Find the magic sword or die. Just another day in a reincarnated wizard's life...

After being chased across the country by a faerie mercenary, reborn wizard Emma Hale is shocked she's still alive. But victory doesn't mean she can slack off on her mission to protect the current incarnation of her liege and sometimes lover, the legendary King Arthur.

Now that Arthur's soul is awakening, every creature of darkness in a thousand-mile radius is slavering for a taste. Worse, a merciless adversary from Emma's past has reappeared, leaving Emma scrambling to save not only her king but all their loved ones as well.

Surviving the week may depend on a blade only Arthur can wield. Too bad Emma lost it centuries ago on the other side of an ocean. And any quest to retrieve it will unearth secrets Emma isn't yet prepared to face—secrets that could destroy her and her king before their enemies even have the chance.

Soul’s Blade picks up right where Magic Waking left off. Emma Hale (the current reincarnation of the great wizard Merlin) was able to defeat the dark fae mercenary who was after her leige, the reincarnation of King Arthur, but just barely. Now, with Arthur’s soul waking up, creatures of darkness are swarming, ready to steal his soul for themselves (though why they’re so eager for it Emma still hasn’t figured out). Plus, one of her greatest enemies seems to be waking. Trying to protect Arthur turns out to be an even worse job than usual, since it seems this time he’s determined to save her….which normally wouldn’t be a problem except she wields magic and he doesn’t. Something he’ll need to defeat the dark creatures who keep popping up after him. If only she hadn’t lost his magically imbued sword some 1000 years past.

I started this right after finishing the first book in the series, hoping the story would take off. Sadly, that didn’t happen. If anything, Soul’s Blade seemed to move even slower than Magic Waking. For a wizard who’s been reborn every few decades for 1500 years, Emma isn’t very sharp. She keeps making the same mistakes again and again. She doesn’t seem to have grown or changed at all from the first time she lived as the great wizard Merlin. If there’d been some discussion about things she’d tried in the past that hadn’t worked, or her quest to find answers to why dark forces are after Arthur, I probably would have enjoyed this more.

As it is, it’s mostly filled with Emma’s internal angst over Arthur not wanting a sexual relationship with her when she’s reborn as a man (something she has no control over and seems to happen at least half the time). If that had been a central theme in the first book, I could have overlooked it here, but it seems to crop up out of nowhere.

It’s explained that Emma always wakes knowing who she is and what her purpose is, but Arthur is oblivious until he comes into direct skin-to-skin contact with Emma. Then, as his soul starts to reawaken, he regains his memories of their previous lives. That being the case, I would have thought both Emma and Art would deal better with each other. Instead they’re secretive and don’t communicate with each other. As they’re both in their early twenties I guess I could understand their lack of maturity..if not for the fact that they’re supposedly both 1500+ years in the making.

All that aside, I really like the flashbacks to their first life together as Arthur and Merlin. I would probably have continued reading just for that, but I can see the writing on the wall that this will end in another cliffhanger. Since book 3 isn’t out yet, I’m going to set this aside for now. I’ll come back to the series when the next book is available (Dragon of Destiny, coming November 2017). Hopefully both Emma and Art will grow up a little in the meantime.

DNF

The series: