Broad-Minded Books: Review: Reaper's Novice

Saturday, January 26, 2013

Reaper's Novice
Cecilia Robert
Soul Collector Book One
Dec 5th 2012

17- year- old Ana Maria Tei’s life has always been perfect: loving parents, good grades, and a future so bright it outshone the sun. But now words like “separation” and “divorce” are sending her world plummeting to hell. Determined to keep her family intact, Ana plans a family-bonding trip from Vienna to Tuscany. Except fate has other plans. Ana’s parents and siblings are killed in a car accident on their way to pick Ana up from school.

Enter Grim, aka Ernest. He promises to relinquish the four souls if Ana agrees to trade her soul for theirs and serve a lifetime as his novice. In order for Ana to graduate from her Reaper’s Novice station to a Soul Collector graduate, Grim puts her to test. To her horror, she finds out becoming a Reaper’s Novice didn’t happen by chance. It was preordained, and she is forced to make a choice: save her family’s souls or come to terms with who she really is and complete the task set for her

My Review: This book was an entertaining read. This is a beautiful coming of age story for the beginning of a urban fantasy series that also crosses the line to paranormal. Because of the wonderful writting by the author I was transported to feel like I was in the story, as a soul collector in training. I also like the unique premise of this wonderful tale. I think the author did a great job of blending humor and darkness in her writting. Never letting the story stray to far into either side.
The characters were well developed and you felt connected to them all because of the lush background development. While reading the writting flows naturally and does not feel forced or confusing. I also like the exploration of the relationships in the book. I would recommend this to any reader who wants a well written and interesting story.