Burden of the Soul

I just finished reading Burden of the Soul by Kate Grace (again).  It’s… ok.  I wouldn’t give it a thumbs down, but I’m also not really sure why I re-read it except that I already had it on my Kindle and couldn’t really remember much about it.  It is supposed to be the first in a series, but it didn’t really bother me that I couldn’t continue reading.  For any of you who know anything about me that says A LOT seeing as how my biggest pet peeve is having to wait for the next book in a series to be written.

Basically, this book explores the idea of souls.  Meaning that we exist outside of our physical body.  However, I don’t at all agree with the author’s take on souls.  She expresses a very Buddhistic philosophy wherein the “soul” returns to earth over and over, each time attempting to attain a higher plane of being through doing good deeds.  Clara is supposedly the “oldest soul” who has achieved what Buddhists would call “Nirvana” but has now returned to earth in hopes of stopping the evil which is set out to destroy mankind.

Honestly, as a Christ-follower this goes against everything I believe.  The Bible teaches that we get one shot here on earth, and where we go after that depends not on how good we live, but only on whether we accept God’s free gift to us – His Son Jesus, who died to take the punishment for our sins.  

I don’t normally preach in my writings, but I felt like I was so preached AT in this book that I couldn’t overlook that and not put in my own two cents worth.

So, other than that, on a scale of 1 to 10, it gets maybe a 4 (if I’m being generous).  The story is interesting, but once again we have a heroine in love with two guys (and as you may remember from my post about the Dark Secrets Series this annoys me to death).  In this instance apparently, Clara’s soul was split upon coming back to earth, and so she longs to be reunited with her other half, Devin.  The only problem with this is that they also sent a soulmate to earth along with her, Dave.  Soul-mate vs. the other half of you (gives a whole new meaning to the “You complete me,” line from Jerry Maguire, huh?). As a reader, how do you deal with that?  And honestly, she really doesn’t spend enough time with either of them for me to really form much of an opinion as to who she picks.  They both seem like great guys, she’s attracted to them both… if there was ever a time for the “meh” button on Facebook, this is it. 

Will I ever read the rest of the series?  Well, considering it was so forgettable that I re-read it this time not because I liked it the first time but because I couldn’t remember if I liked it the first time…. I’m guessing I won’t be going looking for its “other half.”