**Thanks to Netgalley for providing me with an advanced readers copy in exchange for an honest review**


Man, this book was an eyesore to read. I felt myself zoning out a lot during the extra long and unnecessary descriptions and it was a burden to finish it. The blurb sounded so interesting but the book itself was a whole level of meh.

This world is set on another planet where the authority rests in the hands of the Scientists Council who drug soldiers with different substances to make them more pliable for their purposes, like mining crystals for powering the world. And this was an intriguing concept. But that's just a cover. Beneath, the story is a drawl which would send any reader to sleep.

So, Kai is a thief in the city and one heist with her brother goes wrong and she gets taken into the Seven Soldiers army or whatever. There, she meets her equally dreary and bland room mates and somehow starts to love them (IN A WEEK
??? What would prompt such loyalty in a freaking week?)

Tessa was made to be some badass intelligent girl but seemed to me like a paper character the author constricted with pieces of different personalities. And that made me really confused about her character as a whole.

And then there's Charlie. I cringed at the Captain America reference because it seemed like the author based a whole character off a comic hero made up thousands of years ago on another planet. Honestly I wanted him to die already. He seemed like a character forcing the readers to love him and I didn't like that.

And then there's Finn, the love interest of Kai. A WEEK passes and he gets over his addiction and becomes normal again? What the hell is that about? And then he and Kai share a kiss? I felt like that was very rushed and it just made me cringe inside.

The plot was super fast too but sometimes it would drag so slowly I wanted to just DNF this book. Sure, the story was a little enjoyable but overall I wasn't too keen on it.
I'm disappointed because I really wanted to like this book but I'm not going to read the next book.

I went into The Sin Soldiers pretty blind. I had completely forgotten what this was about especially as I received it as a Netgalley Arc two years ago. All I knew was that different crystals did different things and that’s about it.

Right from the beginning I was intrigued because the main character and her brother were on a heist which always peaks my interest but very quickly things seem to go wrong and get very out of hand.
At the start I was a little confused about The Sin Soldiers but the author did a really good job of world building and explaining the different properties of the crystals, what they did and why there was a need for certain ones.

Some of the themes explored in this story were autonomy, consent, war and many more things. The Sin Soldiers also explains the effects of when emotion is removed from making logical decisions, how it can be dangerous and cause a lot of problems.

The characters were really awesome to get to know. At the beginning they act very different from how the story ends and I really enjoyed following their growth especially Finn. We see how the red compound makes him aggressive and rude but slowly he starts to realise how bad he is treating people. He takes responsibility for his actions and doesn’t let Kai just brush things off.

Kai was a really awesome character, although she was in a dangerous situation and she was scared she fought back when people were mean to her. She is definitely very sassy which I enjoyed.

The diversity in this book was good. Our main character was a person of colour and her twin brother is gay which I liked. It wasn’t made a part of the story, it was just who Dex was which I enjoyed.

All is not what it seems which is quite typical in a YA story but I really liked the darkness that this story had. Kai went through some very traumatic experiences and I’m looking forward to seeing how everything comes together in the next two books.

A young woman being abducted to become a super soldier and getting to know other soldiers is a neat premise, but the execution falters because of tenuous world-building, a romantic lead whose main qualification is only mostly being an asshole, and lack of substance.

A dystopia, YA or not, works well when it serves as a metaphor or critique about something in our own world. It doesn’t necessarily need to be didactic in nature, but it somehow captures an injustice or feeling about society and serves as a cutting commentary. Perhaps the future volumes will do this.

I did really enjoy this book. The concept was interesting and well executed in my opinion. I'm definitely interested in picking up the sequel to see where the story goes.
A couple of caveats to my enjoyment of this book though... one, there wasn't enough worldbuilding and I was often left wanting more. We know that they're on a different planet and it's been 1000 years since their ancestors left Earth, however we aren't given a layout of the planet's geography, the city plan, or the layout of the fort they spent 60% of the book in. Whenever they were talking about going somewhere new I kind of felt disoriented. Second, I'm really sick of the cliché YA love interest. You know the type: hot, dark, brooding, mean, only nice to people he cares about, falls for MC in only a couple of days despite hating her... it's a formula we've seen ad nauseam and it would be refreshing if we got something new. (Also we know that most women, myself included, would steer clear of such an awful person regardless of hotness.)

