Borrowed Souls Spares the Snark with a Vulnerable Urban Fantasy Heroine

Callie Delgado, star of Borrowed Souls, which launches Chelsea Mueller’s Soul Charmer series, has many of the qualities of her contemporaries: an unexpected ability with magic, an attraction to a mysterious leading man, and an animosity toward antagonists who want to use or abuse her hidden power. But instead of reacting with snark or putting up a great front, Callie is vulnerable.
Defeated, Callie turned and strode toward the door, realizing as she left that she was about to fail Josh. She’d do almost anything for him, but this? Working for the Charmer was too much—too terrifying if she were being honest–and too close to hitting rock bottom. The wind whirled around her, cold and unforgiving. Her hair whipped her face. Lashes she’d earned. 
Callie lives in a word where one can literally borrow a soul before committing a sin, the reasoning being the sin will stick to the borrowed soul, rather than the sinner’s real one. It seems all that’s needed to borrow a soul from the Soul Charmer is money, but when Callie, looking to save her deadbeat brother one more time, agrees to work for the Charmer as a sort of soul bounty hunter, tracking down those who have refused to return the borrowed souls, she finds out carrying an extra soul is more complicated than she ever imagined. The extra baggage gives most humans a euphoric rush, brought on by two souls trying to occupy the same space.

As she slips further into this dark world, Callie wears her fear on the outside rather than hiding it. She’s not just weighed down by family obligations, she’s chained by feelings of guilt that she hasn’t done enough to help her emotionally abusive mother or her junkie brother. Callie believes herself worthless on several levels, and Borrowed Souls shows us exactly how she got that way: the crushing responsibility of looking after herself while still a child, the feelings of abandonment, the poverty that leads her into bad choices, and the way her brother (whom she still adores for his erratic kindness) treats her with patronizing disdain.
Callie does have some things going for her: the strength to overcome fear, competence in her work, the feeling of responsibility for others, and an ability to keep her eye on the goal. Her moral compass leads to make that deal with the Charmer: she’ll work for him for two weeks in order to obtain a soul, which she’ll use to commit a crime ordered by the drug lord holding her brother hostage.
This is obviously a Very Bad Idea, and Callie knows it—but she can’t stand to see her brother hurt, as he’s the one person who tried to take care of her as a kid. She’s hasn’t moved past the tragedy of her childhood enough to see that sometimes, choosing yourself is the only right choice, toxic family ties be damned.
And then there’s Derek, the man assigned to be her temporary partner. Six feet tall, leather-clad. Muscles out to here. You know the type.

He’s the Soul Charmer’s heavy. If Callie is an open book, Derek is a mystery. He’s no stereotypical bad boy; he’s got his own gaping emotional wounds. But he seems more of a centered person, doing this work for reasons of his own. He recognizes Callie is suffering from a form of PTSD and acts accordingly, respecting her need for space until she’s ready to open up to him. He is, in many ways, kind, and he stands up for her—two things Callie never expects, nor feels she deserves.
But Derek is definitely hiding secrets of his own. I want to know more about who he is and why he does what he does—the job means he’s no innocent, even if he says he has his reasons. There’s a dark mystery there, but I suppose it will have to wait for the sequels.
Because, unquestionably, you’re going to be left with tantalizing unanswered questions: how do the Soul Charmer’s powers really work? Why is Callie so inexplicably skilled at magic? Who’s behind the Soul Charmer’s competition?
Alas, the release date for book 2 is still a mystery too. Soon, I hope.
Borrowed Souls is available now.