Borrowed Souls by Chelsea Mueller [Review]

Borrowed Souls (Soul Charmer #1) by Chelsea Mueller
Format: paperback
Source: purchased
Disclaimer: As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.
Date read: June 29, 2017

Soul Charmer
1. Borrowed Souls - Paperback | Kindle
2. Rogue Souls
3. Lost Souls

Chelsea Mueller
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Synopsis (Goodreads):

Callie Delgado always puts family first, and unfortunately her brother knows it. She’s emptied her savings, lost work, and spilled countless tears trying to keep him out of trouble, but now he’s in deeper than ever, and his debt is on Callie’s head. She’s given a choice: do some dirty work for the mob, or have her brother returned to her in tiny pieces.

Renting souls is big business for the religious population of Gem City. Those looking to take part in immoral—or even illegal—activity can borrow someone else’s soul, for a price, and sin without consequence.

To save her brother, Callie needs a borrowed soul, but she doesn’t have anywhere near the money to pay for it. The slimy Soul Charmer is willing to barter, but accepting his offer will force Callie into a dangerous world of magic she isn’t ready for.

With the help of the guarded but undeniably attractive Derek—whose allegiance to the Charmer wavers as his connection to Callie grows—she’ll have to walk a tight line, avoid pissing off the bad guys, all while struggling to determine what her loyalty to her family’s really worth.

Losing her brother isn’t an option. Losing her soul? Maybe.

Thoughts on Borrowed Souls: I kinda don't know where to start with this review because there was SO MUCH I liked about this book. Which means, NATURALLY, I'm going to take a moment to flutter my lashes at the Callie/Derek dynamic. Growly, protective men are my literary crack, man, and Derek hits ALL THE HIGH POINTS with Callie. It's a total bonus that he still has a thick layer of mystery hiding under that leather jacket of his. I want to know what makes that man tick.

But this book is more than sexy times and smoldering looks. There's also some literal smoldering going on. Which, let's face it, has to suck. And morally ambiguous soul renting. And the sort of messed up family life that makes me deeply glad I'm not Callie.

That woman puts up with a lot and 'family first' only goes so far. Especially once she's gotten a taste of what having someone who really cares for her feels like. At least I can hope.

Anyway. On top of her craptastic family life, she's caught in a very bad situation as she tries to extract her brother from his latest screw-up. Souls and magic and other creepy-crawly things are becoming commonplace in poor Callie's life. She does get some quality Derek time out of it, though, so it's not totally terrible.

Still, bad things happen when souls are on the line and the more Callie learns the more tightly tangled up in it she becomes. And I haven't even started talking about the mysteries hidden under Callie's exterior. Mostly because I don't know what they are yet. Whatever it is, she's a hot commodity and that's going to mess with her life something fierce.