Nell's life is going surprising well. She has gained legal custody of her younger sister Mindy who is thriving as a "townie" girl, her sister Esther is settling down with her newborn twins and bonding with the acre of land Nell gifted her, and she's going to marry Occam before the month is out. However, the story begins with her being summoned to visit the vampire Ming of Glass who is now officially Master of the City but something is very wrong with Ming. She was always slightly erratic but now she's completely insane and sends Torquemada and his minions after Nell as a distraction. Once in Knoxville, Torquemada discovers that most of the young men thrown out of the Church carry the devil dog bloodline and he starts kidnapping and torturing them to force them to shift shape. Since there still isn't enough going on, the military has finally caught on that the Church has spawned two unique paranormal bloodlines and is willing to resort to forcing them to "work" for the government. Somehow all of this is connected to Soul's disappearance and Unit 18 pulls together like never before to stay alive and find their boss.

There have been some big developments in the Jane Yellowrock series, and since it shares shares a world with the Soulwood series, Nell and the rest of PsyLED Unit 18 are feeling the effects. While I don't read that series, a cross-over character sums it up by saying that Jane destroyed a demon and released a captive angel. In gratitude the angel "redeemed" vampires by returning their souls and said that other curses were "changed". This is apparently why Nell finds herself among insane vampires as she and Unit 18 investigate the disappearance of their upline boss, Soul. Instead of concentrating on her upcoming wedding to wereleopard Occam, Nell is fighting off ancient vampires who were once leaders of the Spanish Inquisition, including Tomas Torquemada himself. These vampires are hunting Soul and other Arcencials, light dragons, for their ability to travel into and change the past. That would be complicated enough, given that most of the local vampires are insane or true-dead, but Torquemada has managed to stumble across one of the God's Cloud of Glory Church's dirty secrets. Nell learns that the true history of the religious cult she grew up in is far more complicated, and important to her personally, than she had imagined.

Many reviews have criticized the earlier books in this series for their slow pace but Rift starts off with action and just keeps going with only a little downtime forced by a blizzard. There are big changes for almost everyone by the end but I like the new direction things are going. Nell's life is nearly unrecognizable compared to the first book and she's ready to leave the past behind her. She's not the only one. Several of the Unit 18 agents experience big changes in this book and the future looks brighter for all of them. Even the local vampires are hopeful that things are improving. Where things go from here I can't even guess and it's possible that this was the end of the series, although I hope not and Hunter hasn't said anything along those lines.

At this time the Audiobook hasn't been published and there isn't any news on when that might happen.