Keeper of the Lost Souls by Kristy Centeno
Amazon Review Tour
Bryn McCaskey is young, naïve, and can talk to ghosts...
Like her mother and grandmother, Bryn comes from a breed of witches called The Keepers of the Lost Souls. Their main purpose is to guard those spirits who are permanently or temporarily grounded in the world of the living. Handling supernatural creatures is something which comes naturally to Bryn, however, dealing with people is a whole different story.
As her 18th birthday approaches it's time for her to take on her first assignment. Bryn is forced to confront her inability to communicate with others in an effort to save the one soul that can mean the difference between life and death for mankind.
Johnny Shaw is a lost soul with a personal vendetta against witches...
A vendetta he has carried on even after death. As much as he hate's them he must join forces with a keeper witch, in order to stop a century old threat. When fate brings them together, not only will they be forced to learn how to work as a team, but they will have to depend on each other to stop an evil witch carrying a six hundred year grudge!
A_TiffyFit's Review: This was the first book I've read by Kristy Centeno and I'm totally ready for more! I'm excited that this was book one and that means there is more to come in this series; I'm hoping there is more to come with Bryn and Johnny! Mine is a purchased copy, but it would've been provided by the tour company as well in exchange for an honest review. I have NOT been compensated and will NOT be compensated for my review.
I love the cover and, having read this on a kindle so I didn't flip back and forth often, that is how I pictured Bryn. Beautiful, sweet-faced, but showing some inner strength! Bryn is this brilliant mix of insecure new adult (she just graduated high school) who has been bullied her entire school life and this confident, tough as nails protector Keeper Witch. Bryn's job is to protect the good lost souls who have unfinished business before they cross over. She protects them from demons who would eat their souls to gain power.
Johnny Shaw is #23 of Bryn's list of charges. He is volatile, angry, and abhors witches, and he has POWER although he himself is not a witch. Bryn is frustrated with trying to convince him to believe in her; she perseveres and slowly gains his trust.
And so their story begins. Bryn feels the call to protect one of her charges, Johnny, and flashes to his side to find him being tortured by a very powerful witch with demon companions. Bryn fights them off and asks Johnny to tell her what is going on so she can be better prepared. Johnny scoffs and doesn't, but eventually he does break down and tell her...everything. His family's history, his enemy, what he's protecting, and even what his Uncle Hung cryptically informed him right before he died.
This story was sweet, action packed, full of magic, and the beginnings of a romance. I liked the Chinese myth woven in, the way Bryn has such a loving and wonderful support system in her mother and grandmother, Bryn's attitude towards being a Keeper, how Johnny is firm and proud in his family's history, how Marianne turns from pain in the butt princess to a good friend, and how there was that little twist to make sure that the right choices were made to save the world. Bryn & Johnny's blossoming romance is sweet, too, and I hope to read more of them soon! There were a few grammatical errors that I found as reading, but they do not distract from the story. Wonderful NA paranormal read and one that I would recommend quickly to those who like a clean, fun, action packed paranormal fantasy read!
Excerpt:
Nodding briefly, I released her hand and changed positions so I was sitting facing her. She did the same; sitting cross-legged facing me, a look of hesitation marring her pretty features. Before she could change her mind, I reached out for her, holding her head steady with my hands as I closed the gap between us. She tensed.
“If you don’t want this to happen, it doesn’t have to,” I said, trying to ease some of her tension.
“I want you to kiss me, Johnny.” And to get her point across, she scooted closer and reached up to touch my right cheek, allowing her fingers to skim over my cheekbone and then down to my lower jaw.
Fortified by her light caresses, I pulled her closer, slowly manipulating the moment to give her time to change her mind if she wanted. Maintaining eye contact, she simply waited patiently for our lips to make contact. What started as a simple graze of the lips, soon turned into a passionate peck that took over my entire being and left me craving much more.
Taking her feelings into full consideration, I decided not to rush things. Instead, I planted soft, heated kisses on her lips first and navigated south from there to her jaw, all while gauging her reaction.
Lost in the moment, I allowed my instincts to take over. Bryn, with her quiet personality and beautiful heart, had managed to win me over in a matter of days. My biggest regret was not meeting her before. Though a part of me wanted to think that meeting her was probably a big waste of time if one considered the fact that I was dead, another part cried that it was better late than never. As my right hand caressed her cheek and the warmth emanating from her engulfed me, I realized I wouldn’t change this moment for anything. I may be dead, but I could still provide Bryn with pleasant memories, and among the most memorable was her first kiss.
Bryn’s eyes squeezed shut when I planted a kiss on her chin before nipping at the delicate skin with my teeth. Falling deeper into total relaxation with each caress she received, Bryn tilted her head back and parted her lips slightly. Taking that as an invitation, I quickly traveled upward from her chin to her mouth and kissed the sides. Encouraging her to part her mouth even further, I slipped my tongue in between her lips and boldly explored inside.
Drawing her nearer by wrapping my arms around her waist, I deepened the kiss, actively enjoying a game of tongue tag with her. Moaning, she drew me closer. Her fingers toyed with my short locks as our kiss intensified. The world around us was insignificant. The only thing that mattered was us. Although I’d kissed many girls before Bryn, this was the first time the action held such a high degree of importance to me. I wasn’t just devouring a girl’s lips and making the best of it— no— I was pouring my entire heart and soul into the most unforgettable kiss of my life, and perhaps hers, too.
At that moment I recognized the importance of sharing something as beautiful as a kiss with someone you have a strong emotional connection with. Although I would have never admitted it before, I felt closer to Bryn than any other person I had ever met. I cared for her. Had come to care for her in a way I never would have thought possible.
The second the admission crossed my mind, a loud ringing started in my ears, followed by a feeling of losing energy at an alarming rate that forced my actions to a complete stop. Breaking away from the magic of the moment, I pulled back and winced as the ringing became louder.
“Johnny, are you okay?” Concerned, Bryn glanced at me. Forcing herself to her knees, she tried to reach out for me but her hands went straight through me. The fact that she couldn’t touch me frightened us both.
Startled, I lifted my arms and found they were no longer solid. To make matters worse, no matter how hard I tried to gather energy from my environment, I became weaker and more translucent with each passing second.
About the Author:
As a child, Kristy used to lose herself in an imaginary world by the means of a good book. Now that she’s all grown up, she gets to create her own fictional realms and make them come to life in ways that most readers might not expect.
Writing has always been a passion of hers but she never had the opportunity do so until now. After trying out numerous options, she realized that writing was what she loved the most and so she decided to give it a shot. As it turns out, her very active imagination helped her achieve her goals of creating believable plots with some ordinary, and some not so ordinary characters that move the stories along in one way or another.
As she keeps achieving her dreams of becoming a published author, she divides her time in between four children and a very understanding husband.
