Cover Image: Souljacker

Souljacker

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Lily O’Connell is a succubus living in Seattle. She runs a successful sex salon that caters to the non-human kind. When one of her clients turns up dead which leads Lily to hire Archer to help her solve this crime before she's the next target.

Overall, Souljacker is a pretty good start to the series there could be some minor improvement
(the romance to start) but I am very interested to see where this story goes and will be picking up the second book when its released.

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The first in a new series, Lilly Bound, is a succubus owing her own sex salon in the Blood Night District of Seattle. When one of her clients ends of up dead via vampire her livelihood is at stake; however, with the discovery that the 'Souljacker'--an old, tattoo artist friend--has escaped an institution and is hellbent on 'reclaiming' all his artwork, Lilly realized that she and her closest friends are in danger. She hires Archer Desmond, a chaos demon and PI, to track the vampire down before he tracks her. But she didn't expect to fall for Archer nor to receive a new and dangerous job assignment from the Fae's Winter Court.

Souljacker is a fun, engaging and sexy read from Galenorn. Fans of her other books will enjoy the new characters and world-building. I think Lilly is interesting and we'll see how her character develops with her new professional roles. I like Archer but this relationship needs work since I felt like the attraction and connection were a bit too rushed.

Overall, this is a great read for Galenorn fans and for those who enjoy urban fantasy with spicy romance.

Final rating: 4 out of 5 stars

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New series for Galenorn paranormal in nature with a Fae succubus Lilly who feeds through her sex salon. Characters were somewhat interesting but just not developed yet which will change as the world proceeds in books that follow. Plot begins with a vampire murderer who escapes on a mission to skin his art off his previous clients' dead bodies. Lilly, her friends Dani and Nate have all been inked by the Souljacker when he was human. Demons, Fae, Weres, Vampires and Queen Wynter all make up this prose. No cliffhanger but many questions unanswered. Diversion Books via Netgalley supplied a copy of this book to me with no requirements for a review. I voluntarily read this book and my comments here are my honest opinion.

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This story runs the supernatural spectrum from Fae to Demons to Vampires to Witches to Weres to regular old run-of-the-mill humans. Vampires are the dangerous underbelly of society on the cusp of a power play to make them more powerful than any other species/race. Weres seem somewhat insular and tend to think with that mob/pack mentality that is probably innate to their nature. While we don't have much info on the witches, besides Dani, they seem to be of the lone wolf variety, mixing with all the species (except vampires) at will.

The Fae were my favorite aspect of this story, and the reason I wanted to read the book. I am a sucker for a good Faery tale. The Fae did not feature heavily in this first installment, but I believe that will change in the future. Lily has a special bond to the Wynter Faery Queen, and we did get a brief visit to the Wynter court. That was probably my favorite part of this book so I hope more trips to Faery happen in the future. All the references to Wynter and her court made me think this was a spinoff series as they were mentioned like we should know who they are... but I haven't confirmed or denied the spinoff aspect as of the time I am writing this review.

Lily O'Connell is a succubus, but of the Dark Fae rather than the demon variety. Needing chi (life force) to feed her need and live, Lily opened her own special salon (brothel) called Lily Bound where she offers mutually exclusive service to supernaturals. For being over 600 years old, nearly immortal, I found Lily to be somewhat wimpy and reckless. I would think that a Dark Fae would have some sort of fighting skills, but she seems to get beat up or in trouble quite often, needing her friends to show up for the rescue. I am hoping that this changes as the series progresses, and this story did provide an avenue for that to happen.

Lily seems to have a good group of friends around her. Nate is her human neighbor and single friend, a self-proclaimed computer geek and hacker. Dani is a witch with Irish roots (maybe celtic?) who lost her husband to the Vampires. The trio is a good support group for one another, which Lily must rely on after she makes an enemy of the were community. Luckily a frenemy werewolf and law enforcement officer, Jolene, pointed Lily in the direction of a private investigator, Archer Devon, a chaos demon, who is set up to be Lily's love interest for the series. Archer was eluded to as a hunky bad boy... but he didn't seem all that *bad* in this story. As a Demon, I expected him to be a little on the evil side - but he seems to be lonely and longing for love. There isn't much romance in this first book, but instead we see Archer as a sexual stand-in and chi source for Lily after the Souljacker kills a weretiger on her property.

