Books I’ve Read

Note from Jen: This review contains major plot spoilers. Stop reading NOW if you haven’t read this book yet. 

Demons, Guardians, vampires, and all the other denizens of Heaven and Hell battle each other for love and supremacy in Demon Angel by Meljean Brook. 

The book’s title sums up its two main characters – Lilith, a halfling demon whose mission is to tempt men into bargaining away their souls, and Hugh, a Guardian, or angel-like creature who protects mankind from demons, vampires, nosferatu, and other nasty things that walk the earth. 

Demon Angel has a truly epic feel, as the action spans some 800 years from Hugh and Lilith’s first meeting in 1217 England to their reunion in modern day San Francisco. That’s when the two finally team up to stop a plot by Lucifer and others to gain access to Caelum, or Heaven.  But the plot takes a backseat to the characters in this book. What makes Demon Angel so interesting is how Lilith and Hugh’s roles continually shift and evolve over time. Lilith has more than a little humanity left in her, and Hugh isn’t quiet as noble and pious as he’d like to think.  Like, for instance, when he kills Lilith. For centuries, Hugh searches for a way to release Lilith from her service to Lucifer, while struggling with his desire for her and his own burden of immortality. After breaking his Guardian vows, Hugh decides to Fall, or become human again. But before he does, he decides to save Lilith – by shoving a sword through her chest. 

Literally. 

This scene shocked me. Absolutely shocked me. (But in a good way because it was so totally unexpected. I hate books where I can see the plot twist coming 50 pages out. Don’t you?) 

How many romances have you read where the hero actually kills the heroine? And I don’t mean he turns her into a vampire or werewolf so they can be together for a thousand years. Hugh kills Lilith – dead. And then he buries her.  And this was only around page 100 (!).  I admit I had a sneaking suspicion that Lilith wasn’t dead-dead, just mostly dead. But needless to say, I had to keep reading, if only to see how Brook could possibly have Hugh redeem himself after this.  It’s hard to pull off, but Brook does it. Because killing Lilith pretty much destroys Hugh. He goes through the motions of life, but he’s not really living it. And when he finds out that Lilith is alive (albeit still bound to serve Lucifer), he feels such joy that it’s hard not to like him again. 

Lilith is a fascinating character, a creature who hates her place in the world but cannot escape it. She is charming, cunning, remorseful, and deadly. Hugh comes off as a bit of a goody-goody in comparison. Then again, evil is always more fun to play – and write. 

There’s a lot to like about this book. Brook has crafted a complex, interesting world that goes far beyond your usual we’re-vampires-and-we-drink-blood paranormal romance. The only downside is that the world is so complex, I got a little lost. For instance, I didn’t quite understand how Lilith, a demon, could make Hugh a Guardian, or angel. And the numerous double crosses in the final few chapters were a little hard to follow. 

Snappy, sexy dialogue isn’t easy to do either (especially when you start out in the 1200s), but Brook pulls it off with plenty of wit to spare. By far, the best parts of the book are when Hugh and Lilith spar, both verbally with sharp words and physically with weapons and sex. But their confrontations never stop them from seeking the best of both worlds in each other. And when they find their heart’s desire – together – is when Demon Angel truly soars. 

Big thumbs up.

Another note: This review originally appeared over at The Good, the Bad, and the Unread yesterday. And it got picked up by Reuters. Whoo! 😎

What about you? Would you read a romance where you know the hero kills or purposefully harms the heroine? Why or why not? Inquiring minds want to know …

I’m doing a guest review of Demon Angel by Meljean Brook over at The Good, the Bad, and the Unread. Surf on over and check it out. 😎

Also finished The Rare Coin Score by Richard Stark, the nom de plume of Donald E. Westlake.

The Rare Coin Score is one in a series of books about Parker, a cold, cool thief who does whatever it takes to get the job done — and who isn’t shy about killing people who get in his way.

I was really excited to read this book because this is sort of a turning point in the series. Throughout the books, Parker has had no emotionally attachments to anyone — not even to his wife who betrayed him before she killed herself. But this is the book where he hooks up with Claire, his main squeeze throughout the rest of the series.

The book follows the same pattern as the other Parker novels. Parker gets together with a crew of thieves, this time to rob a coin convention. They plan the job, go in to execute it, and things get messed up along the way — which necessitates Parker killing a couple of people.

But the scenes with Claire were what really interested me. Parker is attracted to Claire, and he hooks up with her partly to keep her in line so she’ll keep one of the other crew members in line. Yet, he does feel something for her, even if it’s only a little spark of something. At one point, Parker actually contemplates killing her, and the only real reason they go off into the sunset together is that Claire fits in with Parker’s world — not the other way around. Which is completely in keeping with his character. You can’t help but root for Parker, even if he is a cold-hearted bastard.

