melsbookshelf

I was not familiar with Michelle Muto or The Book of Lost Souls until I heard about an Independent author event that is coming up in a town right near where I live. I had only read books by one of the authors who will be there (Nichole Chase), but I wanted to familiarize myself with the other authors who would be attending and hoped that in doing so, I'd find some new favorites! Well, I can safely say that Michelle Muto is definitely one of the new favorites! I really enjoyed The Book of Lost Souls. Rather than writing strictly a dark paranormal book, Muto skillfully interjects humor into scenes that makes this story more reminiscent of Buffy The Vampire Slayer and some of L. J. Smith's earlier works (which I loved). One aspect even made me think of Harry Potter (you'd probably understand why if you've read it). Though mildly predictable (I'd be surprised if anyone reading this book didn't figure out who the "mystery man" was) and not without typos and phrasing issues that could be fixed with another round of editing, The Book of Lost Souls is overall a very imaginative, entertaining read with an intriguing premise and likeable characters. Not to mention, we get a little bit of everything when it comes to supernatural characters... witches, vampires, werewolves, and demons!My hope is that in future books (this is the first in the series), the characters will be fleshed out a little more thoroughly, but for an independently published debut book, this is definitely one of my favorites! By the way, it's a steal of a deal on Amazon if you've got a Kindle or the Kindle App, so I encourage you to give The Book of Lost Souls a try if you enjoy YA Paranormals!Read The Book of Lost Souls if you liked...- L.J. Smith's books written in the 1990's and re-released in recent years (particularly the Night World series and NOT the newer titles, ie. continuing The Vampire Diaries (even before the ghostwriting started) -- they simply aren't the same)- Nichole Chase's The Dark Betrayal series