Soul Sisters by Janeira Eldridge

Copying my review from Goodreads here, with some additions.


** spoiler alert ** Got to read this on the "Read It and Reap" program!



This was a unique story on "twins" and how vampires come to be. I enjoyed the little flashbacks to Dana's beginnings, but was confused at first as to why Ani wasn't in that memory with her mother. I really liked the idea behind "Soul Sisters".

I felt like the vampire is really just a manifestation of human's baser, vicious nature. I like the mandate that they should only feed off "bad humans." I've often thought that if vampirism were real and I decided to take the plunge, I would only feed off animal abusers, murderers, and child abusers.

The book is readable, but there were a few hiccups along the way. Arguments that escalated quickly with no warning, some sentence structures that seem colloquial and threw me off, just not enough background on characters (it's there, but it seems disjointed somehow), etc. What is in the blood mixture drink and why does that keep Dana alive? What magic was performed to save her husband, how did biting her make her immortal without making her a vampire? What would happen if she were late drinking that blood potion? And then there's Dana's reaction to Donovan: I understand that Dana would have been angry at Donovan seeing as how she blamed him for her husband's death, although it's explained to her that her husband's time was up. However, we jump 60 years and she's angry and petrified to see this man who gave her a few more years with her husband, made her immortal, and gave her Ani. Dana, sweetie, are you unbalanced? You seemed so reasonable and pragmatic, and yet you have this weird, extreme reaction! And Donovan seems very meek for the Creator, sending her money, apologizing, and then suddenly chastising her and her sister for not becoming world famous models or the like. Wait a minute! Aren't they supposed to keep a low profile? What if they had done that in say the 1980s and then here they are on the streets in 2012, recognized as not having aged a MOMENT? He suggests this after cautioning them to live a quiet life?

Dana comes across as practical and strong, and then the next moment she's a weeping mess. She loathes her choice that brought Donovan into her life, but she doesn't think that it also brought her soul sister TO life. Only at the end, when she collapses into tears, does she tell Ani she loves her. And the emotional weeping scene is just...out of the blue. Here she is training to fight and strong (and those are ALL too brief and odd. Having a martial arts background, I tended to scoff at it. The equivalent of one punch each and it's over and you declare them 'ready'? ), and the next apparently the stress has gotten to her and she's weeping. I would buy this if she weren't 123 years old. She's had time acclimate to an immortal life. You would think that would temper her a bit.

I found the ending incredibly abrupt and didn't quite make sense to me. WHY and HOW did Donovan look like that? What reduced him to such a state? Is Dana psychic? That dream seemed like a prophecy and yet she tells no one about it. Dana has strange strength when they are training; why?

Overall, while the book was interesting, it felt a bit rushed to me. I wanted to spend more time with the characters and this world Ms Eldridge was building. I wanted to know MORE and have the reasons given. By rushed, I don't mean that the book was fast paced, but rather it read as if there was a deadline and so we're gonna hopscotch our way through pertinent information. Even the fight scenes read this way: a little build up and then completely anticlimatic ending.

Thank you for the read! I'd like to see how the story continues with Ani's new position. I'd like to see this novel re-worked and fleshed out, too, but perhaps in book two it will improve!