asteriskpearl's book blog: ARC Review: Soul Crossed (Of Demons and Angels #1) by Lisa Gail Green

Release Date: February 25th, 2015
Rating: 4 stars
Amazon | Goodreads

I received an Advance Reader Copy from the publisher in exchange for my honest review.

Blurb:

One Demon.

One Angel.

One Soul.

Josh lived a reckless, selfish life, so upon his death, escaping the eternal torments of Hell by assuming the role of a powerful, soul-corrupting demon is an easy choice. His first soul assignment doesn't seem too hard: the mortal Camden is already obsessed with weapons, pain, and torture. If only Josh wasn't distracted by Cam's beautiful friend, Grace.

Grace never expected to die violently at age sixteen, but now she’s an Angel, responsible for saving a soul. She can already see past Camden’s earthly flaws, so the job should be be easy. If only that handsome, playboy Josh would stop getting in the way.

It’s forbidden for an Angel to be with a Demon, so if Josh and Grace stop resisting each other, the results would be disastrous.

And only one can claim Cam’s soul.

*I received an Advance Reader Copy in exchange for my honest review*

First Thoughts

I'm feeling a wide range of emotions based on what I've just read. Contentedness: because you KNOW a book is good when you want to laugh with glee, hug a pillow and cry, and throw it across the room throughout reading it. Sorrow: because I always expect good to conquer evil, but it didn't quite happen this way in Soul Crossed. Rage: because of what happened to Tommy #2, the dog. I'm NEVER going to get over that. EVER. Confusion: because I questioned why Heaven wanted to claim Cam's soul. How could he ever redeem himself after everything he did? Giddiness: because of the sexy, forbidden romance between an Angel and a Demon.

So many feels, guys!

What I Enjoyed

Josh. I'm quite pleased with the last chapters of Soul Crossed. So many times while reading Josh's POV, I'd shake my head and say to myself, "How the heck did Josh end up a Demon in Hell?" A real Demon would never fall in love with an Angel and make sacrifices to protect her! I get that Josh's actions as a human were reckless and Hell-worthy (drunk-driving is NEVER ok!), but I feel he redeemed himself after death. It's hard to hate on him for that.

The forbidden romance aspect. I know it's been done before, an Angel and a Demon falling in love, but Soul Crossed was different in that the Angel and Demon were each trying to claim the same human's soul. It was hard to root for one against the other because they each had so much at stake. Grace wanted to earn her wings to be able to visit the family she missed so much and Josh had to earn the benefit of avoiding eternal torture.

A Rant About Cam

Screw you, Cam.

I HATED Cam so much. He did something HORRIBLE when he was younger and you think he was just a kid and didn't know better, but no! You find out he knew exactly what he was doing and he even laughed like a maniac after! He trapped squirrels and rabbits to practice killing them with arrows! Sadistic a**hole. When he upgraded to stray cats, I started to feel an uneasiness in my gut. When a particular scene portrayed Josh burying a stray dog Cam had tortured and killed, I howled with grief. No No NO, EFF NO! I LOVE dogs. I love MY DOG. I HATE people who torture animals. When Grace gifted Tommy #2, a stray dog, to Cam, I wanted to jump into the book and slap her silly. I hate him. I hate him with a passion. Credit to Lisa Gail Green for invoking my rage. Her writing was that good. Too good when it came to evil Cam.

Cam, you make me want to throw up!