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Reviews From This Past Week
A Soul to Keep by Opal Reyne
Release Date: June 16, 2022
Content Notes
Everyone is morally grey
Dystopian World
Cinnamon Roll that will kill you MMC
Threats of violence to FMC
Past trauma off page
Enhanced Peen
Tentacles
Forced Proximity
I imagine Opal Reyne did with A Soul to Keep what Guillermo Del Toro or Tim Burton wishes they could do and that is strange, gothic sexy times. My inner goth Madame felt satisfied and entertained in ways she didn’t realize she needed.
Reyne has a creative world that I was perfectly able to follow along with. Yet it made me sound like a raving lunatic to my spouse while I was trying to summarize it. While she acknowledges inspiration from The Ancient Magus' Bride, A Soul to Keep think gets darker and deeper into what a creature like the MMC is and what that means to the FMC, who is already working through deep trauma and abuse. Then she gets a MMC who tries to eat her?
I feel like this plot shouldn’t work, it is so grim. The dystopian world feels like it should be more depressing. Reyne makes this book work not because she fluffs up her characters or their circumstances. She gives them hope that they wield like powerful weapons against this world’s darkness. You’ll want to adventure in this darkness with them.
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Housekeeping
For more information about this newsletter’s spice and star system, check out this newsletter’s About Me page.