Soul Masters The Hunting Grounds
Ghost Romance, Werewolves and Shifters, Romance
Wild Rose Press
Feb 7, 2024
Kindle
320
Amazon
On a hike through the forest, Mayela stumbles into a terrifying world where immortals hunt souls. To survive she secures protection from a Soul Master. When he demands payment, Mayela fights back. But how can she fight the desire consuming her heart?
Every soul Nathan claims expands the power of his realm. In Mayela, he finds a rare gift that could guarantee his place among the Soul Masters. All he must do is secure her allegiance without losing his heart. And Nathan has no heart to lose. Or does he?
With eternity at stake, Mayela and Nathan ignite a transcendent passion that breaks all the rules. Among the Soul Masters, a malevolent force awakens. The final hunt is on…
Review By: Lena Kelly
Member of the Paranormal Romance Guild Review Team
“I am the daughter of gods.”
Soul Masters follows the story of Mayela, born of a mortal and soul hunter. She is then taken and hidden across the world and raised mortal. It touches on her life as a student and her marriage to Carlos, who dies before the story begins. She is single for many years before meeting Nathan, in her best friend Joni’s café. Their relationship develops as Mayela continues to have vivid dreams, or potentially hallucinations. Her Mama sees them for what they are, Mayela’s ability to move beyond the veil. There are many flashbacks to Mayela’s youth, where she and Nathan/Nekhen have met before at different times in her life. In an odd twist, their friend Mitch keeps hassling Mayela to go out with him, and in the end turns out to be one of the hunters. Nathan is hunting her, wanting her to choose to give her soul to him, not knowing she is a daughter of a soul hunter.
I loved the story and the themes of the story. The author challenges the idea of no heaven or hell beyond the veil and creates a different sort of world that exists in the in-between lives/after death, and where souls go. The idea that there is no eternal divide between good and evil. I wanted more exploration of the concept of fate as a mix of the free will of mortals and the rivalries of the soul hunters beyond the veil. I would have loved a much deeper world build between the current human space Mayela occupied, and the worlds that Nathan and the soul hunters existed within, contrasted with the years Mayela spent with Nekhen through her earlier years, and their relationship. There was so much more scope for an epic fantasy! At times I felt like some of the chapters were just the beginning of greater stories.
I loved Mayela’sMama, the relationship between them, and the mix of ancestral magic (through dreams, spells, crystals and knowingness). I laughed when Mama scolded Mayela about her pockets, “You bought a dress without pockets? How many times do I have to tell you? Never buy a dress without pockets!” (IYKYK!!). More time could have been spent on developing the love between the main characters, it felt a bit stilted and ceremonial vs passionate….(not enough here for the smut romance crew).
Enjoyable read overall.