My Soul to Keep

It all starts when a fellow student crashes into Kaylee's car, apparently drunk - or drugged to his eyebrows. Funny that the police can't find anything in his blood, though... To their horror, Kaylee and her friends soon discover that the new drug "frost" that's making the rounds is not an ordinary drug at all: it's Demon Breath, imported from the Netherworld in harmless-looking party balloons. Who is smuggling the drug between worlds, and how can they be stopped before the death toll starts rising? Because Demon Breath is not only highly addictive, it's extremely dangerous to humans. If you're lucky, it kills you. If you're not, it makes you insane and you just *wish* it had killed you. Pros: With each book, Kaylee is coming more and more into her own. She constantly learns more about her ban sidhe abilities and grows as a person. No matter what happens to her, she is always ressourceful and brave; the author never reduces her to a weak damsel in distress. I love that! I also love that Kaylee stands up for herself even towards Nash - in too many YA books, the love interest is controlling, demanding and/or borderline abusive and it's all excused with "but he loves me!" Tod has developed into an outstanding character with a lot of depth - even though it's a bit scary to what extremes he's willing to go for Addison! Cons: The writing seemed awkward in some parts, and the plot was rather predictable. I don't want to spoiler you, so I have to be vague: there is a big reveal towards the end that I'm pretty sure you're NOT supposed to figure out until Kaylee herself does... Only that it is so *obvious* what's going on, I knew what was happening long before, which took a lot of the suspense out of the novel and made Kaylee look a bit dense. There are some contradictions and continuity errors, like the author was rushed when she wrote this. In the course of the book, I came to strongly dislike Nash. He gets pushy, pressures Kaylee for sex and even tries to use his Influence to get into her pants. I'm not entirely sure this should be listed as a con, to be honest: it's a logical development within the story, but I still didn't like it. Bravo to Kay for not putting up with it, though! The way Emma behaved and was portrayed just didn't sit right with me. She knew her boyfriend was addicted to a lethal drug, but she didn't react much to that. She is Kaylee's best friend, but sometimes she just drifts along the periphery of what's happening. While I'm glad that we get to see more of Addison, and that what happened to her has consequences and isn't simply forgotten, I thought that the desriptions of her suffering at Avari's hands were unneccessarily gruesome and gory, especially for a YA book. With all that's happened to her, it doesn't seem realistic that she's still coherent, let alone in good enough shape to help save the day. I honestly love this series to bits, but I felt somewhat let-down by this book. I do like how it changed the chemistry between the characters, though, and it is a good set-up for the next installments.