A Soul to Guide by Opal Reyne

All Raewyn ever wanted was to go home.

After accidentally creating a portal to another realm, Raewyn finds herself trapped in a world she’s struggling to navigate. Desperate to find those with magic who can help her, she sets out on a dangerous journey to another town.

Unfortunately, on her travels, she learns there are bigger and scarier monsters than the Demons she knows of – and one of them won’t let her get away.

All Merikh ever wanted was to escape.

For a hundred and eighty years, Merikh has been hunting for a way off Earth. He doesn’t care who he has to eat, kill, or maim to get what he wants. So, when his prey ends up being a lost Elf, he realises this is his opportunity.

She’s prettier than any creature he’s ever seen, and so damn perfect that it’s impossible to resist her otherworldly lure.

But Merikh destroys everything he touches. Will he be able to overcome years of hatred and anger to allow himself to get close to her, or will he lose her in the process?

horny 4,5 Stars (this was the first book i read from this series since they all have different couples)

♡
- the two main characters are interesting and I'm weak for the grumpy and sunshine trope
- the sex scenes are very spicy and fun to read, if you have some specific kinks that are marked in other reviews this is definitely worth the read
-first book i had with a blind MC and i really need more authors to lean out of the box

loved the premise & beginning so much. it was genuinely so promising, and i was like dayum, this is gonna be my favourite book of the series! merikh was a 10/10 character, and his viciousness to get what he wanted was just chefs kiss.

my fav part of the book was when rae found out he wasn't what he seemed, and he did that whole malicious chuckle thing. wow. i was like at the edge of my seat, because how tf would these two fall in love.

even the whole build up to go to the temple was nice, and it made me understand and appreciate the characters a lot.

after the whole village/temple visit thing, the book kinda fell flat for me. rae, supposedly being super genius mad scientist, just didn't seem to have a lot of power, but i was like oh maybe she's just not familiar w earth. but when they went back to the elvish realm, she was still treated like a child?? like no one listened to her, or told her anything of importance. and i genuinely just felt bad for merikh, because she had built up the realm so much in his head, but the people there were kinda stinky too yk.

i was disappointed w the end so so much. i waNTED desperately for their to be a confrontation w jazbez and rae, and i really wanted merikh & jazbez's friendship & bond to be explored. i lOved the whole elder sibling trauma stuff too! there was just so mUCH potential. wouldn't have minded this book being even longer. but nah, the ending felt rushed. rae, my girl, disappointed me with not defending merikh strongly enough, not even trying to help bring merikh's family to the elvish realm, or even trying to help the humans out. she just became this wishy washy, self righteous character who felt so much for the people, but really did fuckall to help anyone who was not her species. and merikh kind of just became this losery whipped dude. i mean i love those characters too, bUT merikh was just so much more interesting earlier. couldn't he have kept a lil bit of his personality