A commendable follow-up with otherworldly action, down-to-earth melodrama, and sensuality in between.
An FBI agent’s devastated when she learns her boyfriend’s a supernatural warrior—and Lucifer’s son—in this second installment of a paranormal romance series.
Special agent Alexandra “Zan” O’Gara responds quickly to boyfriend Rainer Barakiel’s frantic phone call warning her that his enemies are coming after her. She defends herself and her apartment from what turn out to be “scaly, slobbering monsters.” But the biggest shock is Barakiel, who, upon his arrival, kills the beasts with superhuman speed. Barakiel’s a Covalent from another dimension who’s been vanquishing demons in the Earthly Realm for almost 1,300 years. Unfortunately, though he and Zan have been lovers for some time, he hasn’t quite gotten around to telling her what he truly is. Upset by Barakiel’s lies, Zan tries to end their relationship, but it’s far from easy. His evil father, Lucifer, has targeted his son and, aware of Barakiel’s love for Zan, will likely continue sending demons her way through dimensional rifts. Barakiel and his mentor, Pellus, suspect a traitor among the Covalent is helping Lucifer—a traveler, like Pellus, who can detect and navigate rifts. But regardless of how hard they try, deeply in love Zan and Barakiel simply can’t stay away from each other. Doyle (The Passion Season, 2016) deftly injects turbulence into the recurring couple’s romance: Zan’s distress is understandable, while Barakiel’s resultant behavior is akin to stalking, adamantly refusing to leave her alone even when she demands he do so. Their mutual allure is often purely physical, as that seems to be what’s continually drawing Zan back to Barakiel: “He’s so hot, I am going to die.” The sex scenes, however, are unquestionably ardent and provocative. A subplot involving Zan and her FBI partner, Mel Romani, working a human trafficking case is primarily a wrap-up, having started in the preceding novel. The possibility of a betrayer, meanwhile, is more intriguing, ultimately launching an explosive final act in which the Covalent and the feds rally together.
A commendable follow-up with otherworldly action, down-to-earth melodrama, and sensuality in between.Pub Date: Dec. 2, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-9972985-1-2
Page Count: 412
Publisher: Fairhill Publishing
Review Posted Online: March 7, 2017
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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