The Souljacker is our main antagonist - a former tattoo artist turned vampire who has gone mad. Lily and friends have a particular need to worry about this villain, and they band together with Archer to stay safe and remove the threat - with a little help from Wynter. The Were species as a whole serves as a secondary antagonist due to events that happen at the outset of the book. I'm not sure if they will continue in this cast going forward, but I don't believe the issue will be resolved quickly.

I would have liked more world building and species history. The story is set in a futuristic Seattle, where vamps appeared on the scene (from when/where?), and Fae and Weres revealed themselves to society (when/why?). There were some interesting social and political issues happening, corrupt politicians and fights for Vampire rights. One interesting aspect to note is that there was a law that prevented companies from outsourcing any aspect of their business without first showing that there was not a United States citizen available to do the job. I thought that was interesting.

Galenorn has said this is her last book with a publisher, so I'm not sure what that means for this series. Will it continue to be traditionally published or will she take the self-pub route with this one as well? I do hope the series continues because I like the direction I think this series will take.

I switched between ebook and audiobook for this story, so let me mention the narrator, Cassandra Campbell, briefly. She did a really good job with the performance and character distinction. I loved her affectation for Dani, and her Irish accent. I do wish that Archer sounded a little more manly... but there was a clear distinction between male and female voices. I think Campbell did a fair job minimizing our heroine's more annoying traits - like running off into danger by herself.

I voluntarily reviewed an advanced copy of this book that I received from the publishers.

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I received this book from Netgalley.

I was a little hesitant to start this book and wasn't really expecting too much of it. I was pleasantly surprised however as it was on the whole, an enjoyable read. I'd say this is perfect for fans of Karen Chance and Patricia Briggs.

The only real drawback of the book I felt, was that some of the writing was a little transparent. As in, it was easy to see where the author used thinly veiled speech to get across plot points or characters thoughts/emotions etc. instead of letting the reader infer these things for themselves. In this sense, I found the writing not quite as smooth.

However, the book did have good plot points, it was something a little different and the characters were all likeable. I also enjoyed how in depth the detail was about the world the book is set in. It really helped set the scene. I also liked that Lily was interested in women too as I feel like there aren't enough gay/bisexual female lead characters in this kind of genre.

Overall, I enjoyed this book though it was a little transparent in places. I would definitely read a second book in the series.

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Souljacker begins with Lily finding a client dead in her salon and seeing a vampire misting towards her, only to stop and exit her home. (For clarity, she runs her salon in part of her home.) She calls the police and once they arrive, she’s told that it’s another vamp kill and that they’ll do what they can. The cop is a friend of Lily’s and tells her that these things aren’t high on their priority list and gives her the name of a private investigator that may be able to help. It doesn’t take long for another murder to occur and they soon discover that there is a common link: the killer is taking tattoos from the bodies of those he kills. They also discover that the tattoos were done by a former friend known as the Souljacker. Unfortunately said friend was attacked and turned by a vampire and instead of being staked, he was institutionalized at the behest of his father who is a very well connected businessman in town. The father also has ties to the leader of the vampires who is a money-hungry, power seeking vampire referred to as the Deadfather.



Once they realize that the Souljacker has escaped, Lily and her friends know that they are being targeted, as they have tattoos themselves that were done by the Souljacker himself. On top of that, the client who died in Lily’s salon was a Were and to say his wife is none too happy is a huge understatement. Lily finds herself on the receiving end of retaliation from the Were community more than once. Lily is also a member of Wynter’s court and seeks an audience with the Queen to let her know what has happened. Once there, Wynter tells her that she is to close her salon and is to enter into her service. Talk about a bad and life changing couple of days….



