Pretty Souls by Julie Patricka

Feb/March 2011, Paperback & ebook
Decadent Publishing, Review copy

Young Adult, Paranormal

Summary from Decadent

My life followed a simple pattern.
Run to keep my inner wolf asleep. Make sure my blood-sucking foster sister, Cass, feeds. Hunt for supernatural trouble when we should be sleeping. Keep my grades up and my head down.
It was mostly a game.
Until people started wandering around like living zombies. Until people I care about started getting hurt. Until the menace came knocking on my front door.
Game’s over.
Time for the soul-stealer to realize just because he’s hunting something doesn’t make it prey.
Cass and I bite back.

~The Paranormal Response Team~
Saving the World Before Breakfast

I'm currently having an 'I love shape shifters' phase, so the moment I read the blurb I put in my request. That was after being intrigued with Julie chatting about Cass & Elle over on Enduring Romance (another blog I review on). Perfect cheerleaders are annoying. Cass annoys Elle a lot. But know what lies behind the necessary persona, I actually really like Cass. She stabilises Elle. Yes I know she can lose it a bit/a lot when she's around blood. It's cool how her eyes change when she vamps in/out. She may be the youngest of the two foster sisters, but she acts like the oldest. She's the one who makes sure Elle has enough food to keep her wolf at bay. She's the one who covers for Elle when she returns from a late night run, with virtually no clothes due to the change.

I really enjoyed having a vampire and shapeshifting wolf work together like a detective team. There's a lot of friendly banter between the two of them. Personally I loved it when Cass pelted Elle with stuffed toys. They are a pair,  and they do fall out. It gets awkward when that happens, especially when they have to work together. But they do forgive each other and get on with their mission. It's quite something to try and figure out who is creating zombies, why, and how to get rid of them. I really don't like zombies. I'm glad that neither Elle nor Cass was a zombie, or that a zombie played a protagonist, because they freak me out a lot.

Both the title and the front cover really suit the story. Content wise there is a little bit of swearing, some teen romance but nothing too heavy, a little bit of violence (Elle is a wolf and Cass is a vampire. Neither are vegetarians) I think it'll be hard for readers not to be annoyed with Julie for leaving us on such a cliff hanger ending. It's not 100% cliffhanger, but enough that I really want to read that second book right now. Although the original mystery of the zombie creator has been solved, there are so many other questions surrounding Cass & Elle's lives, and the lives of those precious to them. I give this book 9/10.

Check out more about the series including two free short stories on Julie's website. If you click here you can find Julie chatting about Cass and Elle on Enduring Romance, which got me into the book.

This will suit anyone who loves shapeshifter stories like Rachel Vincent's series which starts with Stray,  Raised by Wolves by Jennifer Lynn Barnes, and Nightshade by Andrea Cremer to name a few.