Soul Thief (also known as Forbidden in the UK) is the second book in the Demon Trappers series by Jana Oliver. Rating: 3.5/5

*Note: This is not a spoiler free review. I do not suggest continuing on with this review if you have not read this book, or the previous. If you’ve read the book/series leave me a comment so we can fangirl together!

As usual, we’re going to start this review with the negative points, and work our way up to the positives. Compared to the first book in the Demon Trapper’s series, this one was slightly disappointing. Riley had proved to be a real badass in the first book, and then within the last few pages she had come off really gushy and obsessed with her boyfriend. I had tossed all that up to Jana Oliver trying to help the Riley/Beck angle later on, so I was okay with it…. but not for long. The majority of Soul Thief involved Riley obsessing and whining and bitching about her boyfriend Simon. Then when they broke up, she had a meltdown so annoying that it reminded me of Twilight’s New Moon breakup. Bad boy rebound and all. Even when she was being strong, she was doing it in such a whiny way. The worst part of it was when her best friend told her that he finally chose to live with his dad, and the “nuclear level fight” that erupted after his decision. Instead of consoling him and being a friend, she bitched about how her boyfriend broke up with her. Rude. The only reason I was able to move passed it is because I love how snarky she is. When Simon became a real asshole she told him off. She continues to put Beck in his place, and even calls Master Harper an ‘asshat’. I approve.

I also felt like there was a bit too much happening all at once with this book. One minute she’s looking for her dad, and then Beck is sleeping with a reporter, and then demons, and Ori, more demons, DAD, demons, summoning, Mortimer, etc. etc. etc. It was all over the place. It was hard to wrap around just how much happened, especially considering this book didn’t take up a lengthy amount of time. At the end of the book I was scratching my head trying to process all the important events.

This book had incredible character development with Beck, who is hands down my favorite character. Even with Riley acting like a brat, this book made me love all of the characters that much more. When Beck finally gave Riley an inkling that he was interested in her my heart nearly jumped out of my chest. I am becoming really invested in the characters, and that’s definitely a good thing. Again, I really, really loved the swearing and the talk of sex. It was never excessive, and always used when the situation called for it. This alone made the book worthwhile.

Without giving too much away, this book definitely felt like a filler book. There was a ton of stuff happening all at once, but none of it really seemed all that important. Then, all of a sudden, allllll the shit hit the fan with about 100 pages left of the book. It left us with quite a cliffhanger, and I’m really excited to read the next one. I’m hoping the third book is more pulled together, so I can enjoy the new conflicts and resolutions of old ones. I’m also really hoping that strong, independent, bad ass Riley makes another appearance. I’m also really hoping for Beck and Riley to apologize and get together already. If you’re going to make her sappy and need a relationship, at least give it to me and make it good.

Rating: 

If you’re interested in reading my GoodReads updates from this book you can do so here. I must say, they’re quite entertaining. It will tell you exactly what I was thinking on certain pages.