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Lily Pond Reads

Oh gosh I read everything from romance, to fantasy, to paranormal and cozy books in YA, NA and Adult.

Review: Redemption (Soul Series) by C. J. Barry

Redemption  - C.J. Barry

I got this book for free through Netgalley in exchange of an honest review!

 

 

Reya is a redeemer, her sole mission is to find the names on the papers before they die and tell them their sins, then ask them if they wanted to be forgiven before their death. Unfortunately everyone she talks to dies no sooner after and it raises red flags for the local cop Thane.

 

Thane is a good cop, at least in his mind he has the right purpose. Unfortunately, he goes about the wrong ways of bringing the bad people to justice.

 

They come together in order to find the one responsible for the mysterious deaths in their city and stop them before it's too late.

 

Where do I even begin?

 

 

What I liked...

 

  • Redemption is the first book in a paranormal series Soul. So Obviously it comes with good and bad. I liked the characters in this one. I actually really liked Reya, for most of the book. Some parts left me, not so sure, but she was mostly likeable. I thought her job was kind of interesting. She is a redeemer in order to guide her own soul towards the right path of redemption, so in order to get there she has to help a lot of people. Thane was just mostly your typical bad boy. He had the right intentions, but he had his ways of going about it. A hard head that did things besides people asking him not to.
  • The whole idea behind the book was different and I kind of liked it until it got a bit too complicated and then downright confusing. I liked that there was so much more to the world and the after life in this book. It bought in several different layers of life, enlightenment and where your souls can go and what they can reach. Especially how everything is bought on by Free Will and how people choose their life and purpose before they take on their earthly bodies.
  • The relationship between Reya and Thane before they got too series. I thought they where great working partners.

 

I was hoping there would be a little more points then that. But I guess I was wrong. To me the book seemed largely character driven and it was working great until it spun out of control.

 

 

What I wasn't so sure about...

 

  • There was romance in the book, but I honestly wasn't feeling it. I didn't feel the attraction between Thane and Reya and since the romance happened in the end of the book where everything was starting to go wrong for me, I guess it might have played a big part of it. Honestly I thought they had a better working partnership-friendship then they did as lovers. It just wasn't there for me.
  • Is it just me or do some of the paranormal book these days have the most irritating theme going for them...let's see.. Like when the hero gets asked to help save the world but then they don't tell him everything he needs to know, so he goes into it blindly and then get's pissed off cause they aren't telling him everything. I understand it's one thing when he learns something no one know, but seriously, Why are they always keeping secrets that are bound to come out anyway and just get the main character and the reader both angry!? Sorry, but oh gosh was I so upset in some parts of the book – especially when these secrets had no business being secrets!
  • Thane was a legacy, which was briefly explained by what exactly that is, but I don't feel like I knew enough about it – nor did I feel like it played the role it should have in the book. Maybe later in the series his powers will become more prominent, but given the way the book ended... I don't see how.
  • The ending battle was abrupt and made no sense to me. Especially since it ended with literally the snap of the fingers... uh... Maybe it just me but the entire second half of the book downright confused me.

 

There was also a lot of faith and I guess a bit of religious theme going on in this book, which I kind of don't mind – but I do like it being separate from my paranormal reads. Other then that, I guess it has some sort of potential. Especially if Reya grows stronger, and maybe less touchy feely.
 
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