So, thumbs up.

Finished High Profile by Robert B. Parker. It’s his latest Jesse Stone novel.

Jesse is an alcoholic police chief who lives in a small Massachusetts town called Paradise. This time out, he’s got to solve the murders of a national radio host and his pregnant girlfriend. But really, the mystery takes a back seat to Jesse’s struggles with booze and his obsession with his ex-wife, Jenn, who claims that she was raped and is being stalked by the guy who did it. The story gets even more twisted when Jesse asks Sunny Randall, his current squeeze, to protect Jenn from her supposed stalker. (Sunny is a Boston, female P.I. who stars in another one of Parker’s series.)

I always enjoy Parker’s books and his simplistic style. If you want to know how to do good dialogue and minimal description, Parker is your man.

But this one had me shaking my head. Because the Jesse-Jenn relationship just doesn’t ring true for me. Jesse is a smart, attractive, funny guy. Sure, he has a problem with alcohol, but really, his main problem is Jenn — the fact that he loves her and can’t let her go.

Jenn is no prize. She’s a serial cheater, who sleeps with men to help her career (she’s gone from TV weather girl to reporter over the last few books). Whenever things aren’t going her way, she calls in Jesse to come and fix them, like this time with her stalker. I just don’t see why Jesse would keep on loving her. He’s even gone to a shrink to help him figure things out (another one of Parker’s signatures), and he still can’t get Jenn out of his system.

I’d had such high hopes for this after the last Sunny Randall novel, Blue Screen, where she and Jesse hook up. I thought in High Profile, they’d both move forward together. And that it would be interesting to read about the same relationship in two different series from the POV of two different people. But no, Jesse and Sunny both devolve into thinking about their exes, so much so that they decide to call it quits. (Obsessive love is another one of Parker’s major themes.)

Sorry, Robert, but I have to give this one a thumbs down for not moving forward with your characters. Here’s hoping you go back to Jesse and Sunny in the future.

What about you? What have you read lately? Inquiring minds want to know …

Finished Dark Lover by J.R. Ward last night.

This is the first book in Ward’s wildly popular Black Dagger Brotherhood series. This one is about Wrath, the last pure-blooded vampire on the planet. Wrath is the leader of the brotherhood and an absent king to his people. But that all changes when an old friend asks him to look after his half-human daughter, Beth Randall. Beth is about to become a vampire — and she has no clue about it until Wrath shows up on her doorstep.

My first thought on reading this book? That Ward writes like a man. I don’t mean it as an insult, just a note on her style. Dark Lover is tough and gritty and, well, dark. More urban fantasy than paranormal romance. This could easily be a Reacher novel by Lee Child, if Reacher was a vampire instead of merely a mortal bad-ass. Or an Earl Swagger book by Stephen Hunter.

I’ve never been a big fan of the vampire romance, mainly because I don’t think sucking someone else’s blood is sexy. And I just never got the whole blood = sex = life mystique. Plus, the market has been flooded with vampire romances in recent years, and I’ve read some pretty bad ones.

But I really enjoyed Dark Lover. Ward has crafted an imaginative, interesting world that’s far more detailed than the usual we’re-vampires-we-suck-blood you get in so many books. The terms were a little confusing at first, but the glossary in the front helped. Ward introduced a pantheon of characters (all with pretty equal screen time), but wove all of them and the story threads together in some cool, unexpected ways. My only quibble? There’s a ceremonial scene in the last third of the book that really slooowed down the action. Other than that, big thumbs up.

And I have to admit that reading Dark Lover made me want to write some fanfic. About a girl who’s family is killed by the lessers (Ward’s bad guys) and who grows up to be a warrior herself — such a kick-ass one that she wants to join the brotherhood. But they don’t want to let a human join their ranks — especially a chick. Stuff blows up. People die. There’s lots of sex. The Virgin Scribe intervenes. The conclusion is stunning and heart-wrenching and beautiful … 

Well, you get the idea. I do this a lot. Put my own spin on other people’s books, worlds, TV shows, movies. Insert my own characters into the drama in my head, rewrite scenes, add new ones. Oh yeah, and totally disregard other people’s magic/caste systems. 😎

The girl-becomes-warrior story is actually one I’ve been toying with for a while now. I’ve written a couple of versions of it, but I finally think I know what I’m going to do with it — and make it totally my own. It’s on my to-write list, after I finish Bigtime 4 …

What about you? Do you like Ward’s tough style? Hate it? Do any authors make you want to write fanfic? Inquiring minds want to know …