These Unruly Souls

by Kristin Otts, Nia Quinn (Editor)

No mercy for the fallen angel. No escape for the forsaken saint.

Thea Thomas is a Judge - an earthbound angel - who tends the souls of the dead, saints and sinners alike. Upon their death, saints are sent to Glory. Sinners are snuffed out of existence.

But Sebastian Alvarez is the sort of beautiful sinner that makes Thea want to abandon her divinity; and after a judgment gone wrong, Thea finds herself running into Sebastian’s mortal arms - the last place an angel should be.

There’s one punishment for a Judge who’s fallen this far. Thea is transformed into a Hound of Heaven, a monstrous shapeshifter tasked with hunting spirits that become trapped in the Valley of Shadow, a dark netherworld between earth and the afterlife.

But what Thea doesn’t expect to find in the Valley…is Sebastian.

His untimely death brought Sebastian face to face with a Judge who, despite the questionable state of his soul, granted him a halo and sent him off to Glory. But something went wrong.

Now, trapped in the Valley, Sebastian’s unearned halo is a beacon that draws both hungry spirits and relentless Hounds. If his soul is going to survive, Sebastian must learn from the oldest, most ruthless spirits in existence. Because in this world, a saint is prey - but a sinner may have what it takes to outlast the shadow.

For fans of Rachel Gillig and Holly Black, THESE UNRULY SOULS is the first book in a dynamic new fantasy series.

429 pages, Kindle Edition

Expected publication November 9, 2026

Reviews

[Jessica (Readingdiaries_) · Rating 3.25 out of 5]

These Unruly Souls is a very interesting book - it had a cool premise, an interesting magic system and world, and whilst I don't think the author truly managed to achieve what they wanted, it was still an interesting read!

First of all, I really liked the premise. With Judges, descendants of Angels, being tasked to judge souls of the dead, and deciding based on their life sins and good deeds if they deserve to be considered a Saint and sent to Glory (Aka Heaven). I liked the way this set up the scene, with a seemingly peaceful island full of good people, and Parishioners handling people's souls and making sure they are judged fairly... until a judgment goes wrong, and we find Thea and Camilla doubting the entire system.

The beginning was pretty solid; I liked the judgment part and discovering about the world. I liked Thea; she was bright and full of light, whilst Camilla was darker, more set on following the rules and her family's legacy.

What lost me is the romance element that kinda sets up the entire plot - I initially quite liked Sebastian, but the more we learned about him, the more it was clear he wasn't really a good person. He was selfish, quite rude, not understanding that his own decisions led him to the island, and overall he wasn't quite the perfect MMC. His romance with Thea wasn't fully believable; they don't have a ton of scenes together, and whilst it is clear that they kept meeting up for months off-page, the romance wasn't fully convincing. This made all the subsequent events not really compelling.

The story was very interesting, and I liked the mystery about what's going on at the Parish and the whole mystery of the Valley. I really liked Dante as a character; I also liked Niki a lot. Overall, I do think that this is a good book, and I do think the average rating is harsh (2.7 on Goodreads as I am writing this review). This book was perhaps a bit too ambitious, and the author didn't manage to quite fit all the story into a well-rounded book. Still, she had a lot of good ideas, and I appreciate what the book tried to do!

The ending was definitely very interesting, and I do hope the author plans to write a second book. The book ends on a cliffhanger (which definitely doesn't feel like an open ending), and I do think there are a lot of unexplained things about the world and characters.

[lassii · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really wanted to love this one 😭 The concept sounded SO good and exactly like something I would normally love.

Angels judging the dead, Saints and Sinners, Hounds hunting souls, this creepy world between life and death… YES PLEASE.

And the beginning actually got me. Especially the first judgment. The whole idea that someone can do something absolutely horrible and still be considered a Saint because technically they did more “good” in their life??? That was so fucked up and so interesting. I immediately wanted to know more about this world and who the hell decided these rules were okay.

But then somewhere along the way… it lost me.

