By: Destiny Constantin
The Soul Thief is a young adult fantasy and paranormal novel written by award-winning author Kim Richardson. Kim Richardson is a new author for me. I was surprised that I never read a book by her before because young adult fantasy is my favorite genre to read. I came across Richardson’s book in my daily email from BookBub. BookBub is an online website that offers discounted and free e-books. The cover of the novel and the story’s synopsis drew me in. It’s a beautiful cover design that resembles the genre and the story of the book very well.
The Soul Thief features a teenage girl named Alexa Dawson, who has died from a tragic accident, and she wakes up in an unfamiliar place called the horizon. The horizon is a place where the angels, demon hunters, and other supernatural creatures live and monitor the mortal world. Instead of Alexa meeting her maker, she’s pulled into the world of the Guardian Angel Legion. Alexa’s first mission as a guardian angel is to go back to her hometown, Coffin Grove, to solve the mystery of a series of murders. It felt strange for Alexa to be in her hometown as an angel, and seeing her mom not doing well. Angels are not allowed to have contact with their families, so she had to watch from afar.
The author does a fantastic job describing the character’s feelings and surroundings. She puts a lot of descriptive details into the story that enhances the reading experience. For example, when Alexa knew she was dead when she saw the white light. “She felt her physical body detach like the shedding of skin. Floating in total serenity, secure and warm, she soared towards the overwhelming light.” The details in the story express the five senses and enhance the world-building elements, bringing the mortal and angel world alive through the main protagonist’s perspective. The story also showcases original features like the M-9 suit Alexa wears when she goes back down to earth. The M-9 suit makes Alexa feel like a human again and is the only way she can live in the mortal world for a few days. She can breathe, run, cry, and experience the feeling of a beating heart and bones.
Alexa’s primary role is to protect the mortal life, especially their souls, but a demon has been taking the souls from young girls. Alexa teams up with the Sensitives to help her find the killer. Through the many obstacles she faces, she becomes like a teenage girl again crushing on the popular guy at school. Despite being an angel living in an M-9 suite, which makes her have all human sensations, Alexa is not supposed to have physical feelings for a guy. Erik and Alexa’s relationship grows throughout the story, but in the beginning, she thought Erik was annoying, she couldn’t ignore his very handsome face though. Erik and Alexa’s relationship is forbidden because an angel can not be with a mortal and she faces serious consequences. Their love reminds me of Romeo and Juliet because it’s prohibited, but they can’t help what they feel for each other. Alexa even risks her angel soul to save Erik from Hades, and Erik keeps her safe throughout their many battles with demons and demon hunters.
The story took an unexpected twist when Alexa accused Michael, who is an archangel and head of House of Michael to be the killer. I don’t want to spoiler the story for you, but the killer turned out to be someone she knew and under her nose the entire time. I love it when a fantasy story has a bit of mystery, and you are shocked when the killer is revealed. It’s so brilliant when an author can achieve that. Kim Richardson brings the words on the page to life by manipulating figurative languages. She incorporates metaphors, personification, and imagery throughout the story’s plot. One of my favorite parts is when Alexa finds Lance, a talking dog, to guide her on her mission.
I enjoyed reading The Soul Thief very much. It’s a phenomenal book full of mystery, fantasy, and a little young adult romance. The characters are well developed, and Alexa and Erik reminded me of Clary and Jace from The Mortal Instruments book series written by Cassandra Clare. There’s a scene where Alexa is fighting a demon in the Mystic Forest. The way she is attacking the beast made me feel like I was watching an episode of Shadowhunters. I could tell the author chose her words carefully and made sure she was showing the character’s actions instead of telling. I felt like I understood why my editor becomes so excited when she reads my writing and compliments me on my story details. I connected with the characters and pictured the scenes in my head. The story took me on an emotional roller coaster, especially when I thought Erik was going to die, and when Alexa got hurt.
The story is fantastic, and I enjoyed it very much, but I found a few grammatical errors while reading. The errors did not take away from the story. I was surprised to see mistakes, but even an author makes them. I know I have made a few of them myself. This story kept me entertained until the very last page. There were times when I didn’t want to turn off my tablet, but I had to get some sleep. If you are a fan of Cassandra Clare like I am, you will love The Soul Thief by Kim Richardson. I’m so happy there is another book because the ending of the story left me with many questions and wanting more.
I’m looking forward to reading The Helm of Darkness (The Horizon Chronicles, Book 2).
Kim Richardson’s website: www.kimrichardsonbooks.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/KRAuthorPage
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Kim_Richardson
Functionally Fictional 
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