BLOG TOUR! GIVEAWAY & REVIEW: OLDSOUL by Dan Haring

Welcome to the Oldsoul Blog Tour, hosted by CubicleBlindness. This is my first Blog Tour, so I’m pretty happy to be a part of it. There are two parts to this post: first, my review of Dan’s book Oldsoul. And after the review, a giveaway of a signed ARC of the book and a bookmark!  Don’t forget to enter the giveaway here.

I ran into Dan Haring during the Apocalypsies YAmazing Race (well, not literally, ‘cause it was on the internet) and asked if I could review Oldsoul on my blog. He was nice enough to send me a copy, and I’m so glad I read it, because it has an original hook that made me want to keep reading.

Jason is a young cop on patrol one night with his partner Marty, when they are caught scoping out a secret meeting of a notorious Italian crime family.  As he comes to after being beaten and tied up, Jason hears a voice in his head telling him to hold on, and all hell breaks loose as a group of weapon-wielding vigilantes comes to his rescue. Confused, bleeding, and in pain, Jason later wakes up in a strange room, and his new life begins. According to his new friends Solon and Mela, he is an “Oldsoul,” a vessel for hundreds of reincarnated souls, who all reside within Jason.  Better still, he is automatically equipped with each soul’s particular talents and knowledge.  The speaker for the group is a soul named Erin, a young girl whom Jason gets to know quite well as the story progresses, as they learn to converse with each other without speaking aloud.

Solon also explains that the Oldsouls are facing war with the Athanatos, immortal beings who want to destroy the Oldsouls. Luckily, the Oldsouls have a weapon that can drastically hinder, if not kill, the Athanatos: their own blood. (Likewise, Athanatos blood is dangerous to Oldsouls.) Coincidentally, Jason just happens to be the Oldsoul known as the Ancient of Days, the one who is destined to defeat the enemy. The Oldsouls have a mission to keep their race going, and their best chance at survival, Jason, is finally part of the team.

The action is fast and furious as the Oldsouls try to stop the evil Athanatos Moravec. Along the way, Jason is stunned to meet up with several lost family members, including his father, who turns out to be an Athanatos himself, and his dead Grandfather, whom he meets up with in his dreams.  When Jason discovers he has several startling abilities, including the power to heal himself, the pieces of his parentage begin to fall into place. In order to triumph, Jason must come to terms with his new talents and accept the help of his souls.

Haring wisely includes a love interest for Jason, the beautiful Mela, who is also an Oldsoul. The Oldsouls may need Jason to help them win their battle, but Jason’s priorities clearly involve getting closer to Mela, and later after she is kidnapped during a dangerous mission, rescuing her. Strangely enough, I felt the more interesting female character was Erin, whose wicked humor and sarcasm were much more engaging than the cookie-cutter Mela’s.  Although Mela has had combat training and joins in fights with the others, I could imagine Erin doing much better in battle, and not managing to get herself kidnapped to boot. And Erin has a mystery to solve: her mortal life ended in murder, and Jason has sworn to help her discover the identity of her killer.

I enjoyed the unique concept of Oldsoul, a variation on the idea of reincarnation.  As an Oldsoul, Jason will eventually be reborn in another body when he dies, and all the souls in his head, including the wonderful Erin, will be there with him. Haring’s story is action-packed but filled with humor as well.  His use of present tense throughout, which I usually don’t like, worked well this time and made the action and emotion in the story seem palpable, especially since Jason is telling the story.  Characters abound in Oldsoul, perhaps too many, and I couldn’t begin to list them all here if I tried.  But they are all well-drawn and add depth to the plot, and most readers won’t have trouble keeping track of them.  My one complaint is that the dialog was too clichéd and predictable, and made the love story between Jason and Mela less than believable.   But Haring has time to work on his dialog. He’s young, after all, and has many more books in him, I’ll bet.  I for one will be waiting in line for his next story.

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Now for the Giveaway! Dan has been kind enough to offer up a signed coveted copy of the Oldsoul ARC and an Oldsoul bookmark:

Here’s the ARC ( bookmark not shown but I’m sure it’s cool). All you have to do to enter is click here and fill out the entry form. Please note, this giveaway is only open to US residents! Giveaway ends Saturday April 7th at midnight PST.

For the next leg of the tour, hop on over to  http://www.electrifyingreviews.com/ tomorrow, Monday April 2 for an interview with Dan!

The Kindle and Nook versions of Oldsoul are available now! And the paperback will be available on April 24th.

You can visit Dan’s website here.

Purchase Oldsoul on Kindle.

Purchase Oldsoul on Nook.

Many thanks to Krista at CubicleBlindness for organzing the tour.