Soul Kissed (The Moonstone Saga (Book 1)) [Kindle Edition]

I'm a huge fan of the Bloodstone Saga, and well, anything that Courtney Cole writes. I had no doubt that I would enjoy the first book in the Moonstone Saga. In reality, I did more than enjoy it. I loved Soul Kissed.

At the end of Bloodstone Saga, we start to become better acquainted with Empusa (Em, for short) and begin to learn a little of her back story. We don't really get to KNOW her, but we get to know more of her. Em is the daughter of Hecate, the goddess of witchcraft. She's an immortal demigod who's been cursed by her father to wander the earth devouring souls and consuming blood. On top of the curse, Em has to constantly be on the run, hiding herself away from her father, who wants to kill her and from her mother, who wants to deliver her to Hades to hopefully break the curse -- I'm with Em on this one, I wouldn't trust Hades to keep his word either.

In Soul Kissed, the first book in the Moonstone Saga, we get to delve into Em's head and learn the details of her life. I have to say, first off, it was quite a switch from Harmonia to Em. After spending so much time with Harmonia, I was used to her methods of thinking and had grown accustomed to slowly seeing how the past was unveiled through her eyes. With Em, the past isn't the mystery like it is for Harmonia. Em knows her past, and it's a dark past. But Em's future is one blank slate, she has no idea where she needs to go or how she needs to get there, and unlike Harmonia, Em is in many ways, alone. It's quite a switch from the Bloodstone Saga, which makes is refreshing and exciting!

Back on track with the plot, we learn very quickly that despite her curse of soul and blood consumption, Em refuses to take nourishment from anyone who is not already knocking on death's door, which leads her to the rather awkward experience of meeting Brennan, the son of a terminally ill patient who's soul she consumes. A fleeting touch later, and craziness happens and Em flees, determined to put as much distance between herself and Brennan, but of course, fate has other plans.

Now, I hate to put spoilers in my reviews so I'm not going to go any further in depth with who Brennan is exactly, and how his relationship with Em evolves, just know that it's worth reading. The story that is woven between Em and Brennan is complex and throughout the course of the book, we're introduced to tiny hints of how they're relationship will pan out, and in many ways, it isn't good. That's one thing I love about Cole's writing, she has this gift to be able to write out a romance that seems near impossible and couldn't have any logical happy ending, but she can pull it off. I mean, she can really pull it off. She proved that time and time again with Harmonia and Cadmus. And she's proven it with Em and Brennan, and I have no doubt that she will continue to do so throughout the rest of this series.

Along with our main characters, the secondary ones are equally complex. We get to see Harmonia and Cadmus once more, and their appearance in Soul Kissed is like a breath of fresh air. Harmonia is the goddess of peace, and the way that Cole writes her makes that completely tangible. Sometimes, Cole leaves me nervous and fidgety, worried over what's going to happen to her characters next. And in others, my heart races while a battle plays out on the pages in front of me. And then, Harmonia appears and everything is calm. Cole's characters are simply evocative, and that is one of the key things that makes her books so amazing.

Plot wise, Soul Kissed is a totally different type of book that the Bloodstone Saga was. With Harmonia's story, everything was a mystery; we pieced it together bit by bit with the characters. With Em, we're given much of her back story and we simply have to look forward to the future. Cole creates this twist that makes it inevitable that Em and Brennan will come together, and then she presents them with a challenge, and just from their reactions in this first book of the series, I can't wait to see how it progresses in the future. Outside of the romance, the family drama between Em, her parents, Hades, the pretty creepy Poseidon, is enough to keep any reader on the edge of their seat. It's twisted, and in many ways it's much darker than the first series was. At the same time, however, I find myself reading with just as much hope as I was when reading Harmonia's story. And I love a great story with a nice balance of darkness and hope.

If you love a great story based on ancient myths, this is so worth picking up. Cole is an amazing writer. She's proven it time and time again to me, as I've yet to read anything by her that I don't like. Her characters are deep, with multiple facets to their personalities and a host of motivations driving them to do the things they do. The plot is also complex, yet not so much that you can't follow it easily. It's just enough to keep you guessing, and wondering what exactly drives each of these characters to do the things they do, and each time a new little piece of the puzzle falls into your lap, you find that you can't wait to find the next piece. It's exhilarating. If you enjoyed The Bloodstone Saga, you'll love this book.

Just like the saga before it, this one is just as good, if not better. I loved how the author brought characters from the other series into this one. After reading her first series, this one grabbed me from the first page. The characters love connection is powerful, but dangerous, and makes for a fantastic read. I would recommend this story to anyone, but especially if you have read the Bloodstone Saga.

I am a person who values my sleep. I need it. It is essential for my sanity. So I try to be a good girl when I read my books at night and not stay up all night reading them, no matter how much I might enjoy them. Well, all my hard work in trying to create good sleep patterns fell apart when I began this book yesterday evening. I simply could not put this book down. I would say that I was going to read just one more chapter, and then by the end of the chapter I had to continue reading to see what happened next. It was so good. Unfortunately if I don't get enough sleep at night I wake up the next morning looking like Gollum from The Lord of the Rings.