Mostly because I just didn’t believe Thea and Sebastian’s relationship 😭

I liked them. I liked their chemistry. I WANTED to love them together. But everything happened so fast that I genuinely felt like I missed a few chapters.

One minute they’re getting to know each other and the next it feels like they would literally destroy heaven and hell for each other.

WHEN DID WE GET HERE???

Give me more time with them!! Let them talk, flirt, fight, actually get to know each other. Give me all those stupid little moments that make me obsessed with two characters together. I needed to actually watch them fall in love because I never really felt it.

And that became a pretty big problem when so much of what happens later is because of how strongly they feel about each other.

Sebastian himself was a MESS. Like genuinely 😭 Selfish, addicted, constantly making terrible decisions and hurting people around him. There were so many moments when I wanted to grab this man by the shoulders and ask WHAT ARE YOU DOING???

But weirdly, I liked that about him. He wasn’t one of those “morally grey” men who does one questionable thing and then spends 400 pages being perfect. Sebastian actually fucked up. A LOT. Sometimes I didn’t even like him. But at least he felt like a real person.

Thea was probably my favorite though. Everything with her questioning the Judges and slowly realizing how fucked up their whole system is was probably my favorite part of the book.

And what they did to her after she broke the rules???

HELLO???

Also Camilla, Niki and Dante??? I need MORE OF THEM. Especially because there were honestly moments when I cared more about what was happening with them than about the main couple 😭

The world was probably the biggest reason I kept reading. I loved the whole idea of the Judges, Hounds, the Valley, Saints and Sinners. There is so much cool stuff here.

But the middle dragged for me. A lot.

I kept waiting for something to happen and then suddenly the last part was just CHAOS 😭 And somehow I was fully awake again.

AND THEN THAT ENDING.

What do you mean you’re going to blow everything up, leave approximately 700 things unresolved and END THE BOOK THERE???

I’m still mad.

I don’t think this was a bad book. That’s actually why I’m so conflicted about it. There were parts I genuinely loved and the whole concept is SO COOL. I just kept thinking about how much more I could have loved it if the romance had more time to breathe and the middle was a little tighter.

So yeah. I had a good time. I was confused. I was frustrated. I wanted more. I yelled at Sebastian several times.

3⭐️

Thank you to NetGalley and Kristin Otts for the ARC! All opinions are my own.

[Karina Berezhna · Rating 3 out of 5]

★★½ — rounded down to 2 stars

Thank you to NetGalley and Noctuary House for providing me with an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

I went into These Unruly Souls genuinely excited about the premise. Angels, lost souls, Hounds, a morally complicated afterlife, and a forbidden connection between a divine being and a sinner sounded exactly like the kind of dark fantasy I usually enjoy.

And there are some genuinely interesting ideas here. I liked the darker, almost gothic atmosphere, and the mythology surrounding the afterlife, the Judges, saints, sinners, and Hounds was easily the strongest part of the book. There were several moments where I could see how much potential this world has.

Unfortunately, the emotional core of the story never really worked for me.

The biggest issue was Thea and Sebastian’s relationship. Their connection is supposed to be intense enough to influence some enormous decisions, but I never felt like I actually watched that relationship develop. We see the beginning of their acquaintance and then jump forward in time, by which point their feelings have already become much deeper.

From there, the book repeatedly tells us how strongly they long for one another, but I needed to see more of the moments that created that attachment in the first place. Because so much of that development happens outside the story, their romance never felt as convincing or emotionally powerful as it needed to be.

Sebastian himself is intentionally flawed, which I didn’t mind. His selfishness, regret, and desire to reclaim the life he lost could have made for a really compelling character arc. But I often felt like the story introduced interesting conflicts within him without giving them enough room to fully develop or resolve.

Ironically, I found myself more interested in some of the side characters. Niki and Camilla in particular had a dynamic that felt more natural to me because I actually got to watch them interact and learn about one another. I also wanted much more from characters like Dante and Shepherd, especially because Shepherd brought a darker and more unsettling element to the story that I found genuinely intriguing.

