Sunday, October 12, 2025

Review: Lost Souls by Steve Stiles


 

Genre: Fantasy

Description:

“Soul Collecting is an easy way to make a living, except for the being dead part. Unfortunately for Madelyn, she's not interested in either being dead or, heaven forbid, having to work at it. Trust me when I say her adjustment issues are only beginning.

Just as Madelyn catches on and finds her soul collecting groove, she screws up on the job. It’s a mistake that could end her existence, as well as the futures of innocent people who are very much NOT dead…yet.

While a motley assortment of collector friends pitch in to help, other collectors are deadset (see what I did there?) to make sure she fails. The clock is ticking for Madelyn as she battles to right her wrong before her soul collector status wears off.

Rules are rules, whether you listen to them or not.”

Author:

A mystery man who doesn’t appear to have any other books out at the moment.

Appraisal:

This was a unique book that drew me in quickly and kept me engrossed to the very end. The concept is that there are a group of … we’ll call them souls I guess, who get assigned to be what are called collectors. These collectors are spirits who can potentially transport themselves anywhere on Earth under the right conditions. They have a duty to help “collect” the souls of humans who die and to transport these souls to drop off points where they then move on to where ever they go. Those souls who are assigned to be collectors get a small amount of training and then go through a whole lot of trial and error as they get a handle on it.

I’m afraid to say much more for fear of spoiling the story. As the main character, Madelyn, figures things out the reader goes along for the ride and tries to figure them out too. Madelyn has something happen that is extremely rare and no one is sure how to deal with it, which makes things more intense for a while. Then throw in things that feel just like this life, lots of other souls, some who help you, some who are trying to get in your way, and some that you’re not sure where they fall, keeps things interesting. I found the author’s sense of humor as well as a protagonist that I was pulling for along with the unique story world made for a great story.

Buy now from:            Amazon US        Amazon UK

Format/Typo Issues:

Review is based on an ARC (advance reader copy), so I can’t gauge the final product in this area.

Rating: ***** Five Stars

Reviewed by: BigAl

Approximate word count: 80-85,000 words

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