Book Review – Bridge of Souls

We’ve already met Cassidy Blake in City of Ghosts and Tunnel of Bones, and if you haven’t yet, there are the posts so you can! Cassidy has become a character I’m extremely fond on, along with her ghost buddy, Jacob, and her fellow veil-walker, Lara. Previously they’ve adventured to Edinburgh and Paris, but this time around, they’re visiting possibly the most haunted city in the world…

Synopsis
Where there are ghosts, Cassidy Blake follows … unless it’s the other way around?

Cass thinks she might have this ghost-hunting thing down. After all, she and her ghost best friend, Jacob, have survived two haunted cities while travelling for her parents’ TV show.

But nothing can prepare Cass for New Orleans, which wears all of its hauntings on its sleeve. In a city of ghost tours and tombs, raucous music and all kinds of magic, Cass could get lost in all the colourful, grisly local legends. And the city’s biggest surprise is a foe Cass never expected to face: a servant of Death itself.

Cass takes on her most dangerous challenge yet… 

Review
I read this book straight after reading Mina and the Undead, which is a very different book but also set in New Orleans, so it was like being really submerged in the city, two books in a row. Both books have paranormal themes as well… but that is where the similiarities stop, and we’re going to look back at this middle grade book now, rather than the YA horror book above (which still comes with my highest recommendations!).

At the end of the previous book, Cassidy faints after seeing something… odd at the train station. A man in black, wearing a mask similar to a Plague Doctor’s mask, and she has an immediate, blasting reaction to him. She can’t stop thinking about what she sees as she travels, and when she arrives in New Orleans, staying at a hotel founded by the beginner of the Spirtitulist movemement, her thoughts are held captive even more.

Things quickly start to escalate in this book, and once again the author manages to keep it purely unique compared to the other two before it, while uniting themes and moments that we’ve seen in both of the books ahead of this. We see more mentions of the Society of the Black Cat (for which I now have a collectors pin that I LOVE, check it out on my Instagram), and meet some more brilliant characters, as well as seeing Lara again which is really lovely.

The book was fast paced and highly emotional at points, having me in tears more than once! It was an absolutely brilliant read, and I did rate it as five stars after rating the previous two as high fours. It kept me guessing and I was really unsure what was coming next. It was absolutely the best in the three published so far, and I really hope there are more to come, but equally it was written so beautifully that if it is only a trilogy, then it will have been a great set of books.

I’m planning on reading some of the books by the author aimed at adults now, having found I really enjoy her writing style. I’ve already read The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, but there are so many more for me to work my way through, and these were great ones to start with. I’ve said it before, but it’s worth repeating that these might be middle grade boardering on young adult, but they’re perfect for any age.