Yasmine Galenorn is known for the worlds she builds. I think this one will actually surprise some folks. The government is corrupt and seemingly in cahoots with the vampires. The vampires are thug-like in that they are almost like a mafia type organization and kill often and seem to feed on the fear as well as blood. I liked Lily. She is not a warrior-like character like most of the main female leads that Galenorn writes, but she is smart and cares about her friends deeply. I also liked Desmond Archer, the chaos demon PI. We don’t find out a lot about him, but I think he will have a back story that will be intriguing. The secondary characters are intriguing as well. As with any first story in a series, we don’t find out a lot about these characters, but I have a feeling they’ll play a huge part in the books to come. If you’re a fan of Galenorn and the worlds that she creates, you’ll definitely want to give this one a go. It did seem to drag a bit in places, but as I said, it is the first in the series, so I have high hopes for the next one. Well done, Yasmine Galenorn!

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I am a huge fan of this author so of course I had to read this book and I am so glad I did because I loved this book .

I can't wait for the next book in this series.

Great read and I do highly recommend .

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I am a fan and have been of this author's for a long time. When I saw that the author had this new series about a succubus, I got very excited. This book is very dark. I would classify this book as urban fantasy. It had sexual tension, sex, hot characters, murder, intrigue, and a strong female heroine. Ms. Galenorn has another winner on her hands with this book. This book is dark and edgy in all the right ways!

Not only is Lily a succubus and Archer, a chaos demon but one of Lily's friend's, Dani, is a witch. Lily's other friend, Nate is human but don't count him out. He can stand along side of everyone. One and Lily's client (dead) was a weretiger. Also, there is faes and the Souljacker is a vampire. So, there is a little bit of everything for everyone.

My only issue is that there was not a lot of interaction with the Souljacker until about the last third of the book. Learning about his story was interesting. He may be the bad guy but I do have a place for him. I look forward to reading the next book in this series.

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Lily is a succubus making a living as a private call girl so she can feed. When a client ends up dying at a maniacal vampires hand in her house, the were's mate is out for revenge. Trying to keep her friends alive and hunt the vampire down at the directive of her Fae queen Wynter, she is given a new purpose in life. I voluntarily reviewed An Arc of this book from Netgalley.

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Yasmine Galenorn does it again by writing another fabulous series that I must follow.

What do you get when a succubus, a chaos demon and a witch walk into a bar…I don’t know but I’m sure Galenorn is going to have us begging to find out.

Lily O’Connell is a succubus living in Seattle. She runs a successful sex salon that caters to the non-human kind. When one of her clients turns up dead in her house, it turns the tiger shifting community against her, so she turns to her standing in the Fae Court to let the queen know about her situation.

The queen uses this opportunity to force Lily into a new career working for her. But this also sends Lily on a perilous path of life altering circumstance.

Lily hires Archer, a chaos demon, and outcast even among his own demon kind. Archer helps Lily discover the what vampire element is behind the murders that have left Lily in the crosshairs.

Nail biting adventure, smoking hot romantic tension and new characters to explore, there is much more a girl could ask for in a marvelous new read.

I received this ARC copy of Souljacker from Diversion Books. This is my honest and voluntary review. Souljacker is set for publication March 7, 2017.

My Rating: 5 stars
Written by: Yasmine Galenorn
Series: Lily Bound
Sequence in Series: Book 1
Paperback: 268 pages
Publisher: Diversion Publishing
Publication Date: March 7, 2017
ISBN-10: 1682307018
ISBN-13: 978-168230701
Genre: Urban Fantasy Romance

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***4 ‘You’re not fighting this battle alone’ Stars***

It’s been awhile since I dove into one of Yasmine Galenorns worlds so when I saw the cover and title I couldn’t help but be curious to see what she had up her sleeve and being a fan of tattoo’s and a resident of Western Washington I decided to give a go and really enjoyed the book. The world is similar to those of the author’s other works, but I really enjoyed the characters and getting to know each of them as they work to stop a psychotic vampire before he can get to them.

