Soul Screamer in One Big Swoop and Giveaway!

Today, we’re the lucky duckies who get to participate in SOUL SCREAMERS book tour *ooeh ooeh*  I cannot thank the wondersauce ladies at Kismet Book Touring and fiction-genius Rachel Vincent *whispers: “I’m not worthy!”* for inviting me to be a part of this event.

Now you guys have to know by now that I’m a HUGE fan of this series.  And if you don’t know that, then I’m a fail because this series is AH-MAZE-ING!  I honestly don’t think there’s another author that has toyed with my emotions, left me gasping for air, or made me want to put my heart on a platter and just give it to her than Rachel, lol.

In honor of this rockin’ tour, Rachel is making a guest appearance here today.  She’s going to tell us a bit about the importance of relationships and human (or non-human, as the case may be) connections and tell us about SOUL SCREAMERS series in one big swoop. (Warning, spoilers ahead.)

So, it’s been pointed out to me that the relationships between characters in my Soul Screamers world are…complicated. I agree with that statement whole-heartedly. I kind of did that on purpose, because I believe that in real life, relationships are complex, and almost never single-faceted, and I believe that portraying anything less than complicated, well-thought-out relationships in fiction (at least between the major characters) is just plain dishonest. 

For instance, I have two younger sisters, both of whom are now grown with families of their own. The oldest, B, and I were born less than a year and a half apart. B and the youngest, H, were born just over a year and a half apart. Which means that my poor mother had three teenage daughters in the house at once for several consecutive years. My memories of that time period are, obviously, biased in my own favor, but even I can remember how crazy a time period that was, and how difficult it must have been for our parents - even my father, who only saw us twice a year.

I love my sisters. I have always loved my sisters. But at various times over the course of our lives, without losing any love for them at all, I have also felt the following emotions toward them: jealously, resentment, exasperation, and anger. And probably half a dozen more that I can’t specifically remember at the moment. And that’s without the added stress of superpowers or a driving need to save others at the expense of our own well-being. 

Not one of us had a genetic predisposition toward paranormal anything. We were just plain teen-human crazy.

I like to think my own experiences with normal teen-human crazy show through in the teen relationships in my books. Which are, of course, amplified by the addition of the aforementioned supernatural abilities/responsibilities. So, here’s a quick rundown of the prominent teen relationships in the Soul Screamers series, in case it’s been awhile since you read the most recent installment.

Warning!
The following contains massive stream-of-consciousness run-on sentences as well as spoilers from the first five books in the Soul Screamers series. Proceed with caution.

First of all, there’s Kaylee, our brave heroine, who loves both the uncle who raised her and the father who left her, then came back for her thirteen years later and is trying to fix their father-daughter bond after too-long an absence. 

Kaylee’s best friend is Emma, who is now Kaylee’s sole connection to the human world, which she once considered herself a part of. Kaylee wants to protect Emma, even if that means hiding dangerous secrets for her, in spite of the fact that Kaylee knows from personal experience how horrible it feels to be locked on the outside of a secret.

Emma loves Kaylee, but resents being sometimes left out of the “bean sidhe business” for her “own good.”

Then there’s the primary relationship conflict of the story, which, in the Soul Screamers world isn’t a love triangle, but a love knot. A massive, tangled, constantly unraveling cluster of loyalties and resentments that, in my head, resembles a rubber band ball made of those little bread bag twist-ties, instead of elastic bands.

The players:

Kaylee, our intrepid heroine, who’s recently discovered she’s a bean sidhe

Tod, her undead reaper boyfriend.

Nash, Kaylee’s ex and Tod’s brother, a male bean sidhe who’s still alive, but shouldn’t be.

Sabine, Nash’s pre-Kaylee ex, who is an actual nightmare, capable of literally scaring people to death, which is kind of creepy, because she’s really not a huge fan of the human race, overall.

Here’s how that love knot looks:

Sabine loves Nash and is also willing to commit crimes in order to be with him or protect him, and while Nash loves her back, he also loves Kaylee, and can’t seem to get her out of his head, even though she now loves his undead brother Tod, who loves her more than he loves his own afterlife, but feels horrible about having stolen his brother’s girlfriend, even if they were never really meant to be together in the first place. 

*break for a deep breath*

 

Tod is in love with Kaylee, and has been for longer than she realizes, but he also loves his brother (in fact, he gave up his own life so Nash could live) so he stood back and stayed mostly out of their way—except for that whole part where he kept popping in uninvited to keep them from consummating their relationship, because that would have been too much for any reaper-in-love to take—until Kaylee kissed him, which she shouldn’t have done, because she was still with Nash, but what’s done is done, and now Kaylee and Tod are together, and Nash won’t speak to Tod, whom he blames for stealing his girlfriend, or to Kaylee, who framed him for her own murder, then unframed him by faking her own life, because if she’s not dead, he couldn’t have killed her.

