The Edge of Awakening (The Soul Tamer Series #1) by Alanna J. Faison

Jasmine died. She died in utterly terrible, awful conditions.

But for Jasmine death is not the end - she has a destiny and a mission to train for as she and her allies prepare for the battles ahead

But how much was her family hurt by this destiny?

This book is a spin off series of the Rayne Whitmore Series, following Rayne’s dead sister, Jasmine. Jasmine is destined to become a Soul Tamer, joining a team of other new Soul Tamers, trained by Micah and other mentor Soul Tamers into their powers, skills and missions.

This adds a whole lot of interesting world building to this already excellently rich world. I think it’s an excellent idea to use a new protagonist to do this as Rayne couldn’t exactly stretch to cover this without severely distracting her own story and generally slowing things down

Instead using a new character and a new world we have an excellent chance to build into more world building, using the first book in a series to have the usual introduction to a series without derailing an already ongoing plot line.

And this world building is extremely good and interesting - the general use of ghosts and demons, the different powers and abilities and how they work and interact. I really like the little nuances like how simply being the most powerful doesn’t make you the most effective.

But more than the general world building is the personal stories of her fellow Soul Tamers - albeit some of the needing more development. All of them are young and all of them have had tragic pasts - but their pasts point to a lot of terrible injustices in the world, from starvation and poverty to hate crimes that starkly covers a lot of this diverse cast.

A lot of this book covers their training and I do like some of the interractions - probably Cas and Rayne the most because they do strike sparks - there’s respect and competitiveness and they’re probably not a great fan of each other but it’s not full on girl hate we see quite often in urban fantasy and young adult.

Her closest companion is probably Jayce, but Jayce is the LGBTQ representation in this book and it’s not really done well (another character may be a lesbian or bisexual but she also may be asexual, it’s not clarified yet). At one point he calls someone out for assuming bisexuals are just looking to have sex with anyone all the time - which is great. If that pretty much wasn’t the sum total of Jayce’s character. He exists to hit on guys, and that’s basically his characterisation even when said guys are not interested in him.

Killer Rayne (The Rayne Whitmore Series #2) by Alanna J Faison

Rayne has passed through her trial by fire of the first book. She has been Unmade, her family has been destroyed and her first forays back into the world have not gone to plan

Now she prepares, she rallies her allies, her friends, she claims what is hers, she demands loyalty and lays down the foundations for the coming war.  Namen Young has destroyed her family, the lives of so many and is threatening to destroy everything – and Rayne is raising what she can to stop him.

This book is relatively slow paced – and certainly a lot slower than the last one. Its story is more an interval than a closed character arc without on particularly storyline or a real conclusion at the end so much as it is another chapter in Rayne’s ongoing saga. It absolutely cannot be read stand alone – as without the former book and the book which will come next it is completely lost without context or purpose

And all of this is a good thing. The first book was so incredibly fast, jumping from plot line to plot line to event to event so quickly that a slower paced book to consolidate was needed. As part of the series this book is excellent, it gives us time to catch our breath, remind ourselves of what is at stake and who the major players are in Rayne’s world and her battle against Namen. We’re reminded of the nature of the war and what all the powers are (since this world is so wide and varied with a lot of complex forces in play).

We ran through the world last book, introducing everything at a break neck pace but without really having the time to get to know anyone or look too far beneath except to know there was a lot beneath to know. Now we get to slow down and really look at things like the werewolf past, the nature of the witches, the relationships between the characters, the society of the vampires and look at the various motivations that drive everyone

It also really laid down how this fight was going to happen – not just as an epic battle of claws and swords and woo-woo powers (though that would certainly have a place) but also through proxies and by influence and generally by controlling mortal forces and supernatural allies. Ultimately, part of this conflict began – and certainly the reason it slaughtered Rayne’s family – out of fear that humanity were going to rise up and use their numbers and new technology to destroy the supernaturals. This not only affects Rayne through her business (and her father’s arms business targeting supernaturals) but also lays the foundation for what they want and looks at the balance between humanity as victims or a threat. Again, there’s a lot interesting topics and conflicts that are now being developed to make for a much richer story

The Unmaking (Rayne Whitmore Series #1) by Alanna J Faison

Rayne Whitmore had an extremely privileged life – not without issues, but with a loving family, immense wealth and a girlfriend, Selene, who loves her. But this comfortable life is shaken badly when she sees what terrible things her father has to do to preserve it.

But it’s only the beginning – the retaliation brings demons to her family’s door and leaves Rayne devastated, grieving and lost with the knowledge that monsters and magic still exist. Only Selene is there to offer comfort – and knowledge of the magical world that had been hidden from her. It’s a world Rayne will have to become more deeply involved in if she ever wants to justice for her family and to ensure she will never be the victim again.

We have a huge world here – with a lot of layers but also a lot of depth. We don’t just have a world that has trawled every supernatural mythology out there, declared “these exist” and then moved on and relied on tropes to characterise them. We don’t just have demons and gods and vampires and werewolves, they have histories and cultures and development – or at least hints of them (more would be an unconscionable info-dump) to set out what is actually meant by these terms in this setting, to show that the author has developed and created these rather than just slapped some fangs on a sexy person and said “behold, vampire – you know how this goes.” There’s a lot built into things like the werewolf packs, the history of the vampires and their societies, the internal problems with the witchborn and how that affects Selene’s life and past.

This genre is very very full and it’s hard to take concepts that are long established and tweak them sufficiently to bring originals spins on them – this book does it, it makes something new out of the old tropes, brings a lot of originality while still keeping the familiar.

Rayne is also an excellent character. She’s a Black lesbian, which is excellent inclusion, both of these both inform her and are very present in her character. She’s in a long term relationship with Selene, a latina lesbian and being a lesbian touches on her relationship with her (sadly absent) mother and how she lives and interacts with immortals later. Similarly race and ethnicity are present in the characterisation, language choice, explanations, descriptions, and generally are integral part of their characters. It’s not just a tossed away description but nor is it a heavily hammered, all consuming stereotype. It was a nice balance and excellent character development and inclusion (and not limited – we have numerous main POC, several bisexual and another lesbian character. There is a problematic “everyone is bi” insistence from the immortals but Rayne herself is quick and firm to shoot that down, there’s also a bit of a shaky idea that gay male werewolves can’t possibly exist for random, unnecessary reasons).