I really liked Lily. She’s kind, compassionate and approachable and if it weren’t for the whole succubus I need sex and your chi to survive she’d appear to be any normal person off the street. Quite a bit changes for her in the book, both good and bad, and I liked how she handled them all ~ though there were a few times where I wanted to smack some sense into her, but they all worked. And though Lily is the focal point of the series she is surrounded by a varied and interesting group of people of various ages and species. Each were well written and I enjoyed getting to know each of them and what they brought to the story and am looking forward to seeing how they all develop throughout the series.

As this is the first book in the series, the pacing was a little slow due to introducing the characters, their backgrounds and the world itself but it was all done well and the flow never felt choppy. The Souljacker storyline was simple and yet well thought out and did a great job at being the catalyst for the series story arc as it introduced the majority of the main players and set up smaller storylines in the process. What I ended up liking the most though was how the relationship between Lily and Archer wasn't as big as the synopsis suggested it would be within the story. Instead it was woven well into the story and helped to move things along.

Overall I really enjoyed Souljacker and am definitely interested in seeing how certain storylines play out throughout the series.

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Séduite par le résumé de Souljacker, je me suis laissé tenter… Malheureusement, il n’a pas rempli toutes mes attentes.
Lily est une succube et pour survivre, elle est obligée d’aspirer le chi d’autres créatures surnaturelles. Mais un soir, l’un de ses clients meurt mystérieusement. Après une mini-enquête, elle découvre que c’est en fait le Souljacker qui est à l’œuvre…
Comme je le disais, ce livre avait tout pour me plaire : une héroïne, un meurtre étrange, des loups-garous, des vampires, des démons, des faes. Bref, tout ce que j’aime, réuni dans un seul roman. Mais les créatures ne font pas tout et j’ai trouvé que ce premier tome était plat, manquait d’action et les personnages n’avaient rien d’attrayant. Je m’explique, Lily est censée être le personnage principale mais je m’attendais à ce qu’elle soit badass et qu’elle botte des fesses étant donné son âge. Mais non, en six siècles, elle n’a jamais appris à se battre convenablement ce qui fait qu’au lieu de botter les fesses de ces ennemis, elle se botter les siennes. J’ai eu aussi un petit problème avec Archer, le soupirant amoureux de Lily. Avant même qu’il n’apparaisse dans le roman, on nous le décrit comme étant un démon puissant et pas forcément sympathique. Ah ! Je me sens trompée tellement Archer ne correspond pas à la description. Il est peut-être puissant mais tout en lui transpire la normalité, on est loin du démon puissant avec qui l’héroïne passe des nuits torrides. Sérieusement, Archer et Lily n’ont aucune alchimie ! C’était gravement… plat.
Passons au fond de l’histoire qui est plutôt intéressante. Le Souljacker est un vampire autrefois tatoueur, il est persuadé qu’en arrachant le tatouage de ses précédents clients, il retrouvera sa fibre artistique qu’il a perdu en devenant un vampire. Voilà, ça c’est original ! Mais Lily et ses potes ont calmé mon enthousiasme face à cette histoire. Ils passent leurs journées à discuter dans la cuisine de Lily et à évoquer des choses dont on n’a rien à faire ! Mince, y a un vampire tueur en série qui rode dehors et tout ce qu’ils trouvent à faire c’est de se bourrer…
Ce livre avait tout pour me plaire ! Et pourtant ses personnages ont gâché le potentiel du livre en rendant une enquête palpitante aussi morne que l’ascension d’une marche d’un escargot… J’ai sauté pas mal de passage de blabla, c’est pour vous dire combien j’avais envie de finir ce livre. En bref, je suis super déçue par ce premier tome et je ne lirais sûrement pas les suivants.

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Fantastic book! And it's funny, the timing, because I just found Yasmine Galenorn as an author. And if I hadn't I probably wouldn't have requested and read this book, and that would've been a shame, because it was fantastic! But also, that it was so soon after I'd discovered her books! That was great!

This world was similar to the Otherworld/Sisters of the Moon. There's fae, vampires, weres, demons. But there's no Otherworld, vampires can enter wherever, and there's the Winter Court, and the Summer Court. So it is different, and I loved exploring this new world!

Lily was awesome! She's not a kick butt character, she's more of a lover, being a succubus, but she survived alone for 600 years, so she's had to defend herself. And while those skills have become rusty, she'll be polishing them up and improving upon them because of the changes in her life in this book! Which were a crap ton load!