This book.... just wow. I don't normally read a lot of sci-fi books but this one drew me in. Kai is a thief and after a robbery gone wrong she finds herself inside a military base getting injected with a drug that causes addiction and forced to train with the Seven Soldiers. The Seven Soldiers are controlled by different drugs that the military gives them to turn them into mindless puppets with fire power. I felt like this book took on some hard issues like consent, child soldiers, addiction and autonomy and did so in a unique way. The relationships that grew throughout the book were eye opening as well. I really oenjoyed this book and hope others do as well.

This one took a few chapters for me to get into, but after I started getting attached to the characters, I enjoyed the story and character development. The main character was stubborn and distrustful, then learns who her actual enemies are. Interesting setting and I felt satisfied with the description of the world's backstory. Enemies to friends will win me over every time. Looking forward to a sequel!

I ended up not really being able to get into this one so I DNFed. Giving 3 stars because it's a good plot and everything it just didn't work for me. Thank you netgalley for giving me a review copy in exchange for an honest review.

This was somewhat entertaining, though amateurish and a bit nonsensical. I liked the idea of child soldiers being engineered and given different substances for different desired results, but the details as written didn't always make sense. The writing was clunky. The characters were sometimes sympathetic but also thin, their motivations inconsistent. The plot details were by turns simplistic and convoluted. The world-building was quite lacking; e.g., this takes place on a different planet, humans having left old Earth long ago, and yet there is zero comment on how this messed-up society came to be, from its aesthetics (sometimes old-fashioned, sometimes futuristic) to its troubling social and/or power structures.

There was an interesting attempt to explore the causes and affects of substance abuse and addiction, but I think it was too opaque. A well-meaning attempt to include diverse characters also backfires, since there's a sort of accidental conflation of queerness with bad personal qualities.

This book was just okay enough to finish, but in the end, I didn't really care anymore.

This took me too long to finish reading but this was refreshing and original! The book has a very creative approach to the world!I find it intrigued and refreshing! It was slow at first, but it picked up the pace later .This book was not dark and gritty in the typical way that dystopian novels can be, but there were some moments I freaked out!

Red compound makes them angry. Yellow exhausts them. Blue drives them into a state of ravenous addiction.


Drawing from a scientific real-world thesis (the colours in our foods effect our behaviour), Auerbach uses varying degrees of Fantasy and Science to create a compelling narrative, that holds the reader firmly in its grasp. It takes the very essence of Fantasy, and spits out something different, something more. A surprising contrast to the novels in the exiting niche, The Sin Soldiers has what it takes to contend with the big guys.

The book started out a bit slow developing this new world and characters but it was well written and really enjoyable. I'd recommend this book!

First off I loved the synopsis! It is what drew me into this book. It had a original idea and overall I loved the fleshing out of the characters and world building. It slowed down a bit for me in places but overall it was an adventurous and interesting read. Loved it 4/5 stars!!

I received an arc of The Sin Soldiers by Tracy Auerbach from NetGalley. All opinions are honest and my own.

So the whole concept of this book was so interesting to me and that was the best part of this book to me. The pacing was a little weird and the characters were not that likable. The writing style also through me off a little bit..

I received an arc of The Sin Soldiers by Tracy Auerbach from NetGalley. All opinions are honest and my own.

The unique plot of this story drew me to this book. The concept of our main character, Kai, getting caught during an attempted robbery and being sent to a military base full of chemically controlled soldiers, really intrigued me. The serum/injection system is original and interesting to learn about. Another part of the plot involves Dex (Kai's brother) and his boyfriend try to crack the soldiers' chemical code to find a weakness that will break the system.