Oh well! It was totally worth it! I loved this story!

I am a fan of the Bloodstone Saga books by Courtney Cole, and this book is the first book in The Moonstone Saga, a spin-off series. In this book the main character is Empusa (Em) who was introduced in the last book of the Bloodstone Saga. She is an immortal who is running from her father who wants to kill her, but she is also hiding a little bit from her mother who wants to help her. That help involves Hades, and Empusa has no desire to work with the god of the underworld. Empusa is cursed so that in order to survive she must feed on the souls of mortals, and in order to keep her youth she must feed on the blood of humans as well. She works hard to only take the souls of those who are already headed toward death, somewhat taking away her guilt over her role in their deaths.

It is in the midst of one of these soul sucking trips that Em meets up with Brennan, mortal nephew to one of the newly deceased men. They touch and find that they have an instant cosmic connection. This totally freaks Em out because she has no desire to suck the life out of this young man, so she bolts. But as fate would have it while Em is roaming the beach after a blood sucking hunt she runs into Brennan, and this time he is not going to let her go. He follows her and will not take no for an answer when he attempts to speak with her.

What follows is two people discovering their other half. Courtney Cole can really write soulmate stories. She did a great job with Harmonia and Cadmus in the last series, and in this book she did a wonderful job creating this wonderful relationship between Em and Brennan. I was able to feel the connection between these two characters through Cole's writing. When you pull back from the story and think about things logically it seems like less than an hour is too little time for two people to decide that they are each other's destiny. But in the midst of this story it makes perfect sense. This is not some ordinary mortal romance. This is something that is beyond the rules of humanity. What is nice about the way this relationship is written is that I don't feel as if every single paragraph is simply another recap of how much the two characters pine for one another. To be sure, there is a lot of description of the magnetism between the two of them, but I never felt as if this was over the top. There was just enough to make the point without slamming me over the head with it.

It would seem that such a romance would be doomed to fail when it is between an immortal girl who has a duty to suck the life out of people and an ordinary mortal boy. But there is more to Brennan than he realizes. I won't ruin it by saying exactly who he is and how he relates to the world of the immortals, but he does have a place. Unfortunately even though Brennan has a role to take in the world, his particular role does not make their relationship any easier. In fact, the problems that they face because of the joining of their two roles seems to be one of the driving conflicts of the series. Em seriously has some problems to overcome while running from her horrible father. She has no idea who to trust in the immortal world since so many of the gods have ulterior motives with everything. But even with all of these problems, I think that Em's biggest problem is probably that the one person who she trusts and wants to stay with forever may be the cause of total annihilation. That would be a bit of a bummer in any relationship.

Harmonia and Cadmus make an appearance in this book, and it is nice to see them in it. They fit perfectly into the plot. Hades again plays a role in this story. For now it seems as if his role is somewhat positive, but he is involved for purely selfish reasons. I do enjoy the way he is written in these stories. We also get introduced to Poseidon, god of the seas, and I'll only say that he really ends up being a total creep, much different than I would have pictured him originally.

Cole does an excellent job of creating somewhat complex relationships between characters. No one truly fits into any sort of solid cookie cutter image. They have some layers to their motivations and interactions with one another that it keeps my interest as a reader. I especially liked her portrayal of the relationship between Empusa and her mother. They obviously love one another, but sometimes they find themselves making decisions that strain the relationship.

I really loved the character of Brennan. He finds himself thrust into a world that he could have never imagined a few days earlier, and yet he approaches the weirdness around him with courage and good humor. He does not back down in the face of the powers that face him in this world, and he obviously has tremendous love for his Emmie that will guide his every decision while moving through the world of immortals. I thought that the portrayal of his love was sweet and touching in many ways. The two of them make a great couple, if only their interaction with one another wasn't going to cause such a huge calamity.

This book differs from the Bloodstone Saga books in some significant ways. When reading the Bloodstone books I felt as if I was unwrapping a mystery with Harmonia as she tried to discover exactly who she was and recover her identity from those who stole it from her. In this series I feel as if Empusa still has to create her future. She and Brennan have eternity to work toward, if only they can unravel the knots of their present. Empusa is a wonderful narrator to this story. She has the right mix of strength and vulnerability to make her a character who I can relate to.

I think that I enjoyed this book even more than the books in the Bloodstone Saga. It had a driving plot that kept me turning pages through the night to see what would happen to Em and Brennan. This is not the end of their story. They still have many obstacles to overcome before they can have the eternal destiny with one another that they desire. I enjoyed their love story. I loved the interaction with characters from ancient mythology, bringing ancient legends to life in a very relatable way. This is a book that I will read again and again. A very enjoyable beginning to a new series!