The Last Soul Among Wolves

De: Melissa Caruso

Narrado por: Moira Quirk

The Last Soul Among Wolves is the brilliant second installment in Melissa Caruso's Echo Archives series, a whip-smart adventure fantasy featuring cursed relics, sapphic romance, and a magical murder mystery.

All Kembral Thorne wants is to finish her maternity leave in peace. But when her best friend asks for help, she can’t say no, even if it means a visit to a run-down mansion on an isolated island for a will reading. She arrives to find an unexpected reunion of her childhood friends—plus her once-rival, now-girlfriend Rika Nonesuch, there on a mysterious job. Then the will is read, and everything goes sideways.

Eight potential heirs, half of them Kem’s oldest friends.

Three cursed relics.

The rules: one by one, the heirs will die.

The prize for the lone survivor: A wish. And wishes are always bad business.

To save their friends, Kem and Rika must race against the clock and descend into other realities once more. But the mansion is full of old secrets and new schemes, and soon the game becomes far more dangerous—and more personal—than they could have imagined.

Reseñas de la Crítica

Praise for the Echo Archives:

"A charming fantasy mystery that kept me guessing until the very last page—I completely adored this book and would read a dozen more of Kembral's adventures." —Shannon Chakraborty

“This book has everything you've been craving: sword fights, time loops, complicated feelings about parenthood, and banter with your sworn enemy. What an absolute delight!" —Alix E. Harrow

"A brilliant, breathlessly twisty fantasy adventure that I utterly adored. Melissa Caruso is a powerhouse." —Tasha Suri

" A masterpiece—filled with excitement, romance, and characters you would protect with your life. The wobbly time effects in this book reach past its pages, making hours of reading blink by in a moment. Unmissable!” —Andrea Stewart

"Equal parts sheer adventurous fun and creepy, dimension-bending tension, featuring a relatable and instantly engaging protagonist. This is totally unlike anything I've read before; Caruso has pulled off a wonderfully creative premise with skill and panache." —Freya Marske

Fantastical and mysterious and full of fun

Ms. Caruso book is enchanting; full of multidimensional characters in a multifaceted world. I keep coming back to her stories because I want to know what’s going to happen next to our intrepid adventurers. The tiny breadcrumbs she leaves throughout the novel are like delectable treats that reward and impress this mystery lover. Rich storytelling come to life from the narrator- I know who’s speaking just by the tone of her voice which is lovely. She would definitely be a member of the butterfly guild.

Another Gripping Magical Quest for Kem and Rika

I thoroughly enjoyed this sequel as much as the first book, though in a completely different way. Though I missed the sequence of descending through the echoes, I loved that this story tried something new, with a mystery, manipulation by Empyreans, and attempted reconciliation between old friends. The narration was once again top notch as well.

An exciting murder mystery in a fantastic setting

I loved this second book in Melissa Caruso’s Echo Archives series of high fantasy. It’s so well written, I felt completely immersed in the story. There are no info dumps here, and the author doesn’t spoon-feed you information, so you have to pay attention to understand the world, the characters, and the plot. I highly recommend reading the books in order, otherwise this might be confusing.

Our likable main character Kembral Thorne is a Hound—a powerful member of the guardian’s guild, and also a new mother. That’s such an unusual trait for a lead character in a fantasy story, although it didn’t affect Kembral’s thoughts and actions as much in this story as in the first book. I admire Kembral’s loyalty to her daughter, her friends, and her job, although those priorities are often in conflict.

I’m fond of Kembral’s past love interest turned adversary turned girlfriend, Rika Nonesuch, a sassy and extremely talented Cat—a member of the thieves’ guild. Rika’s such a fun character, with many secrets and a long and complicated history with Kembral that we slowly learn about throughout the course of the story. The story was also filled with many colorful side characters, and I love how it was often unclear who could be trusted.

This world has layers called Echoes, with each deeper layer becoming an increasingly strange and distorted version of the Prime reality. There are also scheming creatures called Echoes and Empyreans, who reminded me of various dark and scary tales of the fae. We didn’t get to explore the different Echo layers as much in this story as the first, but there is plenty of magic and interference from the Empyreans.

The plot, focusing on a murder mystery as well as a complicated web of secrets and deceit, easily held my attention with its twists and turns. I enjoyed the mix of magic, mystery, action, suspense, humor, and a slow-burn Sapphic romance.

The audiobook production was excellent, and Moira Quirk’s fantastic narration really contributed to my enjoyment of the story. She’s so much fun to listen to, with good pacing, clear pronunciation, distinctive voices to suit each character, and the ability to convey mood and emotion effectively. The story works very well as an audiobook, and it includes a downloadable PDF of maps.

This story has a satisfying ending, but I want to know more about these characters and this world, so I am eagerly awaiting Book 3. I recommend this book for fans of epic fantasies involving scheming fae-like beings.

Favorite Series of All Time

I adored the first book, I absolutely fell in love with the series in this one. I cannot begin to sing the praises this series deserves. It has become my absolute favorite. I only want more and more of it.

An absolute blast that I hope becomes a series

i loved this one as much as the first, and i LOVE that there is going to be a third. i <i>really</i> hope this becomes a series. the world is so interesting and unique and i AODRE kem as a protagonist and i ADORE rika as her love interest. it was so fun seeing them as an established couple now, though still new and figuring their dynamic out while getting into whacky echo nonsense! this is just, such a fun premise for being able to have some shenanagins that the girls get into, with the overarching emperyan arc following them. i just... really love this world and these characters, and i love getting to follow an established sapphic couple!! i wish we had more series where that happens and i really really hope this one goes beyond a third bc yeah, trilogies are fun but i feel like we hardly get longer series with sapphics at the forefront, and i adore these ones so much and it has such potential to go and explore longer. i cannot rec these two enough and i will be pre-ordering the third the second that i can same as i did with this one. i listened on audio and read along and moira quirk was as fantastic as always. i really love her voice for rika, it's so dreamy.

if you like fantasy and sapphics and shenanagians i cannot rec this enough. i want 6 and then a movie pls and thank.