The pacing was another mixed point for me. The book was easy enough to read, but at the same time I found it surprisingly easy to put down. Some emotional developments happened too quickly, while other sections felt much slower than I expected.

Ultimately, These Unruly Souls had a creative premise and a world I wanted to know more about, but the relationship at the center of the story never convinced me enough to make the emotional stakes land.

I can absolutely see the potential in the mythology and some of the supporting characters, but as a first book in a series, this unfortunately wasn’t enough to make me want to continue.

[MS · Rating 2 out of 5]

2⭐️ I wanted to love These Unruly Souls and I appreciate what the authors were trying to do, but this book ultimately did not align with my expectations from the description. However, there were redeeming parts and moments that kept me reading and I thought the world building had potential.

I’ll begin by saying I was drawn to this story by mentions of similarities to Rachel Gillig and Holly Black. Gillig’s The Knave and the Moon is one of my anticipated reads of 2026 so I jumped at These Unruly Souls. Apart from the fantastical elements, the similarities end there. I would characterize this as a dark/gothic fantasy with paranormal and horror elements, and romance as a subplot. For me it personally leaned bleak as a read and even macabre at times.

The MMC, Sebastian, was an imperfect character who made a lot of mistakes. He came across as your typical fallen rockstar - cocky, troubled, selfish, longing for his comeback story. His sister, Niki, was a perfect foil to his fame seeking persona. She wanted nothing more than a life in obscurity. I appreciated Sebastian’s reflections on his life mistakes, and he experienced some remorse/compassion, but we ultimately do not see a resolution to that tension.

The romance between Sebastian and Thea, while a driving force for most of their actions throughout the story, never felt developed. We were told the FMC and MMC felt a certain way but we did not get to see those feelings grow organically as time quickly flew by. As a result, the central romance did not feel earned.

The side characters here, for example Camilla, Niki, and Dante, were all intriguing in their own way. I would have loved to see more of them fleshed out in the story! There was also a great deal of potential in the immoral and sinister Shepherd. He was probably the most unexpected character. It would be interesting to see more of his conniving and manipulative influence on the parish and how souls are treated, as well as Camilla’s future reactions to the truth.

As this is the first book in a series, I will leave that journey to other readers. Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC!

[Ashley Kauffman · Rating 2.5 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book mostly for the plot and some of the thematic elements that were included. I really like the use of synesthesia because it gave an almost otherworldly sense to the story which I think matches the plot and the world-building very well.

While I believe that this was a good book and it was interesting to read, there are some things that raised some questions. There are a lot of inconsistencies in the story that make it slightly confusing to read. I had to go back multiple times to reread sections because some aspects of the book contradict in each other. I also didn't like the quick relationship progression between the characters because there wasn't enough time to get to know them individually or learn how they interacted with one another. This ties in with the lack of progression in the changes that occur in the story. Instead of gradually building towards new ideas and developments within the story, I felt that most of the changes were immediate and had little structure or background knowledge to support them. There was also very little background knowledge in general about the characters or the world that they lived in. While we learn a little about the structure of the judging system and character backgrounds such as Sebastian and Niki, a lot of this isn't stated until later in the story which makes the beginning hard to comprehend without understanding how this world works.

Despite the confusion, I did enjoy reading this book. I like the creativity in the plot and the ideas that Otts places around the afterlife. I also really liked the characters. While the relationships between them seemed to progress very quickly, I think their personal developments were very good. They each had their own complex emotional states that were emphasized through the changing perspectives in each chapter.

[Merlyn Fereira · Rating 3 out of 5]

𝚃𝚑𝚊𝚗𝚔 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚝𝚘 𝙽𝚘𝚌𝚝𝚞𝚊𝚛𝚢 𝙷𝚘𝚞𝚜𝚎 𝚏𝚘𝚛 𝚙𝚛𝚘𝚟𝚒𝚍𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚝𝚑𝚒𝚜 𝚋𝚘𝚘𝚔 𝚏𝚘𝚛 𝚛𝚎𝚟𝚒𝚎𝚠 𝚌𝚘𝚗𝚜𝚒𝚍𝚎𝚛𝚊𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗 𝚟𝚒𝚊 𝙽𝚎𝚝𝙶𝚊𝚕𝚕𝚎𝚢. 𝙰𝚕𝚕 𝚘𝚙𝚒𝚗𝚒𝚘𝚗𝚜 𝚊𝚛𝚎 𝚖𝚢 𝚘𝚠𝚗. This book was marked as Read Now on NetGalley and I'm so glad that I was able to read this book at the correct time.

