Rating: 5 🌈

All Souls Near & Nigh, the second in Hailey Turner’s outstanding urban fantasy series, is everything a second book in a series should be. It moves the overall series arc forward while capturing our attention and, at times taking our breath away, with the plot for this novel.

It includes all the major characters we expect and want to see while introducing new and what I anticipate to be important players/beings going forward.

And it wraps up this story’s plot while setting the characters and readers firmly on the path to the journey into the next book and arc storylines.

Hailey Turner accomplishes all that in a novel that’s highly packed with tough emotional scenes, amazing magical action, some very complex mythological god relationships, as well as much painful, personal dynamics between Jono and Patrick.

At times this will not be an easy book to read. There is an on page sexual assault for a major character. As this has the definite possibility of being a trigger for some people, I commend the author for putting a warning about this scene at the beginning of the book where it can’t be missed. I won’t lie. It’s hard to read.

And it’s ramifications for the character emotionally and those around that character are done with respect and sensitivity, as well as in keeping with that person’s personality.

Here , the ordeals, the trauma, the past, it weighs upon each person or being. It’s not sloughed off but given it’s very real impact. That translates into a realism for these characters and the events they encounter.

In fact, the people and beings are now fully embedded in my heart that after I finish a story, I’m full of “what if’s…” so engaged is my imagination.

I also find myself looking up various gods I’m unfamiliar with and their religion/history. That’s another huge plus.

Patrick and Jono have a difficult developing relationship and dynamic that’s gripping because it’s as fraught with peril as it is with hope. Always a sharp dagger edge away from absolute disaster it’s also the first real relationship Patrick has ever had. Something that makes the reader fear for them both even more.

Increased hope, great fear, unbearable pain and loss in the past, present and coming future. All laid out in an incredibly , increasingly complex plot. All surrounding characters we care more and more for.

What a book and series.

I have other novels to read but all I want to do is curl up and read right through to the end.

I’ll let you know if temptation wins out.

In the meantime, definitely read this but only after book 1. They need to be read in the order they were written.

Great writing, outstanding characters. Highly recommended!

Don’t forget about the warning.

Soulbound series:

✓ A Ferry of Bones & Gold #1

✓ All Souls Near & Nigh #2

◦ A Crown of Iron & Silver #3

◦ A Vigil in the Mourning #4

◦ On the Wings of War #5

◦ An Echo in the Sorrow #6

◦ A Veiled & Hallowed Eve #7

Synopsis:

You can’t bargain with death if you’ve already sold your soul.

Special Agent Patrick Collins has been reassigned by the Supernatural Operations Agency to New York City. Navigating his new relationship with Jonothon de Vere, the werewolf he’s now soulbound to, is nothing compared to dealing with territorial disputes between the vampires and werecreatures who call the five boroughs home. But the delicate treaties that have kept the preternatural world in check are fraying at the edges, and the fallout is spilling into the mundane world.

Manhattan’s club scene is overrun with the vampire drug known as shine and the subways have become a dumping ground for bodies. When the dead are revealed as missing werecreatures, Patrick and Jono find themselves entangled in pack politics twisted by vampire machinations.

Learning to trust each other comes with problems for both of them, and the gods with a stake in Patrick’s soul debt aren’t finished with him yet. Bound by promises they can’t break, Patrick and Jono must find a way to survive a threat that takes no prisoners and is stalking them relentlessly through the city streets.

Old and new betrayals are coming home to roost but the truth—buried in blood—is more poisonous than the lies being spun. Trying to outrun death is a nightmare—one Patrick may never wake up from.

All Souls Near & Nigh is a 104k word m/m urban fantasy with a gay romantic subplot and a HFN ending. It is a direct sequel to A Ferry of Bones & Gold, and reading the first book in the series would be helpful in enjoying this one. Please see the disclaimer at the beginning of the book for content some readers may find triggering.

https://www.goodreads.com › showAll Souls Near & Nigh (Soulbound, #2) by Hailey Turner – Goodreads