Review: Confusing; takes work to understand what is happening
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 05 31, 2012
I read a lot of romance, urban fantasy & paranormal romance.  I would consider this somewhat of a paranormal romance book. I read the book without reading any reviews or the synopsis of the book.  I struggled to figure out what was going on.  The synopsis the author posted on Amazon mentions the stealing of children's souls.  The book alludes to soul thieves (around location 630 out of 4026 locations) but doesn't get into the stealing of children's souls until past the half-way mark (around 2700-2800 location).  I was reading the book and initially thought that Grant was a werewolf - however, by chapter 3, we know that he has a "wolf's soul" tied to his own.  Turns out that Grant was beaten up a few years ago and his nephew, Tristan, was abducted.  Since that time, Tristan's mom (and Grant's sister) Beatrice has been working with her private detective, Nick, to try to find Tristan.  She has sought psychics and spiritualists to try to locate him.  Bea has found Leigh who can talk with spirits (via her "spirit guide" Jacob).  The book focuses on how the four of them try to locate Tristan.The book was confusing and I had to work very hard to figure out what was going on.  Additionally, the book supposedly takes place in 1930 -- however, there are so many details from that time that are wrong that I don't know why the author chose to place the book in a historical context (as examples, a married woman like Bea would not be travelling around Europe with her private investigator; speech patterns and phrases used were current ones; they casually mention $25,000 which would be over $250,000 in today's money - and this was during the depression!).There were also a lot of confusing plot holes and open mysteries. As examples: Evidently the family had a lot of money (Bea had been travelling around Europe as had Grant); who was managing things while they were away?  How did they still have so much money after the stock market crash in 1929?  Grant had an apartment in France (in 1930!) but couldn't speak any French - really? Why does Jacob disappear from Leigh and attach himself to Grant? I could go on with the plot holes and open mysteries, but you get the gist.The romance part was okay -- nothing special but not bad. The ending was also very confusing as a person everyone didn't like then turned nice and someone everyone liked turned out bad.  No resolution on how the souls were being stolen.  The book didn't have a lot of glaring grammar or wording issues.  All in all, it was okay (which is what 3 stars means according to Amazon), but nothing special.  And, if you do choose to read it, read a lot of reviews beforehand so you aren't so lost when starting the book.