Antonia Bernardin

The 22nd book I read this year was A Soul to Heal by Opal Reyne, the second book in the Duskwalker’s Bride series.

Read my review of book 1 here.

A brief summary

Nameless is a Duskwalker who is new to his humanity but after seeing Orpheus and Reia (from book 1) together, he sets out to find himself his own bride who can name him and help with his loneliness. He doesn’t expect one to drop from the sky before he’s even finished building the house for her. She’s badly injured from her fall but even after he figures out a way to heal her, this human doesn’t move like Reia does, all she does is sleep all day and night, only eating when he forces her too. When he asks her to bind her soul to him, she gives it away, not caring about the consequences. Delora had accepted, maybe even welcomed her death, when she was thrown into the veil for killing her husband and his lover. Finding herself being taken care of so tenderly by a Duskwalker, who seems determined to keep her alive and heal her soul, isn’t how she expected her life to go but he doesn’t not judge her the way humans do, he loves her, flaws and curves and all.

My review

The books in this series are long (500+pages), which I didn’t mind with the first book because I really enjoyed it. I was surprised then with how much I didn’t like this book, it drags, I don’t feel like Delora’s depression is very well written, I don’t like books with the pregnancy trope in, which isn’t the books fault, but this was another aspect that was off putting for me. The afterword from the author says that she found this book hard to write and I feel like that comes across in the writing. This book did not have any of the pace book 1, or as likeable characters.

I was originally fully committed to finishing this whole series but now I’m not so sure. I’m going to take a little break and give book 3 a go further down the line.