Demon (The Fallen #2) - Improved from the first, but I’m actually confused as to if I even like this book
So going by my usual pattern I’ve decided to read Kristina Douglas’s angel series back to back. While the first book, Raziel, wasn’t the best, I thought the world was fairly interesting and I was willing to give the second book a go. On the plus side, Demon (The Fallen #2) definitely provided me with an unexpected experience.
While book 1 focuses on Raziel and Allie, in typical paranormal romance fashion its sequel switches to Azazel, the former leader of the Fallen who has relinquished that title after the demise of his wife. But there’s no true rest for a Fallen; he must prevent the prophecy from being fulfilled that would bring the demon, Lilith, to his arms. Throughout times she has proven herself to be the siren of sirens and defines what it means to be a man eater. This coupling could prove to be the end of the world as they know it, and its up to Azazel to end her before it begins.
Reincarnated as innocent and unassuming Rachel Fitzpatrick, Azazel attempts to lead her to the slaughter, though it becomes increasingly difficult as Rachel has no memories of her past life as the Queen of Demons. He faces a test of character and will. Will he pass? How will his ever growing feelings for her factor into the equation? Can he truly love a demon, his kind’s most hated enemy?
All of that and then some are explored in this book, which is already more than I could say for Raziel. There is certainly more action than in the prior novel and the world expands to new territory. We’re introduced to new and interesting characters that aren’t two-dimensional, which I liked. There were moments when I was emotionally invested in what was going on.
So while that’s a sign of a good book I found that my biggest issue involved the love story itself, which is really the heart of the book considering its genre. I’m a fan of a slow build more than anyone else when it comes to couples that start out as enemies and then become lovers (ie: The Hollows and my favorite ship), but this pairing’s interactions are so unappealing and he treats her so badly (even if he has feelings inside that he tries to deny), that I found it hard to actually root for them. The dynamic didn’t work for me at all since the development was far from an endearing. I just feel like this would have needed a series of books to be a natural and acceptable evolution.
While I had that issue, I do have to admit that it wasn’t a boring read. There are definitely plenty of steamy scenes, too. Angels are hott, especially ones with fangs. And no, they are still not “vampires” (though you could have fooled me). This series isn’t the best but it has a certain quality and uniqueness about it that makes me want to keep reading. Adult angel series are hard to come by, but this adequately fills the quota for me for now. So at this point, I plan to keep up with the series. Oh, and the cover is lovely! Better than the first there, too.
No Jenks for The Hollows CW adaptation?
http://kimharrison.wordpress.com/2012/05/25/so-i-wrote-a-little-fan-fic-this-morning/
Kim Harrison posted her own little piece of fan fic this morning with a bit of a cryptic message for those of you with your brains turned on. It looks like there’s a big chance there won’t be a Jenks. I can’t say I’m surprised since this is a new show; if you look up the definition of “cheap” you’d see the CW logo, but it’s still pretty disappointing.
I will watch this anyway to support Kim and The Hollows. She is just as good, if not better than the handful of authors that have made it big. I know The Hollows is my Urban Fantasy drug of choice compared to Twilight and The Vampire Diaries for sure, and we all know how big they are. But it’s just really hard not to imagine the Hollows without our staple foul-mouthed but loyal-as-all-getout pixy. What are your thoughts?
Update from Cheri:
Okay folks, Erika asked me to post this update.
I tooled around all the comments on FB and on wordpress. That’s over 300 comments, lol, anyway, Kim’s hubby Guy made a comment with hints as to what Kim meant on her fanfic. I took the hints, ran with it and came to the conclusion that the deal with the CW on the Hollows show is over. In other words it sank. She was disappointed of course, her rabid fans- not so much. She was describing what the writers were going to change from the series. First, Kisten would have been a witch and still dating Ivy. No Jenks whatsoever. Trent a crazed Rachel stalker and you can see what this would have done to the fans! Needless to say we are all sad for Kim and Guy and what this would have meant for them in financial gains not to mention a much wider future fan base. Would we have been supportive of her book-based show? Of course. Maybe sometime in the future someone with a better brain than the producers/writers with the CW will come along and make this great for the Harrison’s!
