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Elemental #5
Soul Guard
Alternate Cover Edition can be found here.
With his greatest enemy freed and the paranormal world in turmoil, Devon Sanders, a private investigator known for his efficiency and discretion, is about to learn what it means to be a wizard. After two years of learning magic, he will find out who was really pulling the strings.
His friends and family are being targeted, his visions turn violent, and choosing the lesser of two evils may prove fatal. All magic comes at a price and Devon has quite a debt, but who will pay it?
Magic is elemental.
With his greatest enemy freed and the paranormal world in turmoil, Devon Sanders, a private investigator known for his efficiency and discretion, is about to learn what it means to be a wizard. After two years of learning magic, he will find out who was really pulling the strings.
His friends and family are being targeted, his visions turn violent, and choosing the lesser of two evils may prove fatal. All magic comes at a price and Devon has quite a debt, but who will pay it?
Magic is elemental.
412 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2016
21 people are currently reading
70 people want to read
About the author
Rain Oxford
84 books119 followersRain Oxford is a teacher who has been writing stories since she was twelve. She attended Ritsumeikan University in Kyoto, Japan. Some of her interests include magic, psychology, and ancient history. When she’s not creating worlds, she enjoys reading, playing the piano, or photographing exotic wildlife.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
April 8, 2017
More crazy changes in Devon's life and the lives of those around him...another fun ride in the paranormal world Rain Oxford has created.....but is this the end?
January 15, 2017
Excellent !
All of her writing is very well done and you are going to see the world's she has created in your own mind. These books are beyond many I have read, they are well written and executed in a way that leaves you wanting more. They're great for young adults and up, enjoy!!
All of her writing is very well done and you are going to see the world's she has created in your own mind. These books are beyond many I have read, they are well written and executed in a way that leaves you wanting more. They're great for young adults and up, enjoy!!
August 4, 2016
Can't get to #6 fast enough. I so love this world! And Oxford can set everything on it's ear in the last two lines of the epilogue! How cool is that!
September 7, 2017
I love the narrator on this series. The story on this one is well written and I love the twists at the end. Looking forward to seeing what happens to the gang next!
May 19, 2016
I liked this series quite a bit. It was reasonably original, despite almost every individual element seemingly a re-worked heavily-used trope in the popular fantasy world. It's a mixed detective-paranormal fantasy-school genre story. It has some flaws, but overall it works. I read all five of the books in the series so far all in one straight reading over the weekend, and I enjoyed them. I had to sit and make notes because the people, places, names and plot just got so convoluted it was impossible to keep track of things.
The hero of the story, Devon Sanders, starts out believing he's a human and hating most supernatural creatures and as a PI, taking mostly human cases. Then he gets embroiled in a paranormal case and has to pretend to be a wizard student at a paranormal university, and then remains there once he discovers he's a wizard. In this fifth book in the series (possibly last?), he uncovers the secrets of his biggest enemies, and tries to go about resolving things for good. It's unclear who the baddest of the bad guys really is as revelations pour in, and that adds to the turmoil. Quite frankly, I lost track of the various keys, sub-plots, imposters, and crises going on. I did really enjoy the scenes with the kids (Scott is Henry's five year old cub and adorable), however precocious. There's a lot of running around to try and prevent people from getting killed, and ultimately, some things didn't work too well. I did think that the complicated matrix-paradise-lost-inspired major action sequence towards the end was pretty good, but did not make much sense in the overall plot.
I really liked the wrapping up at the end, and hope there are stories to come in the future of the friends. The epilogue seemed to be a flashback, but could possibly have been a hint of future trouble. I still don't know what it means.
I will say that this series of books is not particularly well-written, proof-read or edited. I always blame the author for any and all typos, grammatical errors and so on, and this had a shocking number.
Just the homonym/misused words alone, forget about the errors in tense and singular/plural:
- "through a brake in the fencing" (break)
- "You sound like hell. 'That's always nice to here.' " (hear)
- "ate serial at the coffee table" (cereal)
- "rung his hands with nerves" (wrung)
- "fight you and when," (win)
- "Well, you have improved on your complements" (compliments)
- "hospital she was emitted to" (admitted to)
Ugh.
