Review: The hunt for a Serial killer who sucks the souls from Soul Suckers
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 05 5, 2013
Ella works for the San Francisco SBLE (supernatural law enforcement), using her emphathic powers to keep Otherwordly beings in check and to keep them secret by excising the memories of any humans who encounter them. As gatekeepers between the human and Otherworld, Empaths like Ella are of great value to both worlds but being an Empath (or Soul Sucker) is not a great thing for the Empath - any Empath not mated by their 27th birthday is destined to go insane or commit suicide from the weight of all of those memories.So when Ella's next case turns out to be the death of a 27 year old Empath, the initial assumption about cause of death is suicide, but when Ella tries to read the Empath's last moments Ella finds nothing - no memories, just traces of a evil Otherworld male and soon Ella is on the trail of a serial killer, the Siren, who is targeting Empaths who are close to their 'use by date' and Ella's own 27th birthday is only weeks away...First of all, I loved the cover:) and I liked what was under the cover of Soul Sucker, which was a decent balance of Urban Fantasy (sans the first person POV) and Paranormal romance. I liked Ella, she is basically a decent person whose powers made for a crappy life - torn from her family as small child and forced into Empath training, and living her adult life without forming personal connections since she feels it's not fair to allow someone to fall in love with her when she's going to leave them by dying young.There is also good sensual tension and a good conflict between Ella and Vadim - an SBLE agent from Russia who is in disgrace for falling to stop the Siren from taking out Empaths in his adopted country. Vadim blames the Empath on his team for his fall, though he ended up with the blame for her death, when she succumbed to the end of life madness. I also liked Vadim, though if I had one nit with the story it is that we never find out exactly why he is trying to avoid the Otherworld and what his powers are, though we do finally get a pretty big hint of just exactly what he is - a nit which I will withdraw if it turns out that this is the start of a series and not a standalone story.When I read Soul Sucker I didn't realize that Pearce is known more for her erotica - and I wouldn't have guessed from the sensuality level here, which was on the level of main stream PNR for spiciness - which is my preference but might disappoint some fans who were looking for 'more'.So, I enjoyed Soul Sucker, like the leads, and the hunter for the killer, I thought that the world held potential for more stories, which I'd happily read if Pearce decides to write more.