Melissa Caruso: "The Last Soul Among Wolves" (ARC Review)

Title: The Last Soul Among Wolves [on Amazon | on Goodreads]
Series: The Echo Archives (2nd of 3 books)
Author: Melissa Caruso [Site | Goodreads]
Genres: Multiverse, Supernatural, Thriller/Mystery
Year: 2025
Age: 16+ (the characters are all adults, and the book is indeed marketed to adults, but it can be read by mature teens)
Stars: 4/5
Pros: Fresh take on the multiverse trope with strong world-building. Engaging characters. Lots of intriguing action and a few well-placed twists  The story leaves plenty of room for a new installment, but doesn't end on a cliffhanger.
Cons: The murder mystery isn't near as exciting as the magical quest. The main character comes across as more vulnerable and less resourceful than she did in Book 1.
WARNING! Blood, body horror, torture.
Will appeal to: Those who enjoy modern fantasy, vintage detective stories, (deadly) alternate realities, former-enemies romances that don't swallow the plot, and new moms being badass.

Blurb: All Kembral Thorne wants is to finish her maternity leave in peace. But when her best friend asks for help, she can’t say no, even if it means a visit to a run-down mansion on an isolated island for a will reading. She arrives to find an unexpected reunion of her childhood friends - plus her once-rival, now-girlfriend Rika Nonesuch, there on a mysterious job. Then the will is read, and everything goes sideways. Eight potential heirs, half of them Kem’s oldest friends. Three cursed relics. The rules: one by one, the heirs will die. The prize for the lone survivor: A wish. And wishes are always bad business. To save their friends, Kem and Rika must race against the clock and descend into other realities once more. But the mansion is full of old secrets and new schemes, and soon the game becomes far more dangerous - and more personal - than they could have imagined. (Amazon)

Review: First off...DISCLAIMER: I requested this title on NetGalley. Thanks to Little, Brown Book Group UK for providing a temporary ecopy. This didn't influence my review in any way.

KEEPING MOMENTUM

I read the first installment in The Echo Archives series last year - drawn by its alternate-realities premise - and I was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed a story that ended up involving a few aspects I'm usually less keen on. For those who are new to this universe, a brief introduction (I'm quoting from my review for Book 1):

[...] the setting is a world similar to our own - albeit steeped in magic and giving off an early-20th-century vibe - except in this world twelve layers of reality exist: the root universe, or Prime, and its eleven Echoes, getting more and more grotesque and dangerous the farther you stray from their paradigm.

Our protagonist Kembral belongs to a guild tasked with retrieving people (or things) that get abducted/swallowed by the Echoes. She and her old nemesis (now girlfriend) Rika have barely recovered after saving their hometown from a cursed Echo relic, when they get dragged into a new mess involving not one, but three artifacts this time, in which the lives of eight people (half of them old friends of Kembral's) are at stake. I'm happy to report that TLSAW doesn't suffer from second-book syndrome - not at all. Weaving multiverse madness with a cozy (so to speak) old-style whodunnit and a still tentative, at times rocky romance, plus drawing on a huge twist from the first installment, Caruso produces an effortlessly entertaining sequel with action, character development and surprises to spare. There are scenes that will have you hold your breath (Kem's power is incredibly fascinating, but comes with very real consequences), and the Echo world and its creatures are vividly depicted. Also, did I say surprises? Because, while some were a tad too easy to see coming in the first installment, the author covered her tracks well this time, and there's a twist in particular - involving one of the new characters - that will elicit horror and compassion at the same time... [...]

SMALLER THINGS

To be honest, I do have a few complaints, albeit tiny. I'm a fan of classic detective stories (Agatha Christie and the like), and yet I didn't find the investigation on the human murders - and the mystery behind them - particularly compelling, though I suppose they had big shoes to fill, compared to the supernatural plot. Speaking of which, some of Kembral's actions didn't strike me as very logical - she should have involved some other member of her guild, or at least devised a plan, before she flung herself as far as the fifth Echo. Also, I understand that having her captured and helpless was kind of the point at a certain juncture, but again...she came across as too vulnerable, and a lot less competent than she appeared to be in Book 1 (though this gave Rika a chance to shine!). Last but not least, while Kem's daughter was always on her mind in the first installment, she's very conveniently put in the care of a...peculiar babysitter (I loved the little I saw/heard of him LOL) and rarely spoken of this time - sometimes almost shoehorned into the plot like an afterthought. Frankly, though, all that is not a big deal in the face of an entertaining story. Ultimately, Caruso's world will appeal both to lit-fantasy lovers and to readers who, like me, prefer a contemporary (or futuristic) setting, also thanks to the writing style keeping a nice balance between genre-appropriate and modern, and to gender/sexuality matters being a non-issue (there's even a trans character this time!). Personally, I'll be happy to revisit this series at some point in the future, and I suspect that Caruso threw us a juicy bone regarding the next installment's direction, so I'll be anxiously awaiting Book 3...

For my "The Last Hour Between Worlds" review (first installment in the series) click here.

For more Adult books click here.

For more Multiverse books click here.

For more Supernatural books click here.