Souled Out (Ell Clyne #1) - Blakely Chorpenning

Description

Ell Clyne is lost living someone else’s life. But reading souls to save the fate of a loved one seemed like a fair trade. At first.

The lie has cost Ell her family, her future, her very soul. Now the secret is out and the vampires want answers. Becoming a pawn in her own conspiracy and being abducted more times than a psychiatrist might recommend, Ell just wants to stay alive and reclaim her life without burning something down. Oops, something else.

This is the story of a girl who isn’t a superhero or a badass, but manages to fight for her place in a cold-blooded world regardless of the pain caused by that empty space where her soul should be.

 

My Opinion

It was the description that drew me to this book when I received the request. The concept sounded original and it intrigued me into wondering what Ell Clyne was. The book was interesting and kept me hooked throughout a long train journey. I liked Ell's character, she took no nonsense and could be quite witty at times, a few of which made me laugh, especially towards the start. I loved it when she went crazy but it was also great when we got to see her more vulnerable side. Chorpenning did a great job with balancing the character's emotions so it wasn't one sided. Also, because of this it meant it was easy to relate and engage with Ell. I will admit that there were times I didn't like her and my brain was screaming "What the hell did you do that for!" but that made the book better as it meant it had enthralled me in the world. 

The book was really well written. It gave me enough detail to satisfy my curiosity but did not reveal everything at once. Also it did not overly describe objects, surroundings etc which I loved as it left something to my imagination (I don't like it when book describe every minute detail with flowery language). I found myself a little confused at times but after re-reading the paragraph/section or reading on a few pages it was cleared up easily enough. 

One thing I didn't like/understand is why Gabriel, Seth etc had to be vampires. For me it added nothing to the book and I would have rather Chorpenning make up or use another mythological character related to Ell's job more as it would have been more interesting and unusual. In my opinion it didn't make sense for vampire to want the souls of prospective humans to be read as the book didn't give much background detail on this aspect. In all honesty, for me, it made the book less original as the vampire thing has been done hundred of times now and I don't believe this book needed them. I don't think I would have minded so much if they acted like vampires but besides one feeding, fire and their strength nothing else was related to vampires. 

Overall I enjoyed this book and would recommend it to paranormal lovers. It does keep your interest, there was a lot of action and the main character - Ell - was great. However it could have done without the vampires. For me it lumped an enjoyable/partly original (Ell's job and soul element) book into the swamped vampire genre when it wasn't needed. This book would be able to stand on its own if the vampires were changed but for me, as it stands, it is lost as a vampire book. 

3.5