ARC Review--Soul Corrupted by Lisa Gail Green

In Soul Corrupted, the sequel to Soul Crossed, life in Heaven isn’t all "happily ever after" for Josh and Grace. Now Guardian Angels, they are entrusted with finding and saving the next potential Antichrist. But Grace is consumed with worry about her family, which is dealing with the aftershocks of her death. She's particularly concerned about her brother Noah, who has turned down a dangerous path of drugs and violence—and she's frustrated by the rules of Heaven, which forbid her from contacting them.

Josh has troubles of his own. A former Demon, he questions his ability to guide troubled souls to the light. When he discovers that Noah made a deal with Lucifer and has even been hanging around with Josh’s old Demon pal, Keira, he makes a forbidden counter-deal with the Devil to save Noah's soul. Josh's side of the bargain? He has to sever his relationship with Grace.

Josh and Grace's world is about to spin out of control, testing the limits of true love and blurring the border between Heaven and Hell.

Soul Corrupted is the second installment in Lisa Gail Green’s Of Demon and Angels series, which started with Soul Crossed.

I received this ARC from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review, I was in no way compensated for this review.

Lisa Gail Green returns to Grace and Josh’s story in Soul Corrupted. We had the classic demon meets angel story last go around, where the two, naturally, fall in love and then chaos ensues. Well, the chaos seems to be continuing as the hunt for the next Antichrist is still underway.

Grace spends a lot of her time in Heaven checking in on her family, especially her younger brother, Noah, who seems to be having a rough go of things lately. Josh struggles to make her happier because of all this. And he tries to direct them back onto their task in finding the next Antichrist. There’s two possible candidates this go around, a young boy and a preteen girl with a strange, wandering/dead eye. She somehow reminded me of Mad Eye Moody, only you know, with the potential to be absolutely evil!

Then comes the kicker, in order to protect Grace, Josh makes a deal of sorts with Lucifer and basically pretends he hates her, breaks her heart and pretends to be with Keira, who disguises herself as another girl. All to keep Grace distracted from Lucifer’s ultimate plan. And it works. Grace is left heartbroken over Josh’s behavior and is just crushed. To me, this could’ve been done a lot better. I felt like it was too simple and clean cut to be believable, with what Josh actually says in his breaking up with her. And then she readily believes him! After all they went through in the first book, I would’ve thought there would be a bigger argument over this breakup rather than the wishy washy tears we got.

Grace came off a little childish in this one for me. She seemed to bemoan her brother’s life a lot. Like how he’s acting out because he misses her so much. When as we learn from Keira’s point of view—which also takes place in this book—Noah has been going through a lot lately and it doesn’t resolve around missing Grace in that same sense. He’s quite different and it’s chilling! Though, to be honest, I can’t remember much about him from the first book. 

I guess one thing I was happy to see in this book was the absence of animal cruelty. I guess that was more of a Cam thing and not something to expect from every book, thank goodness! And the two kids, really, that are the potential Antichrists weren’t as evil as you’d think. The girl was wicked scary, though. Also to note, I was surprised by how small of a role they each played in this one.

There was a pretty shocking twist near the end, but in truth, I sort of saw this coming through hints in the story. I thought it was obvious, really. And it’s not so much of a bad thing either. Just something to say, I guess! LOL! The next, and I assume, final book in this series/trilogy is definitely going to be a doozie! I am curious to see how things will turn out from that particular outcome. And naturally, see how Grace and Josh overcome the new obstacles that they are facing!

As far as romance goes, there really wasn’t much in this one. The little bit of time that Grace and Josh were a couple, only a few kisses were shared before the breakup. Then there’s basically nothing on the horizons for romance. Which is to be expected. We’re talking about the upcoming end of the world. I think the kissing can wait! Don’t you? Haha!

Overall, Soul Corrupted was a pretty good read. I felt like the first one was better, despite my dislike of animal abuse. This one lacked spark. And there were a few too many clichés going around with Grace and her dealing with Josh’s breakup. Minor nuisances like that were a little heavier this go around and kind of detracted from my enjoyment of the story. But I still plan to read its finale whenever that comes out, once I’m this far into a supposed trilogy, there’s little to stop me from finishing it! 

If you enjoyed any part of Soul Crossed, I highly recommend reading this one. Despite a few hangups I had, it was still a pretty decent read. Just not the greatest! And if you at all like the whole Heaven and Hell hookups (YA), this is definitely something you might want to look into! Just be sure to start with Soul Crossed!

Overall Rating 3/5 stars

Soul Corrupted releases September 6, 2015