*break for deep breath*

Sabine wants to hate Kaylee because Nash is still in love with her, but she can’t quite pull off true hatred because she actually likes Kaylee, except for the part where Kaylee stood between her and Nash for several months, so she wants to be Kaylee’s friend, but she doesn’t know how to go about that and she keeps messing it up, thanks to a compulsive need to speak the truth, even when the truth hurts people’s feelings, which she doesn’t quite understand because even though she can intuit what other people are feeling, she cannot empathize with those feelings, so she’s trapped between wanting to get rid of Kaylee so Nash will forget about her and wanting to establish her very first true girl-friendship with her true-love’s other, tragically unrequited love.

*break for another deep breath*

Kaylee loves Tod more than she ever thought possible, and she wants to spend every waking moment with him, but she still cares for Nash as a platonic more-than-a-friend, because they were too close for too long to ever really be less than that, but she also feels massively guilty for being the source of most of Nash’s problems, even as she resents him for being either unwilling or unable to truly get a handle on them and she wishes she could make Nash see how much Sabine loves him, but there’s nothing she can do about that while he’s wearing Kaylee-tinted glasses, which he never seems to take off.

*and one more deep breath*

Then there’s Tod, who wants to help Nash, even though Nash hates him, which makes sense, because Tod did kind of steal his brother’s girlfriend, even if Kaylee was a willing accomplice in her own seduction, so these two brothers—who share a past, and a mother, and a bloodline, and a species—can’t seem to get past the resentment and anger of betrayal to see what a strong force they could be together, if they could bury the hatchet somewhere where it won’t break skin or shatter bones.

Did you follow all that? If not, here’s the quick version…

Nash hates Tod, who loves Kaylee, who tolerates Sabine, who loves Nash and wants to hate Kaylee while she also craves her friendship and supports her relationship with Tod, who feels guilty for stealing his brother’s girlfriend but is happy that Sabine is there for Nash, who still loves Kaylee and never seems to realize what he could have with Sabine. 

 Make sense?

 

It’s clear to me now why it took seven books to sort through their personal lives, not to mention defeating the forces of evil constantly throwing danger at them all, in the middle of all the drama.

Have I mentioned that I love drama? In fiction, not in real life. I know some people don’t like drama in their teen fiction, but I do (as long as it’s not contrived) and I’m thrilled that I was able to give the SOUL SCREAMERS characters such complicated connections to one another. I also love how those varied connections have strengthened their bond as a group and how their relationships influence their decisions and motivations.

Though I have to admit that seven books in (I’ve just finished the first draft of WITH ALL MY SOUL, the 7^th and final full-length Soul Screamers novel), I sometimes really wish I had a quick-reference flow-chart. ;)

More SOUL SCREAMERS stuff that's Made of Awesome!

Click on the Kismet logo to get info and see the rest of the tour stops!

Title: Before I Wake (Soul Screamers #6)
Author: Rachel Vincent
Publish Date: June 26, 2012
by Harlequin Teen
Pages:  304 pages

I died on a Thursday-killed by a monster intent on stealing my soul.

The good news? He didn't get it.

The bad news? Turns out not even death will get you out of high school...  

Covering up her own murder was one thing, but faking life is much harder than Kaylee Cavanaugh expected. After weeks spent "recovering," she's back in school, fighting to stay visible to the human world, struggling to fit in with her friends and planning time alone with her new reaper boyfriend. But to earn her keep in the human world, Kaylee must reclaim stolen souls, and when her first assignment brings her face-to-face with an old foe, she knows the game has changed. Her immortal status won't keep her safe. And this time Kaylee isn't just gambling with her own life...

Where you can find it?

Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Indiebound

 A resident of San Antonio, Rachel Vincent has a BA in English and an overactive imagination, and consistently finds the latter to be more practical. She shares her workspace with two black cats (Kaci and Nyx) and her # 1 fan. Rachel is older than she looks-seriously-and younger than she feels, but remains convinced that for every day she spends writing, one more day will be added to her lifespan.

Where you can find Rachel?
Website, Facebook, Twitter, Goodreads, YouTube

Now on to the REALLY good stuff: CONTEST!!!

There are not one but TWO amazeballs contests going on as part of this tour.

The first giveaway is a daily one for the chance to win a copy of BEFORE I WAKE!  To enter, just follow the handy-dandy Rafflectopter below.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

The second give-away is for a GRAND PRIZE of a pink iPod nano engraved with "Soul Screamers"! The Grand Prize winner will be chosen from all the daily entries!

Please note that both the daily and grand prize giveaways are for U.S. and Canada participants only. See full contest rules here.

A jumbo-tron sized THANK YOU to Rachel for taking this time to put this epic post together and the girls at Kismet for letting me be a part of.  Hope you loved it and good luck!