I really enjoyed the investigation into the Souljacker, finding him before he found them. And killed them for the tattoos that he inked. But there was also the fact that one of the victims was killed in Lily's house and place of business-a private sex parlour-and that he was married. And that the wife was out to get Lily and her friends! Yeah, lots going on!

This was an amazing book, and I can't wait to read more of this very intriguing world and characters!

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I'm sorry, this one was a DNF for me. I gave it a good 100 pages before I gave up. The characters started out with such promise, but were all so boring, except for Dani and even she didn't go anywhere. The reactions and decisions the characters made made no sense.

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Seriously? At 81% and they are still talking at Lily's house? I am gonna pass.
I had great hopes with this book: a succubus called Lily who feeds from the chi of supernaturals who nowadays are a regular fixture on the world. A vampire called the Souljacker who is very dangerous (at this point I only have their word on it... loooooots of words at Lily's home) has come back to exact revenge and Lily bangs (quite literally sometimes harhar) with a chaos demon called Archer, a witch called Dani, a human called Nate and a not really a cat called whisky to stop him. But not really. Because at 81% we have seen some things... like how devil a were is when she choses to exact revenge... some inner workings of the Fae people... and looooooots of talk... sex... more talk... and more talk... and I am done. I am sorry but this book could lose half its lenght and half its talk and I guess it could be great. As it is I lost interest in much ado about nothing.

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Sometimes you read books that you will always remember reading. Others go to the shelf of "I read this book? Really?" and this book falls into the latter category. I know I will forget about it the next day because it didn't get any reaction from me. It was not terrible just meh.

Story:
Lily is a succubus. She owns a private salon (in other words a brothel). Charles, a former tattoo artist who was turned into a vampire, is back and he's collecting his art. Unfortunately for them, he inked Lily and her friends, Dani (a witch) and Nate (a human), and he wants his tattoos back. When one of her clients is killed by the Souljacker in her salon, Lily's business goes downhill. She meets with Archer, a chaos demon, and asks his help to solve the case.


Characters:
I took my time to mention each's occupation because you would expect something wild. I mean fae, demons, vampires, witches, and humans in the same story sounds cool, yeah? Except that it was soo mundane. I mean they all sounded like normal humans. I expected Lily to be immoral and corrupted but she wasn't, not at all. She was good which I liked but too nice even for a human. She's supposed to be older than 600 years, yet, I saw no wisdom. She surely took many stupid and hasty decisions that ended in a very predictable way. I like her visit to the court, probably my favorite part of the book. Wynter seemed like a very interesting character, hope we'll learn more about her later. I expected a tyrant but she was not. Galenorn didn't fail to capture all the majesty surrounding the ice court.


Archer, the love interest, is just lame. I mean he's demon, come on! Yet, he was so normal, so human. I saw no wildness there but just a polite person who appeared suddenly in her life and stayed there as if he was a part of her life all along. I don't mean it in a positive way. Lily and Archer had no chemistry except for the "sparks" she felt when she shook his hand. After they slept together, it quickly became an insta-love.


Nate, her human best friend, sounded like a 17 years old. I thought he was a teen when she first mentioned him but only discovered later that he's at least in his late 20s. It's not that he was immature or something but I saw no manliness there. He was nothing special.


Dani, her other best friend, is a witch. I felt like she was the only one with some depth in her character. Maybe it's because her husband was turned into a vampire but even then, it was nothing impressive.


I couldn't connect with the characters. I didn't care if one of them died because they were so forgettable. Didn't see any 3-dimensional characters. I wasn't impressed. While I didn't hate any, none were the kind of character I'd remember.


Plot, worldbuilding & Writing:
The story kept me interested enough to finish it quickly. It was an easy and a fast read. It was fun and enjoyable but nothing more. Although we know some stuff about the world now, we know nothing about the past. All these creatures were just there. We learn that the government is corrupted supporting vampires, bloody rich and the enemies of everyone else, they surely acquired power with time but according to Lily they just "when the Fae and Weres had come out of the closet, everything blew up and went to hell." How and why did they appear? "Then, the vampires appeared on the scene and nobody was equipped to deal with them." How did they come? Were they always there? Why wasn't it mentioned?

