Review: Reaper's Novice by Cecilia Robert

Reaper's Novice

by Cecilia Robert

Genre: YA paranormal fantasy

Received a digital copy from the author for an honest review

When I first saw this book, I knew I just had to check it out. I mean, look at that cover! It is gorgeous. And then I read the description and that sealed the deal:) Thankfully, I was not disappointed. I was drawn into the story after reading just one chapter. Cecilia Robert's writing is very descriptive and I needed to know more.

Here is the blurb:

17- year- old Ana Maria Tei’s life has always been perfect: loving parents, good grades, and a future so bright it outshone the sun. But now words like “separation” and “divorce” are sending her world plummeting to hell. Determined to keep her family intact, Ana plans a family-bonding trip from Vienna to Tuscany. Except fate has other plans. Ana’s parents and siblings are killed in a car accident on their way to pick Ana up from school.

Enter Grim, aka Ernest. He promises to relinquish the four souls if Ana agrees to trade her soul for theirs and serve a lifetime as his novice. In order for Ana to graduate from her Reaper’s Novice station to a Soul Collector graduate, Grim puts her to test. To her horror, she finds out becoming a Reaper’s Novice didn’t happen by chance. It was preordained, and she is forced to make a choice: save her family’s souls or come to terms with who she really is and complete the task set for her.

My thoughts:

This was a story of great characters and a ton of surprises. Ana feels she cannot live without her family, so essentially gives her soul for theirs. But in return she is now the novice to Grim Reaper. She has 13 months to train and be tested to free her family's souls. And she has the help from my favorite character in the story, Siegfried, also known as Zig. His flirting and actions made the story a lot of fun. Especially since it was just in fun since Ana finds her soul is tied to 2 different guys. You will have to read to discover who the guys are because I do not want to give a few shockers away.

All is not as it seems as Ana finds herself in conflict with an evil that is slowly revealed. All headed up by Sinteler. Sinteler kidnaps souls for his own twisted plans. Ana is on a battle to collect souls before his evil minions can get to them first. But he also has another plan in the works. And Ana is at the center of it as the tool to collect Elias' sons' soul, or Sinteler has promised to start taking more souls. Elias is the opposite of Sinteler. He is his brother and is the good to his bad.

There is a lot of underlying secrets and maybe even blackmail going on that was only hinted at in the end. But the author left me knowing enough, yet needing the sequel to get all my answers. Very sneaky. This was a great beginning to a series that holds your attention. I found it very enjoyable and look forward to future books by Cecilia Robert.

My Rating: 4 stars

Purchase at: Amazon