My thoughts: I just don’t get why they can’t just do it how it is in the books. They have clear guidelines that keep them from needing to think much. Even if they took out or modified Jenks’ character, what is wrong with what we already have? I just don’t get it…
Raziel (The Fallen #1) - Not bad, but it could be better
Sorry guys, I know that Firelight won the poll, but Raziel was a quicker read and I was able to finish it before the week was out. I wanted to start Firelight on a fresh note this week.
So my quest to find a fulfilling adult angel series continues, which heavily factored into my decision to read Raziel, Book 1 of The Fallen series. Allie Watson, a modern working woman in the city, bumps into a handsome stranger during her morning commute. All is well until she steps off a curb…into the path of a bus. She next finds herself in a different land and confronted once again by this stranger.
It turns out he is Raziel, a Fallen angel who guides the souls of the newly deceased to heaven or hell as ordered by the supreme being, Uriel. But once it comes to Allie, everything goes according to plan until the gates of hell surprisingly open for her and Raziel instinctually pulls her back, though he doesn’t really understand why. Lost with nowhere to really take her, he brings her to his home in Sheol, a land for other Fallen angels and their mates. It may not be safe for her there either as the other angels blame her for the inevitable consequences that will befall them for Raziel’s disobedience. They must fend off Nephilim, demonic monsters from hell that are working to break down the gates of Sheol and wreak havoc. And day by day Allie proves herself to be less ordinary as she breaks down the barriers of Raziel’s heart, much to his chagrin.
This was a short read, but it’s another book where not a lot ends up happening. I felt like it had a lot of potential with the world building, but they spend a lot of time merely discussing how Uriel and the Nephilim will be a problem. There was just too much talk and not enough action until the tail end.
The angels must drink blood in order to sustain themselves, but they consider themselves “bloodeaters” as opposed to “vampires” though Allie can’t really figure out the difference. I found this overlap amusing, if not convenient to subtly offer something that vampire fans might connect with if they aren’t strictly into angels.
Raziel and Allie have decent chemistry, though it isn’t smoldering and you shouldn’t expect much out of the starting gate. The relationship manages to build throughout the book fine enough though. We do see some focus shift to Raziel’s friend (a fellow angel) and his mate, Azazel and Sarah. That was certainly an interesting dynamic since the angels age much slower than their mates. Sarah looks like she could be Azazel’s mother, so there is some shock value there. Sarah and Allie develop a good rapport with one another and I enjoyed their fraternizing (or is it sororizing?) throughout the story.
So all in all, not a lot happens yet I’m still sort of interested in the world and where things can go next. It’s an ongoing series that does change the central character from book to book. It looks like Azazel is up next; hopefully that promises a better read. Considering the short length of these books, I actually feel pretty good about continuing on with this series since it’s not a huge investment of time.
Something Secret This Way Comes (Secret McQueen #1) - A Secret I didn’t really need to know
So I recently decided to give Secret McQueen’s world a spin. This fairly new series by author Sierra Dean focuses on Secret (yes, that’s her real name), as she takes on the supernatural underworld. She herself is a vampire/werewolf hybrid bounty hunter, giving her the best of both worlds, though neither side realizes her other half. They just know she’s a little different, and she’d like to keep it that way.
Everything is thrown upside down when a former vampire foe returns to exact revenge upon her and destroy the supernatural underworld’s secret existence as we know it. To make matters even more complicated, she meets a potential werewolf suitor…or two and her knowledge of her werewolf heritage is awakened, among other things.
