Bob @ Beauty in Ruins

Given that it's more a romance novel with fantasy elements than a fantasy novel with romantic elements, I was surprised by how much I enjoyed A Soul For Trouble. This was a very quick read for me, and one that I found to be a lot of fun.Crista McHugh has a comfortable sense of narrative style, a good grasp on her characters, and a flair for witty dialogue. It's not a laugh-out-loud type of story, but one that I found myself smiling over on a regular basis.

Arden (Trouble) Lesstymine is not just the only blonde-haired, blue-eyed soil in town, but she's also a witch. As a result, she's used to getting more than her fair share of attention, but nothing could prepare her for becoming the next vessel of Loku, disembodied god of chaos. On the one hand, she gets to wield his god-like power but, on the other hand, she's slowly losing her mind. Of course, it doesn't help that she has suddenly acquired a Knight of Gravaria as her sworn protector, become the sworn enemy of a dangerous necromancer, and found herself the object of a Prince's obsession.

As much as the love triangle between Trouble, Dev, and Kell drives much of the action, I liked all three characters enough to roll with it, and the insanity angle, with Loku's insanely funny (and brutally inappropriate) running commentary pulls it altogether. There's a lot of cheesy romance and overt sexism to the tale, but it's all clever and self-aware, not quite satire but clearly deliberate. It's a fast-paced tale, and one that I breezed through in just a few nights. Sure, it could have used a few more action sequences, and I would have like more in the way of mythology or world-building, but it was still a thoroughly enjoyable read.