Goldilox and the Three Weres: Audio Review: If I Die by Rachel Vincent

If I Die
(Soul Screamers #5)
Rachel Vincent
Narrator: Amanda Ronconi
Release: September 27, 2011
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The entire school's talking about the gorgeous new math teacher, Mr. Beck. Everyone except Kaylee Cavanaugh. After all, Kaylee's no ordinary high-school junior. She's a banshee—she screams when someone dies.

But the next scream might be for Kaylee.

Yeah—it's a shock to her, too. So to distract herself, Kaylee's going to save every girl in school. Because that hot new teacher is really an incubus who feeds on the desire of unsuspecting students. The only girls immune to his lure are Kaylee and Sabine, her boyfriend's needy ex-girlfriend. Now the unlikely allies have to get rid of Mr. Beck…before he discovers they aren't quite human, either.

But Kaylee's borrowed lifeline is nearing its end. And those who care about her will do anything to save her life.

Anything.

Review:

Wow guys!!! Just...WOW! If I Die is the fifth in the Soul Screamer series and let me just tell you that it is by far the most surprising and emotional book so far in the series!

In each of my Soul Screamers reviews I say that 'this' book is better than the last, but its really true! Each one gets more and more intense (which leads me to believe that I may not survive reading the last in the series). In the previous book we dealt with a lot of heavy duty stuff - Nash's post Frost re-acclimation to school and the introduction of his bad girl ex, Sabine. But in If I Die we start off with a bang...Kaylee learns her time is up - she's on the reapers' list and she's only got days left. For the entire book that fact looms over Kaylee's head and drives a lot of her choices in this book. And throughout the whole book I was really curious how author Rachel Vincent was going to pull it off. Since there are two more books after this one in the series I wondered how this big problem would be resolved in the end. I must say I didn't see the exact ending coming. Vincent managed to surprise me and please me with the resolution and now I'm dying (no pun intended!) to see how this book's ending will affect the next one.

Tod. TOD. Oh how I love thee, Tod! He plays a major role in this book and he gets a lot of face time here. I always love seeing more of him, but in this book he finally really gets to shine. This book is heart-melting and heartbreaking all at the same time and don't be ashamed if you shed a tear or two because I certainly did. The surprise ending...ya know, the one after the other surprise ending...had tears going down my face!

There's really not more I can say about If I Die without giving away major spoilers, so I'll stop here before I tell you EVERYTHING. Just know that this book has a lot of twists I just plain didn't see coming and I am thoroughly impressed with how amazing this series has become!

Note about the audio: I listened to the audio for this one, after reading all the other ones in the series, and I really enjoyed it! The narrator, Amanda Ronconi, does a really fantastic job with everybody's voice and her version of Kaylee is absolutely spot on! At first I didn't like how she did Tod's voice...it's very deep, but it really grew on me. After a few chapters I realized how perfect a fit that voice was for his character and by halfway through the book I was convinced 'his' voice was incredibly sexy. I highly recommend trying out the audio for this series - I'll be listening to the rest of them for sure!

Recommended for fans of: plot twists, love triangles, reapers, intense emotional endings, and things you never thought would happen actually happening.