Yasmine Galenorn explained how things work now, but neglected the history (except that they were hidden but not anymore) even though Lily was alive for more than 6 centuries. The writing was nothing outstanding and with some grammar mistakes.


Overall thoughts:
This is not a paranormal romance but more of urban fantasy in my opinion. It's more about the Souljacker hunting them rather than her relationship with Archer. The characters were flat and too tamed. The story while being entertaining didn't leave an effect on me. I feel like I've read this book before in a different setting, it was so predictable. Souljacker is my first book by Yasmine Galenorn and it saddens me to say also my last. I will not check out her other books but may read the sequel of this one in the future.

If you're looking for a light urban fantasy read that will keep you entertained then this book is for you but don't expect anything mindblowing.

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3.5

There are two things I should say first. One, as far as the first books in any series go, I tend to rate them a bit higher if for nothing else but the benefit of the doubt. Most of the time, the series turn out to be enjoyable and all the nitpicks and stuff that might bother a reader are filled in, fixed and/or explained. I believe the first books deserve that. Second thing is that sometimes my own personal preferences can mess up my reading experience. It is completely my fault, that. I usually note that in my reviews.

The protagonist of Souljacker is Lily Marlene O'Connell, a Fae succubus and the owner of a sex salon (the way she calls it). She 'services' thirty or so clients in her home. As a succubus she needs the energy from them and this way is the least dangerous for her and them to do so. She is a couple of hundred years old and after killing a lot of people in the past (there is a limit how much she can allow herself to be hungry), her salon sounds as a good idea.
Most of this is in the blurb so anyone who has issues with her 'profession' and the way of life can't say there was not warning. I find it interesting. Not original, though. I've read books featuring a succubus or similar type of being.

Souljacker starts with Lily waiting for the police to come. A client was murdered by a vampire in her rooms. It was a good way to introduce certain aspects of life in this world like different species. Her client is a were and she is thinking of the wards her best friend (a witch) set up and the vampire managed to pass.
And here lies my first nitpick (see the first paragraph). While I find Lily and her way of life interesting, I think too much emphasis was put on a grieving widow of the client.
(view spoiler)
The widow crosses the line in the book, though, so any right she had in the first part of the story evaporated later. One particular thing she does crosses the line. (view spoiler)

Lily belongs to the Winter court and her queen makes an appearance in the story too. There are some revelation about her family and her past. I have a feeling this will play an important role in the future.

The main story is that a former friend, now a vampire, escaped an asylum. He used to be a tattooist and Lily and her friends all have a tattoo made by him. They are mirrors into their souls, that's how good and magical his tattoos are. Now he is hunting the people with those tattoos and it's up to Lily, Dani (her witch friend), Nate (a human), one ghost, not so ordinary cat and a P.I. (Archer is a chaos demon and a love interest in case you've never read any urban fantasy with paranormal romance thrown in) to stop him.

As for the romance, it's the weakest part of this story. It's neither insta-romance/lust nor is it slow burn. I have no idea what to call it. The sex is good, though.

Overall, Souljacker is a pretty good beginning of the series. Some things change throughout the story and I am very interested to see where the new path takes Lily and her friends.

ARC received from Diversion Books/Diversion Publishing via NetGalley

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I loved the sound of this book, especially the tattoo artist coming back to claim his artwork, and I remembered reading a Yasmine Galenorn book before and enjoying it, so I thought why not. Then I started reading and remembered that actually, that book I liked was by someone else and I actually didn’t like the Galenorn book I read before, and after that it became a slog to get to the end.

On the one hand, this world is interesting, peopled with all kinds of fascinating creators beloved of UF/PR stories – Fae, witches, weres, demons and evil vampires – but on the other, Lily is useless. Seriously, the woman does nothing for most of the book except sit around her kitchen table talking with the other about how terrible this is and aren’t vampires awful and how will we ever stop them? We’re all going to die, etc. She does change as the book goes on, but only to get worse. Several times she makes exceedingly foolish decision, until by the end she was firmly in TSTL territory and I wanted someone to kill her.

