey is planning for this series but, for me, it’s shaping up to be just as epic as her Sci-Fi Metahumans one.

More please!

#ARC kindly received from the author in return for an honest and unbiased review

As ever, the fangirling and mythology nerding are my own!

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