────────────────────────────────

These Unruly Souls by Kristin Otts is a sci-fi fantasy about Thea Thomas, an earthbound angel who judges the dead, sinners and saints. She is tasked with the duty of who will heaven and who will go to the void (purgatory). Sebastian Alvarez is a sinner that makes Thea want to abandon all her divinity and run into his arms. She faces a punishment for it and gets transformed into a Hound of Heaven that hunts spirits that are trapped in the Valley of Shadow.

────────────────────────────────

𝚆𝚑𝚘 𝚠𝚘𝚞𝚕𝚍 𝚕𝚘𝚟𝚎 𝚛𝚎𝚊𝚍𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚝𝚑𝚒𝚜 𝚋𝚘𝚘𝚔?:
Biblical, Christian influences, Church type setting.

𝚃𝚑𝚎 𝚐𝚘𝚘𝚍:
- The biblical, Christian influences and church type.
- The cover design! It was very dark and something that feels right for such type of book that has a lot of Christian influences in it. It matched.
- The setting of the story was nice. I could easily imagine everything that was taking place. It was very visual for me.

𝚆𝚑𝚊𝚝 𝙸 𝚍𝚒𝚍𝚗'𝚝 𝚌𝚘𝚗𝚗𝚎𝚌𝚝 𝚠𝚒𝚝𝚑 𝚘𝚛 𝚏𝚘𝚞𝚗𝚍 𝚞𝚗𝚞𝚜𝚞𝚊𝚕 𝚘𝚛 𝚍𝚒𝚍𝚗'𝚝 𝚕𝚒𝚔𝚎:
- Some grammatical errors and random symbols were found.
- I wasn't too much a fan of the writing because of the grammatical errors and some symbols I found copy-pasted in paragraphs.
- Chapters too long and pacing was too slow.
- I felt the dialogues could have been written better. Some of the dialogues felt unnecessary and they could have been cut out. They didn't seem interesting and keep me glued to my phone.
- Camilla at many times sounded quite childish and her actions seemed that they didn't belong to her.

[Kendra M Layden · Rating 4.5 out of 5]

I'm still processing this one, but in a good way! These Unruly Souls was an incredibly intriguing read that kept me invested from beginning to end.

The world-building and character development were easily the strongest aspects of this book. The characters were layered, complex, and genuinely easy to become attached to. I also really appreciated how distinct each character's perspective felt, making the multiple POVs easy to follow. I especially enjoyed how the story explored morality, redemption, and the complexities of a system that views everything as black and white.

The structure of the story took some getting used to. For much of the book, I wasn't entirely sure where the overarching plot was heading. However, as the story progressed, the different pieces began coming together, and I could appreciate the groundwork being laid for a larger series.

And that ending! While the cliffhanger left me wanting answers, it certainly accomplished its purpose. I'm genuinely excited to see where the author takes this world and its characters next. If the second book were available right now, I'd pick it up immediately!

Overall, this was a fascinating and thought-provoking start to a series with compelling characters and an intriguing world. I'm looking forward to seeing how everything unfolds!

Thank you to NetGalley, Noctuary House, and the publisher for providing an advance copy in exchange for my honest review..

[Bookish Emili Reads · Rating 2 out of 5]

These Unruly Souls by Kristin Otts was an interesting and imaginative read that combined fantasy, mystery, and emotional themes into a story with plenty of potential. The premise immediately caught my attention, and the unique ideas woven throughout the novel kept me curious about where the narrative was headed.

One of the book's strengths is its atmosphere. Otts creates a world that feels intriguing and layered, with elements of magic and mystery that gradually unfold as the story progresses. The characters are complex and carry emotional burdens that add depth to their journeys, making it easy to understand their motivations and struggles.

The writing is engaging, and there are several moments where the story shines, particularly when exploring themes of identity, loss, and personal growth. The author brings a thoughtful approach to the emotional aspects of the narrative, giving the characters room to develop and evolve.

However, while I appreciated many aspects of the book, it did not fully resonate with me. The pacing felt uneven at times, particularly in the middle sections, and some plot threads seemed underdeveloped compared to the intriguing concepts introduced early on. I also found myself wanting stronger development of certain relationships and supporting characters.

[katie · Rating 2 out of 5]

I should probably start off by saying that when I first read the summary for this book, I was immediately intrigued and so excited to start it. Although stories about angels, lost souls, and the love that might exist between them have obviously been around for a long time, I've read very few of them, and so this was a unique enough premise for me that I wanted to jump right in.

But, having read it now, I think there's a very crucial piece of this story that didn't really work for me. In the summary, we're told that "Sebastian Alvarez is the sort of beautiful sinner that makes Thea want to abandon her divinity," but there isn't much to these characters that allows me to understand why they would feel this strongly about each other. Their first meeting is shown to us and then, in the very next chapter, we skip six months into the future (at which point they have feelings for each other). We're told repeatedly that Thea and Sebastian hold this deep sense of longing for each other, but that's it. We're only told it, over and over and over again.

Every time I was put in one of their POVs and was told of the love they felt for the other, I never felt convinced of it. It felt like they barely knew each other, and truthfully, I found myself far more interested in the dynamic between Camilla and Niki. I think that came down to the fact that I actually got to see them move through the world together and come to know each other rather than all of that development happening in a time skip.

With all that being said, the story itself was easy to read, and I can tell the author put a lot of thought into the world that these characters inhabit, even if it didn't totally end up clicking with me.

[W. · Rating 2 out of 5]

Thank you to NetGalley and Noctuary House for the eARC in exchange for an honest review! ♡

[2 and a half rounded down]

This was fine. And unfortunately “fine” is one of the worst things a fantasy romance can be.

The angels, sinners, Hounds and afterlife mythology had enough going on to keep me reading, but Thea and Sebastian’s romance never convinced me. I kept being told they had this enormous, soul altering connection while feeling like I had missed several chapters where they actually developed one...
There were side characters I was more interested in, which is generally not ideal when the forbidden romance is supposed to be the main event.

Readable. Some cool ideas. Occasionally fun. Very easy to put down.

[Delana Wind · Rating 4 out of 5]

So dark and adventurous ! Who knew fallen angels and sinners could cause such chaos on both plains of heaven and earth. Thea and Camilla are angels whose worlds have been turned upside down by their judgments and have to pay the price for their doings.

[mj. · Rating 2.25 out of 5]

the opening chapter was DARK and uncomfortable in the best ways. a man who lived a pretty ordinary life and did good deeds, but committed a huge and ***horribly disgusting*** sin that he both regrets and is proud of? i was hooked on this storytelling of angels judging your life in the afterworld.

but… the rest of the story fell a little flat for me.
i wish there was more character development, or, at the very least, relationship development to make the romance in this more believable.

thank you to netgalley and the publishers for this eARC.

[Kirby Puffenbarger-Sowers · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed These Unruly Souls. The story pulled me into its world, and by the end, I was completely invested in what happens next. I sincerely hope there is a second book planned because I have questions that need answers!

The characters and story kept me interested throughout, and I especially enjoyed watching everything unfold as the book progressed. This wasn't necessarily a book that I flew through—it took me a little longer to read—but I still found myself wanting to return to the story and see where it was going.

Overall, this was a very enjoyable read with a story that left me wanting more—which is always a good sign. The ending especially made me hope this isn't the last we've seen of these characters and this world. I will absolutely be watching for a sequel!

Thank you to the author and publisher for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review through Netgalley.