Review: An Echo in the Sorrow by Hailey Turner

Title: An Echo in the Sorrow

Series: Soulbound: Book Six

Author: Hailey Turner

Length: 417 Pages

Category: Urban Fantasy

Rating: 5 Stars

At a Glance: The Soulbound series is perpetually perfect in every single way, and An Echo in the Sorrow delivers an eloquently choreographed, emotional, and action-packed climax that brings Patrick Collins, Jonothon de Vere, and their pack one step closer to a reckoning there’s no guarantee they will survive.

Reviewed By: Lisa

Blurb: Forgiveness is a hollow prayer you only hear in your dreams.

Patrick Collins has spent years handling cases as a special agent for the Supernatural Operations Agency, even as his secret standing in the preternatural community has changed. He should have confessed to his role as co-leader of the New York City god pack when he and Jonothon de Vere took up the mantle months ago, but he didn’t. Now that split loyalty will cost him at a time when he can least afford it.

Outmaneuvered, framed for murder, and targeted by the Dominion Sect, Patrick has to face a past full of lies to regain his freedom. Revealing the truth means he’ll need to give up the life that has defined him. Everything he’s fought to build with his pack is at stake, and losing them isn’t a price Patrick is willing to pay, but some choices aren’t his to make.

Jono knows they can’t cede any more territory if they want to win the god pack civil war spilling into the streets of New York City. But the souls of werecreatures are free for the taking when demons come to town and angels sing a warning no one can ignore. When Jono’s worst fear comes to life, and he loses the one person he can’t live without, the only option left is to fight.

Facing down the demons of their past and the ones in their present, Patrick and Jono will learn the hard way that some sins never wash away clean.

Review: If the title of this book didn’t give me fits of anxiety before I even opened the cover (it did), the story itself took care of any lingering scraps of my delicate composure. The Soulbound series is perpetually perfect in every single way, and An Echo in the Sorrow delivers an eloquently choreographed, emotional, and action-packed climax that brings Patrick Collins, Jonothon de Vere, and their pack one step closer to a reckoning there’s no guarantee they will survive.

He was made the hero in a tale still being written before he was even born. That is a fate he can’t outrun, for all that he has tried. I was tasked with keeping him alive, and that is what I have done. ~ Ashanti

The Fates have made Patrick their plaything over the years, gods and goddesses of a seeming multitude of pantheons using and manipulating him at will, sometimes working with him, sometimes against, and his soul debt has finally come due. It’s a debt that will pit him head to head against his own father, whose bid to become a god himself and reign over Hell on Earth will also pit Patrick against his twin sister—or the eldritch husk of what used to be his twin sister—in ways that I can’t even begin to predict. One of the many things Hailey Turner has done so consistently, not to mention masterfully, is pulling shocking twists and turns from an apparent bottomless well of mythos. I can’t fathom the amount of research that’s gone into writing this series—the depths of imagination alone is staggering—but I respect the commitment to offering us readers something new and fascinating to sink into every single step of the way through this Gordian knot of a journey. It’s one of the many things that’s remained consistently brilliant throughout.

An Echo in the Sorrow is the book that, in numerous ways, bridges the past to the future, recapping what has come before to prepare us for what is yet to come. In some ways it’s a book of regrets and yes, sorrow, a reminder that hindsight is 20/20, and that he who hesitates may indeed live long enough to regret his decisions. It’s difficult to grieve that choice too deeply, though, when that fate has delivered Patrick love and family and friendship and loyalty, which he now has in abundance. His and Jono’s relationship goes much deeper than their illegal soulbond—something they’re still keeping a secret from the government—and it remains to be seen what will transpire once that bond is inevitably revealed. Whatever the result, I’m sure the revelation will be explosive.

From being framed for a murder he didn’t commit, to being chased through the streets of New York and DC, to his kidnapping and being made an unwilling offering, to becoming the puppet of a sinister force, Patrick is put through his paces, and then some, in this book. The action, suspense, and adrenaline punch is non-stop, but as the old saying goes, what doesn’t kill us makes us stronger. I can only hope that holds true as the final battle looms, because what is yet to come promises to be a nightmare of epic proportions for Patrick, Jono, Sage, Marek, Wade, the rest of the New York City god pack, their allies, and the denizens of NYC too. This book wasn’t all losses and destruction, though. There are wins, and there is joy, and in theory (crossing all my fingers) there will continue to be triumphs as well.

The characters (Wade continues to be the boss of my heart), the setting, the world-building, and the story arc that is bending inevitably towards an all-out war remain superlative. I’m sure I’ve said it before, but I’ll say it again: the Soulbound series is the epitome of superior Urban Fantasy.

You can buy An Echo in the Sorrow here:
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