There’s really not much else to it besides that if I’m being honest. The beginning started off really promising but it just didn’t sustain for me. I thought it read like fan fiction a lot of the time and the writing was on an amateur level. With such a short page count I was expecting a story that shouldn’t really drag, but I felt that it did. I can’t really put my finger on it, but the lack of originality made it a little boring for me. I also had a big problem with how her heritage is supposedly a secret from the other half. Vampires have interacted with werewolves and vice versa, so how could they not suspect that she could be a hybrid? They should know better than to buy that her job as an assassin is the reason why she “smells of death.” She takes showers and her enemies are alive when she kills them, so I just couldn’t buy that reasoning.
The characters are all pretty cookie cutter. Nobody stands out as particularly interesting or eccentric. It doesn’t help that we know right away that her love life is going to be complicated. A triangle is bad enough all its own, but there is an allusion to even more suitors being on the way and nothing turns me off more than that.
The book is a short read, but it took me quite a while to get through it. Maybe it’s because I lost my kindle and have been reading on the tablet, which I really don’t like because it makes nauseous (I read on a moving train), maybe it was my personal family issues that slowed down my motivation, maybe it just wasn’t the right time to read this book, but all I can really say is that it just didn’t do it for me.
A Blood Seduction (Vamp City #1) - Palmer’s taking no prisoners with this gutsy new series
Having lived in Washington, D.C. all of my life, I was expecting to be pretty well-versed in the environment of A Blood Seduction by Pamela Palmer. But instead we’re introduced to Washington, V.C. Nope, there are no typos there. V.C.-”Vamp City” for short-is the alternate dimension of D.C., taking us through a bit of a time warp in the process.
While not in first person, the story primarily focuses on Quinn Lennox, a scientist with NIH who always had a sneaking suspicion that she wasn’t quite normal. Strange things have happened to her and around her all of her life. She’s had this sight into a strange parallel universe that she hadn’t been able to enter until her brother’s friend goes missing.
On their mission to find her they stumble into this world by accident, separating from one another as they soon realize that they’ve been swiftly downgraded to the bottom of the food chain. Vampires, werewolves, and witches, oh my! They all exist here and vampires enslave humans to not only drink their blood, but feed on their anguish in many forms. Quinn is taken in by Arturo Mazzo, a devilishly handsome and manipulative 600-year-old vampire who realizes that Quinn is no ordinary woman. In fact, she may be the key to save V.C. But saving her brother is her top priority, so she endures the many horrors of this world. Better the devil that you know…
I devoured this book in one day. It is a departure from your typical Paranormal Romance which I tend to prefer in order to enjoy this genre. I was instantly drawn in to Palmer’s familiar, but not so familiar setting. Quinn is not the most likable heroine, but she is occasionally relatable if not a bit stupid in a few instances. Honestly, at this point I’m trying to figure out what heroine hasn’t been on occasion. It all really just goes back to her devotion to her brother.
While we do get a few scenes from Arturo’s POV, this character remains mysterious throughout the whole novel. Her relationship with Arturo is fairly complicated and I couldn’t always predict what would happen. It’s really difficult to determine his real motivations or a definitive direction for his character. This makes him genuinely intriguing and a bit more than a pretty face.
Palmer’s vampires are genuinely horrible beings, but boy are they pretty… Thankfully a lot of the scenes with them at their worst quell that appeal. I was slightly shocked at the depravity and cringe-worthiness of the vampires actions, so Palmer’s mission was accomplished to really make me hate the worst of the worst for these big bads. I’ve been looking for a bit of horror in my books and this brings a very good dose of it, more than I was expecting based on the synopsis.
Palmer also injects a lot Washington, D.C. history (more than I know personally *hangs head in shame*), but your average Washingtonian wouldn’t know half of the facts Quinn was throwing out, and it seemed a little out of character because Quinn wasn’t particularly interested in history. That’s my only real gripe about this novel.
