The Soul Catcher by Leigh Bridger (Deborah Smith)

Publisher: Belle Bridge Books
Pages: 264

From the Cover: Ian’s blood seeped from the gashes in his side onto the gray, weathered floor. This time I couldn’t heal him. I could only free him. Outside, in the strangely bright sunshine of a North Carolina morning, things you don’t want to imagine in your worst nightmares tried to rip the building’s big windows out of their aging brick sills.

Downstairs, the broad chestnut doors of the old Asheville Bible printing shop bulged inward as Pig Face slammed it again. The wood began to splinter.

I cocked the pistol. Everything inside me screamed against pointing it at Ian’s heart. I hated his body; I ought to be able to kill that body without caring. But a funny thing had happened on the way to that moment. I’d fallen in love with my husband again.

I knelt over Ian, straddling him. I put both hands on the shaking gun to steady my aim. My tears fell on his blood-stained face.

He managed a rueful smile. “Now, that’s a sight I’ll remember to death and back,” he whispered. He clamped one bloody hand on mine. As always, we shared the choices, the pain, the passage.

We had found each other again, across centuries. Why hesitate on a single sunny day in North Carolina?

“See you later,” I said hoarsely.

I pulled the trigger.

Livia Belane is an old soul reborn over and over, but she doesn't remember her past lives. In this incarnation, little Livia Belane receives a message. Draw them. Trap them. Burn them. This scares her, but her mother's reaction is even worse. She locks her in the closet. As Livia watches, her mother is slowly torn away, leaving a demon is her place. One by one, each member of her family is ripped away. And she stands accused of the heinous crime of killing her mother and brother.

After spending time in a mental facility, Livia is released and she returns to Asheville, NC, the only home she has ever known during her many lifetimes. She lets no one get close to her, she's like a death sentence, those she loves die.

Even as she fights to be alone, an eclectic group forms around her, refusing to leave her in peace. A couple of hippie artists, a bar owner, and a street performer surround her, making up an eccentric unit that becomes her family.

Then, one evening as the bar closes, she's attacked viciously, raped and left for dead. But her rapist is none other than the demon of old, Pig Face, who has been tracking and killing her throughout many lifetimes seeking his revenge. And this time, he's just getting started.

The one thing that might save Livia is to remember her past lives as a soul catcher, one who can trap the demonic soul and banish it permanently. But to do so, she'll also have to recall her one true love and soul mate, Ian, soul hunter to her soul catcher. Paired together throughout time, her protector and lover.

The Soul Catcher by Leigh Bridger is dark urban fantasy that takes a walk on the wild side. We meet our kick ass heroine as her cringes away from what her life demands. No ties, no strings. She just wants to be left in peace. But the demon sees her solidarity existence as a weakness, one to be exploited. As her group of friends surround Livia, she comes to realize that they are her guides and protectors, pushing her to find what she has lost, Ian. Ian is a strapping Scot-Irish soul that is called to Livia again and again. But, having watched him die horrifically, Livia banishes him from her memory, and it isn't until she's almost killed that she starts to remember bits and pieces of what her life once was. If she is to survive, she must regain what she has denied. Souls never really died, they're reborn in different bodies, old and young alike. Bodies are temporary housing for souls to be replaced when the old one has been used up. And this is what happens to Ian. When Livia finally calls him back to her, she makes a horrible discovery, he takes the body of the one possessed by her demon attacker. In the core of her soul, she knows Ian is her one true love, but how do you learn to love a body that once tried to kill you?

The Soul Catcher is wonderfully dark urban fantasy, a quick read and a page turner. There is graphic violence and sex involved and hard language, so if this isn't your cup of tea, try something lighter. It brings together Cherokee legends, myths, and traditions of old and mashes it together with modern times, very unique world building. I thoroughly enjoyed it. Livia is shaped by the violence she endures to become the kick ass heroine that the story needs to banish the demons from her life and those that she comes to love. Because at the heart of this dark urban fantasy, is a love story that out lasts time and cannot be denied. If you love dark urban fantasy, I highly recommend this book.

I received this book in PDF format for review from Belle Bridge Publishers. The opinions I have expressed are my own.