A Soul to Keep: Duskwalker Brides: Book One

Product Information

Ladies, just because your man treats you nicely doesn't mean that his ex, who is still dealing with PTSD from being his first partner, is evil. What I love the most is the dark fantasy world the writer created, the details about it that unfold from chapter to chapter, the monsters, races and magic and how everything works. It has a creepy vibe, and I'm all here for it. Words cannot express my joy in reading a fantasy of this caliber. Just the simple idea that you become what you consume, felt like such a statement on humanity in general.

Orpheus is sort of a classic monster archetype… deadly and scary, but a sweet and lonely soul on the inside. A big difference between him and other monster heroes is that he has no “human” qualities, physically. He has no mouth, just a tongue; his whole head is a skull with horns; he has fur, fish gills, and an extruding penis with tentacles. By the 20% mark I adored him, because he’s just… so sweet. Duskwalkers “eat” their humanity - as they eat humans they learn and gain capabilities like the ability to do magic. He craves a bride, but will settle for a companion - he’s just lonely and it broke my heart. He'd thought it was a hopeless endeavour, until he met her. She's not afraid of him, and his insatiable desire deepens But I am shameless enough to admit I read alllll the sex, which was interesting to say the least lol.Orpheus is adorable with his determination to provide Reia with anything she could possibly need. His loneliness and fear that he will lose Reia, as he has lost so many before, is heartbreaking. His need to keep her safe and happy overcame even his most basic hunter instincts. I loved how he eventually felt secure about Reia and her feelings for him. There was never a dull moment, (well apart from the dreaded traveling) it was one adventure after another. I liked the addition of secondary characters be they good or bad. My favorites were the other mavka, the bookshop keeper and of course the witch owl. I’m super curious about her and I hope we get more of her in future books. This one might not have the most original premise but the world building, the demons are very original. I of course have an interest in a certain appendage and let me just say I wasn’t disappointed and that too felt very original.

I don't expect highly nuanced feminism in my monster romance, but this plot point was so stupid and misogynistic that I could not enjoy any part of the story after that. The way Katerina was reduced to a caricaturish jealous woman villain irritated me to no end. Katerina is vilified for leaving Orpheus because she apparently never saw the humanity beneath the monstrous exterior. We are told that her suffering was self-imposed because she didn't give him a chance, that her painful experiences of SA were just because she "didn't tell him no." Why wouldn't a woman, after being taken from her home where he'd just slaughtered all of her neighbors, muster up the courage to say no? The audacity. Each decade, in exchange for a protection ward from the Demons that terrorise the world, Orpheus takes a human offering to the Veil – the place he lives and the home of Demons. The brief companionship does little to ease his loneliness, and their lives were always, unfortunately, cut short. And what is that?” she sobbed, her heart breaking further for him. Her tears finally fell, dripping from the corners of her eyes to run over her temples and into her hair.

Customer reviews

This was kind of like smutty Beauty and The Beast, if the Beast never turned into a human. Orpheus (aka the Beast) was incredibly sweet. He was like a big, weird puppy dog. I loved him! Reia was ok. She annoyed me sometimes, but she wasn’t too bad. The world building was interesting, but the best part of this book was the smut. A Soul to Keep is reminiscent of Beauty & The Beast except with charming Duskwalkers and bloodthirsty demons. I think I would try another book from this author but maybe this particular series isn’t going to be exactly what I want. I think if you want some weird/unique monster creatures then definitely give this one a try! The story follows Reia, lone survivor of her family’s brutal murder at the hands of a bunch of demons turned sacrifice by the local townspeople, who plan to offer her to the Duskwalker to rid them of her bad juju and to ensure their protection from the demons who terrorize them nightly.