Souljacker (Lily Bound #1) by Yasmine Galenorn-a review

Souljacker

About the book:Release Date March 7, 2017

Lily O’Connell, a succubus, has put her unique talents to work. She owns Lily Bound, an elite sex salon in the Blood Night District of Seattle. When a client turns up dead in her club, and she hears the news that the Souljacker–an old tattoo-artist friend-turned-vampire, who was institutionalized years before–has escaped to reclaim his “artwork,” Lily knows she’s next on his list. With one of his tattoos on her thigh and nowhere else to turn, Lily hires Archer Desmond, a chaos demon and PI, to track the vampire down before he tracks her. But she didn’t expect to fall for Archer-and they say a succubus who falls in love will destroy the heart of the one she seeks to claim…

Review:
Souljacker begins with Lily finding a client dead in her salon and seeing a vampire misting towards her, only to stop and exit her home. (For clarity, she runs her salon in part of her home.) She calls the police and once they arrive, she’s told that it’s another vamp kill and that they’ll do what they can. The cop is a friend of Lily’s and tells her that these things aren’t high on their priority list and gives her the name of a private investigator that may be able to help. It doesn’t take long for another murder to occur and they soon discover that there is a common link: the killer is taking tattoos from the bodies of those he kills. They also discover that the tattoos were done by a former friend known as the Souljacker. Unfortunately said friend was attacked and turned by a vampire and instead of being staked, he was institutionalized at the behest of his father who is a very well connected businessman in town. The father also has ties to the leader of the vampires who is a money-hungry, power seeking vampire referred to as the Deadfather.

Once they realize that the Souljacker has escaped, Lily and her friends know that they are being targeted, as they have tattoos themselves that were done by the Souljacker himself. On top of that, the client who died in Lily’s salon was a Were and to say his wife is none too happy is a huge understatement. Lily finds herself on the receiving end of retaliation from the Were community more than once. Lily is also a member of Wynter’s court and seeks an audience with the Queen to let her know what has happened. Once there, Wynter tells her that she is to close her salon and is to enter into her service. Talk about a bad and life changing couple of days….

Yasmine Galenorn is known for the worlds she builds. I think this one will actually surprise some folks. The government is corrupt and seemingly in cahoots with the vampires. The vampires are thug-like in that they are almost like a mafia type organization and kill often and seem to feed on the fear as well as blood. I liked Lily. She is not a warrior-like character like most of the main female leads that Galenorn writes, but she is smart and cares about her friends deeply. I also liked Desmond Archer, the chaos demon PI. We don’t find out a lot about him, but I think he will have a back story that will be intriguing. The secondary characters are intriguing as well. As with any first story in a series, we don’t find out a lot about these characters, but I have a feeling they’ll play a huge part in the books to come. If you’re a fan of Galenorn and the worlds that she creates, you’ll definitely want to give this one a go. It did seem to drag a bit in places, but as I said, it is the first in the series, so I have high hopes for the next one. Well done, Yasmine Galenorn!

Copy supplied by Netgalley

Reviewed by Vickie M