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
A first novel, this is also a first person account of Scout's (Jean Louise) recall of the years that led to the ending of a mystery, the breaking of her brother Jem's elbow, the death of her father's enemy — and the close of childhood years. A widower, Atticus raises his children with legal dispassion and paternal intelligence, and is ably abetted by Calpurnia, the colored cook, while the Alabama town of Maycomb, in the 1930's, remains aloof to their divergence from its tribal patterns. Scout and Jem, with their summer-time companion, Dill, find their paths free from interference — but not from dangers; their curiosity about the imprisoned Boo, whose miserable past is incorporated in their play, results in a tentative friendliness; their fears of Atticus' lack of distinction is dissipated when he shoots a mad dog; his defense of a Negro accused of raping a white girl, Mayella Ewell, is followed with avid interest and turns the rabble whites against him. Scout is the means of averting an attack on Atticus but when he loses the case it is Boo who saves Jem and Scout by killing Mayella's father when he attempts to murder them. The shadows of a beginning for black-white understanding, the persistent fight that Scout carries on against school, Jem's emergence into adulthood, Calpurnia's quiet power, and all the incidents touching on the children's "growing outward" have an attractive starchiness that keeps this southern picture pert and provocative. There is much advance interest in this book; it has been selected by the Literary Guild and Reader's Digest; it should win many friends.
Pub Date: July 11, 1960
ISBN: 0060935464
Page Count: 323
Publisher: Lippincott
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1960
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with...
Talk-show queen takes tumble as millions jeer.
Nora Bridges is a wildly popular radio spokesperson for family-first virtues, but her loyal listeners don't know that she walked out on her husband and teenaged daughters years ago and didn't look back. Now that a former lover has sold racy pix of naked Nora and horny himself to a national tabloid, her estranged daughter Ruby, an unsuccessful stand-up comic in Los Angeles, has been approached to pen a tell-all. Greedy for the fat fee she's been promised, Ruby agrees and heads for the San Juan Islands, eager to get reacquainted with the mom she plans to betray. Once in the family homestead, nasty Ruby alternately sulks and glares at her mother, who is temporarily wheelchair-bound as a result of a post-scandal car crash. Uncaring, Ruby begins writing her side of the story when she's not strolling on the beach with former sweetheart Dean Sloan, the son of wealthy socialites who basically ignored him and his gay brother Eric. Eric, now dying of cancer and also in a wheelchair, has returned to the island. This dismal threesome catch up on old times, recalling their childhood idylls on the island. After Ruby's perfect big sister Caroline shows up, there's another round of heartfelt talk. Nora gradually reveals the truth about her unloving husband and her late father's alcoholism, which led her to seek the approval of others at the cost of her own peace of mind. And so on. Ruby is aghast to discover that she doesn't know everything after all, but Dean offers her subdued comfort. Happy endings await almost everyone—except for readers of this nobly preachy snifflefest.
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with syrupy platitudes about life and love.Pub Date: March 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-609-60737-5
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2001
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