Book Review: Birthright by Jessica Ruddick

Author: Jessica Ruddick
Title: Birthright (Legacy #1)
Genre: YA, Paranormal, Fantasy, & Romance
Pages: ebook
Published: March 20th 2017
Where I Got It: My shelf (Amazon Freebie)

How do you live with yourself when you decide who dies?

Ava Parks would have killed for an iPod for her sixteenth birthday. Anything would have been better than coming into her birthright of being a seeker for the Grim Reaper, an arrangement made by her fallen angel ancestor in exchange for his re-admittance to heaven. And she isn't just any seeker--she finds souls that have the potential for becoming angels and sentences them to death. A year and two souls into her role as a seeker with her conscience overflowing with guilt, Ava comes up with a plan to thwart the system. When it goes awry, she is forced to submit the name of a classmate, Cole Fowler, an ornery, rough around the edges guy who always seems to come to her rescue, whether she likes it or not. Her feelings for Cole prompt her to intervene, and she saves him from death, upsetting the Grim Reaper's agenda.

While Ava schemes to find a way to save Cole, she learns he has some secrets of his own. She lets him believe he is protecting her, and not the other way around, until a final showdown with the Grim Reaper forces Ava to make choices Cole may never forgive. 

Well – I like the cover but it doesn’t really fit the book. I remember reading the summary when I first picked up this freebie…but it has been so long that I was shocked when reading it. 

The story follows Ava who got a terrible birthday gift a year previous. She is a seeker for the Grim Reaper. What is that you ask? A crappy job that is what that is! She descends from a fallen angel who made an arrangement that all his descendants would work for the Grim Reaper so he could get into heaven. What a selfish jerk!!! A seeker has to find people who have souls that are white and then submit their name to be taken. There is a lot more to it, but that is the jest. 

Ava has been doing this for a year and has submitted a couple of names and it is killing her. It’s rough. While on the search for another name, she meets Cole who has a white soul. Of course, right? Through some events, she actually grows to like him and him her. Things happen and Ava has to make a decision. 

This was a refreshing breathe of air in this YA paranormal genre. A fresh concept and fresh characters. It was nice and gave me hope for the genre. 

Ava was an interesting character. I wanted to know more about her mom too. The mom has a past and I feel so bad for her. These two are doomed with a horrible job. I am curious about Xavier as well. Who are you sir? I wasn’t a huge fan of Cole. He was an asshat the majority of the book. 

The story started off strong and I was highly invested. I did lose interest about halfway or so. I kept trekking onwards, but it lost some steam. Everything became all about Cole and blah blah. Ugh. I wished there wasn’t a love interest right away. I feel it deflated the story a bit. Don’t get me wrong, the love interest does make it compelling, but I feel like it happened too fast and maybe someone more deserving. Ava needed someone better. Cole was a jerk. 

In the end, I did like this overall. I felt a little deflated when Ava got obsessed. The love happened to fast and I didn’t like Cole. But yes, an interesting concept that kept me hooked. It was a nice change! I’ll give this 3 stars.