1. Never To Sleep

Book #1: Never To Sleep by Rachel Vincent: A Soul Screamers Novella

Release Date: January 1, 2012

Format: EBook

5 Gold Stars

(Summary from Goodreads)

Don't Close Your Eyes.

Sophie Cavanaugh is not going to let her freak of a cousin's strange psychiatric condition ruin high school for them both. Not after all the work she's put into cultivating the right look, and friends, and reputation. But then, Sophie sees something so frightening she lets out a blood-curdling scream—and finds herself stuck in a bizarre parallel world where nothing is safe and deadly creatures lurk just out of sight, waiting for her to close her eyes and sleep...forever.

Could this world be real? Or does insanity run in the family...?

Rachel Vincent never disappoints. In every Soul Screamer novel, she plunges deeper and deeper into the scary, gruesome world that is the Netherworld. Each novel shows us more of this strange world full of monsters, hellions and other things that go bump in the night. The series revolves around your not-so-average teenage girl Kaylee Cavanaugh, who discovers she is actually a bean sidhe (or a banshee) and sings for the souls of those who die around her. And death follows her everywhere. This novella though, takes a nice twist from Kaylee's hectic life. As with Vincent's last novella, Reaper, this one takes us into the mind of another character so we can understand everyone as well as we understand Kaylee.

This novella takes us into the mind of Kaylee's bitchy, stuck up, self obsessed cousin Sophie. Little Miss Popular who thinks her cousin is out to sabotage her perfect life with unstabiltiy. Sophie is about to figure out why Kaylee acts so strange and maybe even find a love interest while she's at it.

Let's face it, anyone who has read these books doesn't like Sophie. We aren't supposed to like Sophie. We love Kaylee and Sophie does everything she can to ruin Kaylee's life. But when Sophie gets sucked into a world that Kaylee knows all too well, her stubbornness and princess like behaviour may just sizzle a little. Sophie proves herself to me in this book. She proves that her and Kaylee have a lot more in common than they think. Sophie is brave, smart, and not willing to give up until she gets back home. Her character grows throughout the short 80 pages and I'm glad for it.

As always, Vincent describes the Netherworld in great detail. I can picture the Crimson Creeper slithering along the floor and I hear the scratching of the creatures as they follow Sophie. It is certainly a world I would never want to accidentally fall into. Sophie does a damn good job at keeping her cool and concentrating on getting out of there.

This story is a bridge between two books, If I Die and Before I Wake (which will be released in July) so we know it will be important come the next chapter of this story. I'm eager to know what's in store for Sophie in the future, after everything that's happened to her in Never To Sleep. Her eyes have been opened to a world that we're all familiar with, but is brand new to her. This book has only made me more eager to get my hands on Before I Wake. I can't wait to see what other tricks Vincent has up her sleeves.

"He was beyond gorgeous. But Eastlake High was full of pretty people who acted like total freaks. I blame the local water supply. Which was why I drank bottled water."