A review by erinsteffens
Kingdom of Souls by Rena Barron

2.0

I was optimistic about this book but I ended up disappointed. I was 45% (!!) into the book before the main character, Arrah, did anything at all to propel the plot. In the synopsis, it says that Arrah performs a dangerous spell to try to save the missing children. So we go into the book knowing this information. That happens 45% into the book. We do not get new information outside the synopsis until over halfway through the book. The pacing was just not good. At around 60%, suddenly it feels like everything is incredibly sped up and the conflict in the book shifts completely. I didn't really feel like what the characters did made much sense, and Arrah is just sort of along for the ride through most of it. The side characters did not feel like fully fleshed out characters either. I could barely tell the difference between any of them, and I often forgot who they were. I thought Arrah was going to use more magic, or somebody was going to use more magic, but even the final scene just felt way too easy. Like these regular humans are just killing demons like it's nothing, not even using magic at all in a world where magic exists.