Book Review: Reaper's Novice by Cecilia Robert

Summary from Amazon:

Publication Date: January 8, 2013
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

Author: Cecilia Robert

Genre: YA paranormal
Length: 304 pages

MY REVIEW:

     I received this book from the author on GoodReads in exchange for a review. Honestly, I had to debate what I was going to choose number-wise. Part of me wanted it to be a 3, but I did really enjoy it, so it hovers between a 3.5-4 for me.

I wasn't quite sure where this book was going when her family died and she became the grim's novice, but it was great. I was actually scared it was going to be sad! Overall, I loved the idea of collecting the souls after people have died and the soul snatchers were interesting.

My complaints: sometimes the book read very quickly and 100% held my attention. Other times, the book seemed like it dragged on forever and was slow in spots. As in- I had to make myself flip the page. When I did get to a spot that picked back up, it seemed like all of the excitement dumped on me all at once. (That's obviously a plus!) This could just be me though. I also found Zig annoying at times even though I mostly enjoyed his character. His use of the word "lovely" over and over and over got old. However, he was a fun character despite this catchphrase of sorts. I also didn't get constantly saying "mobile" instead of cell phone...or just phone in general. I think this may have been a regional/culture thing, so I didn't let it get in the way. I was also frustrated with the amount of questions that were presented, but unanswered. Those answers will come eventually I suppose. Besides, aren't those needed to keep the reader reading?

MAJOR PLUS: I loved the setting!! I hope that it plays a bigger part in the next books (I'm assuming this is a series from the ending) because I'd love to see some real Vienna landmarks and history come into play.
Characters: I love Ana, Ernest, and Zig!! They're great characters with some intense back stories. Very good character development between those three!
Again, this was a really interesting idea and the things that bothered me were minor and probably wouldn't even be noticed by most people. I can't say that I would read this one again, but I am certainly looking forward to book 2 so I can know what happens next!

I do recommend it as it is only .99 on Kindle. Go check it out!

-M