Collared

“Sometimes, when you couldn’t change what was going on and you didn’t want to understand it, all you could do was shove it under the bed and make sure your toes didn’t stick out from the covers.”

This author has a way of sending chills ratcheting up my spine and she did so, unashamedly and in endless waves, as I read ‘Collared’. It’s the story of Jack, a soulless and damned ex-priest, who is tied to the demon he called forth years ago and forced to do its bidding. Now he has a chance of getting his soul back and maybe, just maybe, Jack can beat Math at his own game but there’s a little girl’s life on the line and Jack is going to have to use all of his resources to save her.

Jack sets out on a merry chase to track down a man’s kidnapped family to try to find what was stolen from Math, retrieve it, and return it to the demon. His journey has him dealing with the worst of the worst but nothing (and no one) he hasn’t dealt with before. What I found completely fascinating and had me glued to the pages is the worldbuilding, the sheer grittiness in the descriptions of the town and its people, not to mention the harshness that overrode everything right down to the characters.

Oh the fabulousness of the horror in this story! TA Moore has written a gem filled with a world that kept me shuddering in fear as I couldn’t stop reading. The very best part though, is that maybe, hopefully, the author will write more in this world and bring Jack along for another tingling adventure.

NOTE: This book was provided by Dreamspinner Press for the purpose of a review on Rainbow Book Reviews