It’s no secret that I love this series. I genuinely feel that this a series that could have been mediocre but as Vincent constantly takes risks in her writing and surprises her reader is an outstanding read. After If I Die, the fifth book in the series, which blew me away and I thought was about a thousand shades of awesome, I wondered how on earth Vincent could top it. Be warned, there are spoilers for the previous five books in this review. You can’t really review this book without spoiling book five!
Kaylee now has a new job as a former bean sidhe and now immortal being – her job is to hunt out and reclaim stolen souls. However she’s finding her new life hard; coming back from the dead naturally has led to her feeling out of sorts. Luckily, her gorgeous new boyfriend, Todd, has been through it before – a former bean sidhe himself and now a reaper and the two of them literally will have eternity together, which Kaylee admits is very daunting. Not only that, but a former enemy has returned and now Kaylee has to forget about her difficulties with her new existence and get straight to work saving souls.
One of the reasons I adore this series is how Vincent has built Todd from this very minor character and brother of the romantic interest to a very crush-worthy interest and boyfriend for Kaylee. Nash’s development from perfect boyfriend to addict to ex has been very interesting too as at the start I loved him and by book four I really, really didn’t. This is the first book where Kaylee and Todd are properly together from the start and I loved the two of them; Todd’s trying hard to help her cope with her new role and be her new boyfriend. Nash as well garnered a lot more sympathy in this book, he felt a lot more human to me than in other books and the difficulty in coping with his brother dating his ex, who he is definitely not over, is obvious.
Vincent, once again, proves no characters are safe from death (I mean, she killed Kaylee in the last book, where else can she go from there?) and there are some truly shocking and awful moments in this book. The ending in particular and one particular other scene are particularly difficult to read for this reason.
There’s one book left in this series and I am really going to miss this when it is over. I have every faith Vincent will deliver a brilliant final book, but I am sure I am not alone when I say that I don’t want this series to end. The world, the characters and the fun, action filled plots mean something to me that I don’t know when I’ll be able to finally let go. I can only imagine how Vincent must feel saying goodbye to this wonderful world she has created!
I received a complimentary review copy from the UK publishers, Mira Ink (and by the way can we all just swoon over the covers? Seriously, I don’t these publishers could do a bad book cover if they tried!) and as ever am very grateful and thankful but my review is honest and unaffected by means of receiving the book. Officially, Before I Wake is out on the 6th July, but you can download it on Kindle now if you can’t wait!