The story highlights the importance of friendship. The friendships in the story were really sweet and the romantic relationships were written really well. My favourite character wasCharlie. I really loved his kind, thoughtful personality, even though his personality had been affected by the chemical compounds. I also liked Dex's character. He was mysterious, protective and alluring.

It was a really nice first instalment to an exciting new series which I can't wait to devour. 4 stars

Thank you Netgalley for sending me this arc. I will be reviewing this book in the near future with an honest rating and review.

"This was where all the magic happened; where ordinary people were transformed into slaves and monsters"

* * 
2 / 5

The Sin Soldiers has a cool concept and it hooked me at the start, but unlikeable characters and a confusing setting left me unsatisfied.

"Kai still held out hope somewhere in the back of her mind that some way, somehow, the compound wouldn't work on her. Not her."

In Kai’s world, soldiers are injected with crystal compounds to give them certain traits that are useful in waging war. Captured and imprisoned for the crime of theft, Kai is injected with the blue compound. Red for anger. Blue for addiction. Yellow for sedation. This concept hooked me in right at the start because what a cool idea. And it starts off really well. Kai is surrounded by other drugged teenagers, scared and wondering what happened to her twin brother, Dex, unable to control her growing food addiction that the military is using to manipulate her.

But then it devolved into YA tropes that I had thought (and hoped) had long died. Mostly I’m talking about the hot, brooding, angry guy who is a bit of an enigma and a bully. But oh! It turns out he’s only being a bully because he’s in pain and misunderstood and trying to protect Kai from himself. By being a dick. And apparently that’s very attractive. Yeah no.

"It wasn't like she had thought he was a nice guy or anything, but for a little while, he hadn't seemed like the monster he was"

Then there was also the fact that the world didn’t really make sense. Who is letting these people take all their children? Why is everyone starving? How do these crystals actually work? The end section only inspired more questions, and I got the impression that certain events were only happening because the author wanted there to be a twist, rather than being a natural product of what had already happened.

The Sin Soldiers had me at the start and then lost me along the way. I felt like this book would have been better received back in 2012, when everyone was eager for bad boy interests and Hunger Games-esque apocalyptic worlds.

My thanks to Netgalley, the publisher, and the author for an ARC of The Sin Soldiers.

This one I was very excited to read but unfortunately the execution wasn't done well. The world building needed more explication and the characters well I just really didn't care for them. The concept of crystals was wonderful and very original. The story started out kind of slow but picked up. However, by the end of this one I just really didn't care what happened to the characters at all. I would love to know more about the world in a new story though.

Thank you, NetGalley for providing me with an ARC of this book in exchange for a review!
It was quite an enjoyable read. All the sin-themed narration, the dark world, everything was morbidly enjoyable.
Also, the character construction was really good!

So, what can I say about this novel... For starters, I loved it. Sin Soldiers is a welcome change from the usual dystopian fantasy that have been coming recently. The underlying storyline is one most will have seen before, but Auerbach has managed to put a refreshing spin on an old tale.

The four main characters are all fully fleshed individuals which hallelujah for character building. Each has their own distinct set of personalities (there's one when they are working and when they aren't but not like a split personality). I loved how compassionate Charlie turns into a cold hard killer and tiny Kai turns into a ravenous monster.

There was romantic undertones but they were in no way overpowering to the story. Both major relationships instead felt natural and took a logical progression.

While the actual writing was not the be all and end all, it got the point across quite effectively while not being overly verbose. The world building was adequate for the circumstance, no ridiculous scenery was required so large chunks were not allotted to its development.

Overall I just found this to be a marvellous little novel which seems to have flown under the radar.

I should have known to stay away from YA fantasy, but I wanted to give this a try.
Unfortunately neither the characters nor the writing or story did it for me. The idea wasn't bad and I'm sure this will find its right audience. I'll be sticking to adult sci-fi/dystopian.