"Soul Shade (Soul Stones Book 2)" by T.L. Branson

With her father dead and his soul stone destroyed, Maya is now the Queen of a realm in turmoil. She is struggling to try and bring it under control without becoming the despotic ruler that her father had become during his reign. But with all the troubles she is facing, nothing is quite that simple. Not only are there many problems that must be solved and dealt with, but some of the countries that were conquered during her during her father’s reign are now determined to reclaim their independence.

In addition to these problems, the elves have chosen now to attack and are seeking to wipe out all humans. War on several fronts seems to have become unavoidable. On top of this is a quest to find more of the long hidden soul stones as well as needing to stop a soulfiend who is attacking innocent people across the countryside, leaving their bodies alive but without a soul inhabiting them. Those found in such a state cannot be healed. Without a soul their bodies will eventually die.

This was an interesting book that continues the story that was begun in “Soul Render.” I enjoyed the story the author has been telling, but I really wish this book had gone through another round of editing and proofreading. There were a good number of typos and other errors contained within that I believe would have been caught with another read through by a good editor/proofreader. Even though it was a good story, fixing some of the errors I saw would have made it even better.

Edited to add: I have since spoken with the author who assures me that the problems I noticed in the version I read for him have been corrected before publication. Given this fact, I have raised my star rating from a 3 to a 4 as the majority of the problems I noted should now no longer be an issue for future readers of this book.