The hero of the story, Devon Sanders, starts out believing he's a human and hating most supernatural creatures and as a PI, taking mostly human cases. Then he gets embroiled in a paranormal case and has to pretend to be a wizard student at a paranormal university, and then remains there once he discovers he's a wizard. In this fifth book in the series (possibly last?), he uncovers the secrets of his biggest enemies, and tries to go about resolving things for good. It's unclear who the baddest of the bad guys really is as revelations pour in, and that adds to the turmoil. Quite frankly, I lost track of the various keys, sub-plots, imposters, and crises going on. I did really enjoy the scenes with the kids (Scott is Henry's five year old cub and adorable), however precocious. There's a lot of running around to try and prevent people from getting killed, and ultimately, some things didn't work too well. I did think that the complicated matrix-paradise-lost-inspired major action sequence towards the end was pretty good, but did not make much sense in the overall plot.
I really liked the wrapping up at the end, and hope there are stories to come in the future of the friends. The epilogue seemed to be a flashback, but could possibly have been a hint of future trouble. I still don't know what it means.
I will say that this series of books is not particularly well-written, proof-read or edited. I always blame the author for any and all typos, grammatical errors and so on, and this had a shocking number.
Just the homonym/misused words alone, forget about the errors in tense and singular/plural:
- "through a brake in the fencing" (break)
- "You sound like hell. 'That's always nice to here.' " (hear)
- "ate serial at the coffee table" (cereal)
- "rung his hands with nerves" (wrung)
- "fight you and when," (win)
- "Well, you have improved on your complements" (compliments)
- "hospital she was emitted to" (admitted to)
Ugh.
April 25, 2017
***Listened to as an audiobook***
***Received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review***
Rain Oxford's Elemental Series Book #5: Soul Guard
This was an exceedingly well written book with a lot of great magic, imagery and life. It wasn't my favorite in the series though. Even though it kind of had the fifth element of the soul/spirit...I really missed the elements of earth, air, fire and water setting the undertone of the book.
The super-villain of the series is finally dealt with and we find out how he became who he is. That was definitely a tugs-on-the-heartstrings part of the book that Rain Oxford is great at!
I loved Rocky, the gargoyle familiar of Devon, in this book. Rocky just has this great personality and always acts with such authority and clarity and does it all without hesitation. Everyone should have a Rocky in their life!
We learn even more about Langrell's red ball.
There are some parts that are repeated from book 4 but they are necessary to the story and tie in the new bits of information very well!
Todd Menesses continues to do a great job narrating. I feel like I did when watching Dick Tracy films as a kid.
There's a cliffhanger at the end that can lead into a whole other book and I hope that it will.
I really have enjoyed all of this books in this series and I highly recommend it to others.
Devon, Darwin, Henry and Scott are completely loveable and I will miss listening to them! Fingers crossed for a book 6!
***Received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review***
Rain Oxford's Elemental Series Book #5: Soul Guard
This was an exceedingly well written book with a lot of great magic, imagery and life. It wasn't my favorite in the series though. Even though it kind of had the fifth element of the soul/spirit...I really missed the elements of earth, air, fire and water setting the undertone of the book.
The super-villain of the series is finally dealt with and we find out how he became who he is. That was definitely a tugs-on-the-heartstrings part of the book that Rain Oxford is great at!
I loved Rocky, the gargoyle familiar of Devon, in this book. Rocky just has this great personality and always acts with such authority and clarity and does it all without hesitation. Everyone should have a Rocky in their life!
We learn even more about Langrell's red ball.
There are some parts that are repeated from book 4 but they are necessary to the story and tie in the new bits of information very well!
Todd Menesses continues to do a great job narrating. I feel like I did when watching Dick Tracy films as a kid.
There's a cliffhanger at the end that can lead into a whole other book and I hope that it will.
I really have enjoyed all of this books in this series and I highly recommend it to others.
Devon, Darwin, Henry and Scott are completely loveable and I will miss listening to them! Fingers crossed for a book 6!
May 12, 2017
For me, this book pushed the series to the 5 star mark. It hits all the marks for an awesome novel.
Action... check!
Sex... check!
Magic, shifters, Fae, and Vampies... check!
Complicated characters... check!
Mystery and suspense... check!
Love, betrayal, and plot twist... check!
Cliff hanger that will drive you crazy... check!!!
It has it all.
Action... check!
Sex... check!
Magic, shifters, Fae, and Vampies... check!
Complicated characters... check!
Mystery and suspense... check!
Love, betrayal, and plot twist... check!
Cliff hanger that will drive you crazy... check!!!
It has it all.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews