A tale about Lucifer’s son that deftly draws in readers with engrossing characters and room for expansion.
An ancient warrior on Earth for centuries falls in love with a human woman, which may make him vulnerable to his evil, demon-controlling father in this debut paranormal romance.
It seems Barakiel, the spawn of Lucifer, is paying for his father’s sins. He’s a Covalent, beings that long ago bonded the Creative and Destruction Realms and have since maintained Balance. When Lucifer challenges the Council Forces with a demon horde and the Corrupted (rebellious Covalent warriors), the Council, fearing Barakiel may join his dad’s side, banishes him to the Earthly Realm. After 12 centuries, give or take, on Earth, occasionally battling Lucifer’s minions, Barakiel is far from content. But this changes when he meets FBI Special Agent Alexandra “Zan” O’Gara, at his door for his expertise on antique knives related to a murder case. A mutual attraction is instantaneous, and torrid physical encounters are soon complemented by an emotional connection. Barakiel’s “minder,” Pellus, with him for the entirety of his exile, is understandably concerned, as a relationship with a human defies Covalent Law. The couple’s romance hits a snag once Zan finally tires of Barakiel’s secretive, out-of-town business trips, and Pellus is convinced a fed’s background check will expose a bogus history. Lucifer, meanwhile, has something in play to provoke Barakiel into losing Balance, his primary source of power and strength. The author’s amalgamation of genres is impressive, mixing romance, erotica, and supernatural elements with an ongoing FBI investigation. There’s an eventual shift, somewhat disappointingly, to the couple’s relationship, though subplots stick around until the end. Explicit sex scenes and violent, demon-slicing clashes make the narrative decidedly adult. But Doyle excels at the dramatic, surprisingly realistic romance. Smitten Zan, for one, willingly overlooks Barakiel’s increasingly erratic behavior, like constant ambivalence (should he tell the Council about Zan?), that’s reminiscent of depression. Barakiel, too, is impetuously passionate, even if his tender words are cliché: “You don’t have to make yourself beautiful, Zan. You just are beautiful.” The father-son dynamic has potential for pure epicness in later books, while Zan’s more sensible FBI partner, Mel, who recognizes Barakiel as “the strangest fucking guy,” will hopefully earn more of a spotlight.
A tale about Lucifer’s son that deftly draws in readers with engrossing characters and room for expansion.Pub Date: March 19, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-9972985-2-9
Page Count: 426
Publisher: Fairhill Publishing
Review Posted Online: June 13, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.
Sisters work together to solve a child-abandonment case.
Ellie and Julia Cates have never been close. Julia is shy and brainy; Ellie gets by on charm and looks. Their differences must be tossed aside when a traumatized young girl wanders in from the forest into their hometown in Washington. The sisters’ professional skills are put to the test. Julia is a world-renowned child psychologist who has lost her edge. She is reeling from a case that went publicly sour. Though she was cleared of all wrongdoing, Julia’s name was tarnished, forcing her to shutter her Beverly Hills practice. Ellie Barton is the local police chief in Rain Valley, who’s never faced a tougher case. This is her chance to prove she is more than just a fading homecoming queen, but a scarcity of clues and a reluctant victim make locating the girl’s parents nearly impossible. Ellie places an SOS call to her sister; she needs an expert to rehabilitate this wild-child who has been living outside of civilization for years. Confronted with her professional demons, Julia once again has the opportunity to display her talents and salvage her reputation. Hannah (The Things We Do for Love, 2004, etc.) is at her best when writing from the girl’s perspective. The feral wolf-child keeps the reader interested long after the other, transparent characters have grown tiresome. Hannah’s torturously over-written romance passages are stale, but there are surprises in store as the sisters set about unearthing Alice’s past and creating a home for her.
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.Pub Date: March 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-345-46752-3
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2005
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.
A violent surfacing of adolescence (which has little in common with Tarkington's earlier, broadly comic, Seventeen) has a compulsive impact.
"Nobody big except me" is the dream world of Holden Caulfield and his first person story is down to the basic, drab English of the pre-collegiate. For Holden is now being bounced from fancy prep, and, after a vicious evening with hall- and roommates, heads for New York to try to keep his latest failure from his parents. He tries to have a wild evening (all he does is pay the check), is terrorized by the hotel elevator man and his on-call whore, has a date with a girl he likes—and hates, sees his 10 year old sister, Phoebe. He also visits a sympathetic English teacher after trying on a drunken session, and when he keeps his date with Phoebe, who turns up with her suitcase to join him on his flight, he heads home to a hospital siege. This is tender and true, and impossible, in its picture of the old hells of young boys, the lonesomeness and tentative attempts to be mature and secure, the awful block between youth and being grown-up, the fright and sickness that humans and their behavior cause the challenging, the dramatization of the big bang. It is a sorry little worm's view of the off-beat of adult pressure, of contemporary strictures and conformity, of sentiment….
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.Pub Date: June 15, 1951
ISBN: 0316769177
Page Count: -
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1951
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
APPRECIATIONS
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