Helpful Score: 2
Tananarive Due writes well, and her vampire tales aren't populated with the usual bloodsucking fiends and goth grrls. Complex characters with long histories interact thoughtfully and take challenging paths to their goals. In My Soul to Keep, African-American journalist Jessica Wolde encounters Dawit, the beautiful immortal (definitely not-your-Bram-Stokerish-vampire). Love, loss, change, growth ensue.
Helpful Score: 2
Couldn't put this book down - well written, fast-paced and wonderful twists and turns.
Helpful Score: 2
What would people be like if they never aged, never got sick, never died?
Jessica is about to find out. She's a Miami investigative reporter with a beautiful daughter, Kira, and a husband, David, so loving, so brilliant, and attentive that she calls him Mr. Perfect. Suddenly, however, her life takes a terrifying turn. Her best friend is brutally and mysteriously murdered and Jessica discovers an ancient, unimaginable danger that will shatter her life and family-forever.
Dawitt is an immortal. More than four hundred years ago he and a sect of Ethiopin scholars traded their souls for eternal life. Obeying a vow of secrecy, Dawitt has traveled the world as a soldier, a slave, a jazz musician-never staying anywhere long enough for others to notice that he does not age. As futher insurance, with barely a thought he kills any mortal who dares to become too curious about him. For the first time, though, it is Dawitt that threatens to break his vow and defy his brothers by keeping his beloved mortal wife and child with him-forever.
Jessica is about to find out. She's a Miami investigative reporter with a beautiful daughter, Kira, and a husband, David, so loving, so brilliant, and attentive that she calls him Mr. Perfect. Suddenly, however, her life takes a terrifying turn. Her best friend is brutally and mysteriously murdered and Jessica discovers an ancient, unimaginable danger that will shatter her life and family-forever.
Dawitt is an immortal. More than four hundred years ago he and a sect of Ethiopin scholars traded their souls for eternal life. Obeying a vow of secrecy, Dawitt has traveled the world as a soldier, a slave, a jazz musician-never staying anywhere long enough for others to notice that he does not age. As futher insurance, with barely a thought he kills any mortal who dares to become too curious about him. For the first time, though, it is Dawitt that threatens to break his vow and defy his brothers by keeping his beloved mortal wife and child with him-forever.
JoLaine D. (queenmother) reviewed My Soul to Keep (African Immortals, Bk 1) on + 110 more book reviews
From the beginning, Jessica knows that David is different, but life with him seems perfect. With the birth of their daughter, life should be blissful. However, his ageless face and his perfect skin cause her investigative-reporter instincts to start questioning. Also, his lack of interest in the events of her life and work cause her to doubt the completeness of their marriage. By chance, a newspaper story Jessica writes on elder care evolves into a book proposal. Research into one of the cases leads mysteriously to David?her David. As the story develops, Jessica learns the truth about her husband and the choice he made so many centuries ago. David sold his soul for eternal life on Earth. He tells her he is not David, but Dawit, an immortal. Now he is offering her the same choice, against the doctrine of this secret society of believers. Readers are introduced to their world before Jessica discovers the truth. Present-day human interaction and the ways of the immortals are woven together with imagination and suspense. Traditional religious values, exhibited by Jessica's family, add another dimension to the plot and impact on the woman's reaction when she learns the truth. Those familiar with Anne Rice's novels will be instantly drawn into the world of Dawit and the society created by the immortals.?