Then there’s Archer, with whom she has zero chemistry. I get why they sleep together the first time – she’s a hungry succubus and he’s helping her out – but there’s no spark between them. Well, apart from the actual zap on their first meeting, but it definitely doesn’t come across. It’s not sexy and the idea that there’s anything more than lust between them isn’t believable.

I was also disappointed in how human they all seem. Archer is a chaos demon, who has clearly been around a long time, but I have no idea what powers he has. He’s no different to Lily’s human friend, Nate, and the weres are just thugs. Even Lily seems human for most of the book, showing little sign of her long life. Her succubus hunger is just a handy excuse to have more boring sex with Archer, and even then she doesn’t seem to notice it after the first time.

The only things that aren’t that human are the vampires, because they’re the bad guys. The all powerful, all rich, controlling bad guys, who have absolutely no redeeming qualities whatsoever. While it was refreshing that demons weren’t lumped in with them for a change, I found Archer’s comparative weakness to them rather disappointing. What’s the point of him if he can’t kick ass?

I did, however, like Whisky the cat and I really liked Lily’s trip to Winter’s court. That definitely felt otherworldly, even if again the characters were all very human.

So overall this was kind of “meh” for me. The idea has potential, but there was too much sitting around talking about stuff instead of getting out there and doing something. Throw in Lily’s seriously lack of judgement at times and I found it disappointing. Guess this author just isn’t for me.

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And Yasmine Galenorn has given us yet another promising urban fantasy series featuring a persistent female protagonist, succubus, Lily Bound. SOULJACKER is the introductory installment and I think fans of the genre will be pleased with Lily O'Connell & Co., including Galenorn's fan base, won't be disappointed.

If you're a Netflix binger like myself, you're probably familiar with Lost Girl (before the Greeks). I mentioned this because the overall tone and feel of Lily Bound is reminiscent of the now finished Canadian TV series with slight differences in plot specifics, of course. Also I'm hoping that the loose comparison will encourage you to pick up SOULJACKER and indulge in some sexy urban fantasy.

SOULJACKER, in essence, did all the necessary "hand shaking" and it's done perfectly. I wasn't bogged down with a string of who's who and overwhelmed with world building plus the overarching plot is subtle but clear in showing us where the series is headed in the next couple of books at least. As for Lily Bound, she's delightfully flawed and the way her character's development is written, this chick is on her way to being one memorable heroine. I foresee some angsty moments in the horizon, heartache, and hot romances to boot.

Speaking of romances, this is SOULJACKER's weak link IMO. With a succubus for a lead, I do expect sizzling sexy times, and a start of some romance. But the way it all came together felt rushed or even forced. Lily's love interest, Archer, is one hot demon so I get the attraction, but there's not enough romantic tension between the two to justify a convincing love connection. I would've preferred that the love part simmered for a couple more books before these two start dating.

SOULJACKER as a whole is a good start to a fresh series. The case pertaining to a maniacal vampire predator is the perfect setting for us to get to know Lily & Co. It's a decent mystery with an exciting chase. There's a lot going on in SOULJACKER and YGalenorn expertly mastered the pace to be as fluid as possible. It's engaging, sexy, filled with cool characters living in a world filled with all sorts of preternatural beings from werewolves, fae, demons, vampires, witches, and humans, to name a few. With a few long standing urban fantasy series that wrapped up, I highly recommend that you check out SOULJACKER, Lily Bound just might be the next heroine you'll get addicted to.

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This is a great book one for the new paranormal series Lily Bound. Lily is a succubus who is number one on the hit list of a deranged vampire known as the Souljacker. She hires Archer to be her body guard till they can catch and kill Souljacker. This is set in a time where vampires and other beings have some rights and humans are trying to co-exhist in their world. This book nicely sets up book two with a hot romance, a father seeking revenge against Lily and her friends and some humans , ghosts and a familiar to complete the cast.

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