Sins of the Soul

By Eve Silver

Publisher: Harlequin
Publication Date: September 1, 2010
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Source: Netgalley

Alastor Krayl’s world shattered when he learned that his father was the Underworld god of chaos and evil. All that saved him from self-destruction were his newfound brothers and the bond they shared as soul reapers. So when one of his brothers is murdered, vengeance becomes Alastor’s obsession. And the enigmatic Naphre Kurata, a witness–or is she the killer?–has the answers he seeks.

A reluctant Underworld enforcer, Naphre trusts no one, especially not a seductive soul reaper who makes her burn with lust. Torn between duty and desire, she fights to keep her secrets safe from Alastor, even as she longs to surrender.

Goodreads Summary

Sins of the Soul is the second in Silver’s series of Otherkin books, after Sins of the Heart (Hqn); the books’ mythology is based on the Egyptian Book of the Dead and follow the story of three half-human, half-god sons of Sutekh, the God of Chaos.
This is absolutely a series that has to be read in order and isn’t one in which you can pick up a book as a standalone. It follows the arc of the murder of the fourth brother that takes place in Sins of the Heart and there’s information in it that explains the various gods, worshippers, guardians, enforcers and the parties that are involved that will have you lost within the first few chapters of this if you haven’t read that first. Sins of the Heart is a terrific story alone and completely worth reading to get to Sins of the Soul.

Youngest brother Lokan was killed in Sins of the Heart, something that would ordinarily have been impossible. His body was dismembered, the pieces scattered, the tattoo on his chest delivered to his father as proof of his death. His body and soul separated, he’s doomed to forever exist in between life and death; his brothers are desperately working to find and reanimate him and find his killers. Suspects include a mysterious sect that appears to worship Sutekh, the Daughters of Aset, followers of an enemy of Sutekh’s, and probably more than one other god.

Second-eldest brother Alastor is following up a lead on a scuzzball that might have been there the night his brother was killed when he encounters underworld enforcer Naphre, who has just killed his potential witness. Alastor is a soul reaper, and collects the witnesses’, but decides to keep his eye on Naphre too. Naphre turned her back on her destined path as a Daugher of Aset Guide, but jumped from the frying pan into the fire and ended up as a hired gun when she sold her soul to a demon she doesn’t even know. Now she’s also in the sights of a cult that worships Sutekh, and Alastor wonders if it’s connected to Lokan’s murder.

When he tries to deliver the soul he collected the night he met Naphre to his father to see if he can read any information from it, he finds out it’s his father who owns Naphre’s, and not only that, the soul with the information belongs to another god and to get it back, he’ll have to bargain with Naphre’s by delivering her to a goddess who may or may not want to hang on to her in the underworld forever. Not that Alastor has any intention of letting that happen. As with the first book, the action is fast and storytelling vivid; I’m not sure how much I enjoyed reading about the envoy made up entirely of maggots, centipedes, spiders and the like, but Silver did an amazing job bringing her to, uh, life.

Sins of the Heart was very much a book that laid the framework for the series and because of that, was a little dry romantically. Sins of the Soul is its polar opposite. This is a boiling pot. Despite his very proper British behavior and vocabulary, Alastor is absolutely smoking and despite her steely, hired gun, tough girl exterior, Naphre has it very, very bad for him. The scenes between these two zing; I loved the snappy dialogue, the little quirks each of them have, the way they play off of each other. There’s always that little intangible “it” factor when you read a book and can tell when an author has really connected with his or her own characters and gained real affection for them and I think Silver really achieved that with Alastor and Naphre, and it made me fall for them all that much more. There’s much less advancement of the murder plot here, but this is the emotional, raw and sexy book that Dagan’s didn’t have a chance to be. In a season of paranormal series’ that was either feast or famine, this is a standout series and I can’t wait to dig into Mal’s story, Sins of the Flesh.

My Rating: A-