This book is ballsy without a doubt. While I wouldn’t necessarily call this a cliffhanger, beware that this book is certainly an introduction to Vamp City. The surprise ending left me wondering the fate of certain characters as the books progress, and I desperately wish that more books were available. It’s a story you’ll either love or hate, but if you love it, the second book can’t come soon enough. This is one where you’ll definitely hope for two books per year.
*ARC provided by the author.
Apologies
Hi guys. I want to apologize for being slow going with the reviews this week. Though my last post has a few highs, this one will have a couple of lows.
1) So last Saturday after I went to see the Avengers, it was the last time I remembered having my Kindle. It looks like somehow I lost it at the theatre in the mall. I don’t know how it could have happened. I had it in a leather case and I was using it to hold my movie ticket. I remember I opened it to give my ticket to the ticket taker. After finding our seats and going to concessions, I placed my purse on the floor right between my legs for the movie, so maybe it fell out by accident if my foot shifted somehow. And obviously it was dark so I wouldn’t have easily spotted it on the floor. Maybe I didn’t lose it at all and just misplaced it in the strangest place, but for now I believe it’s completely gone. I’d been using the kindle app on my tablet as a backup, but I read on the train and it made me completely nauseous trying to focus on the words while the train is moving in all directions, so that slowed down my reading significantly. I now have a new Kindle and look to start Firelight this coming week.
2) I was disappointed about my Kindle, but on Tuesday we got news that my grandmother’s cancer returned after 10 years of remission, so that put things into perspective quite a bit. That also sort of soured my reading mood, though my family is hanging in there.
So I hope you all are having a Happy Mother’s Day if you celebrate it in your country. And please don’t take your mothers for granted.
ATTENTION HOLLOWS FANS! So I’ve got some good news and I’ve got some GREAT news!
For those of you who follow Ms. Harrison’s blog this may not be a surprise. But for those who don’t, we are getting Ever-After (Book 11) ONE MONTH EARLIER! I for one am SUPER excited about that!
Next up, I saw The Avengers this weekend (and I know I’m not alone since it grossed a record-breaking $207 million in 3 days). And I don’t know about anybody else, but I think a blond Chris Evans would make a damn fine Trent Kalamack!
I saw Captain America last year as well, but it didn’t hit me until I saw this film. Anyway, if you haven’t seen The Avengers yet, GO SEE IT! IT’S AWESOME!
Which piece of news was good and which one is great? I’ll leave that to you to figure out.
Votes are in! The next book up on deck will be…
Firelight! That won the poll, followed somewhat closely by Raziel, so I will read that next (perhaps later this week if I finish Firelight soon enough), and then I’ll read Human Sister and so on and so forth. I really appreciate the input!
Wicked as They Come - Winners Announcement!
Hi everyone! As usual, I wanted to thank all of you for participating, but now we have our 2 winners. If you posted in the comment section of the announcement thread, you were entered for a chance to win. I apologize for the late announcement, but my Internet connection has been on the fritz. Without further ado, the winners are:
sharonstogner
littleread1
Please check your emails ladies! Hope you enjoy! Thank you everyone for participating and I look forward to the next giveaway, which will be later this month!
POLL: Which book should I read next? You decide!
After slowing down a bit to read Wicked as They Come for a second time, I’m ready for another book. Unfortunately, I’m indecisive once again, guys! So when in doubt, it’s up to you! I’m calling upon your wonderful tastes to decide what will be my next read. Per usual, the sooner I read them the sooner I can review. I do plan to read all of these books. I’m just not sure of the order…
Option 1
Human Sister by Jim Bainbridge - this book was recommended to me and I decided to use my Amazon Prime account to get it for free. It seems like it has potential to be a pretty cool sci-fi read.
Option 2
Raziel (The Fallen, #1) by Kristina Douglas - it’s an ongoing Angel series and I have been really into angels these days. Looking for a great new series to follow. So far Guild Hunter is my favorite adult series, but I loved Angelfall too.
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