This is the story of four archangels, Uriel, Gabriel, Michael and Azrael, who were created by the ‘Old Man’ 2000 years ago, but ended up coming down to earth to search for their four archesses, who could be anywhere at all in the world (and could in fact be anywhen as well). The story is set in the modern day when Uriel goes by the name of Christopher Daniels and is a well known movie star, Gabriel is a firefighter who lives in Scotland, Michael is a New York City Police Officer and Azrael is a vampire, who performs in a rock band and is known as The Masked One.
When Uriel/Christopher meets Eleanore ‘Ellie’ Grainger, a book store clerk with the power to control the weather and heal people, he instantly realises that she is his archess. But Ellie has no knowledge of all this, and has always wondered why she has such strange powers. She finds herself irresistibly drawn to Uriel, but as the two try to form a relationship they are beset by obstacles in the form of Samael – an archangel known as The Fallen One, who was created before the others, but who was thrown over by the Old Man. He too has come to earth and like the others, has special powers, but unlike the others, he uses his powers for evil. He is known to the public as media mogul Samuel Lambent – and he is determined to claim Ellie for himself.
Will Uriel and Ellie be able to fulfil their destiny and be together – or will dark forces separate them forever?
This book is the first in ‘The Lost Angels’ series, so I assume that any subsequent books will deal with Michael, Gabriel and Azreal finding their own archesses. Although fantasy is not a favourite genre of mine, I did enjoy this book. I felt that the characters who were the best depicted were Uriel, Ellie and Samael. Samael – despite being the villain of the piece – was certainly very charismatic, but like many great villains, he had his own beliefs and moral codes, which he adhered to. He was one of the best characters, and I hope that he will be as prominent in subsequent books in the series.
The book does have a couple of sexually explicit scenes, which really wouldn’t be appropriate for younger readers, and some older readers may be put off by them (I wasn’t personally). The romance story between Ellie and Uriel was believable (in the realms of fantasy fiction), and there was plenty of excitement and lots of obstacles to keep the pace exciting.
There is no religious theme in the book – The Old Man is clearly meant to be God, and Samael is as near to the Devil as a character could be. However, there is no message here, and clearly no religious agenda of any sort. What there is, is an exciting paranormal romance story, which I enjoyed more than I expected.
The story did throw up a couple of questions however – if Ellie is only 25 years old, how can she have been created by the Old Man 2000 years ago? My assumption is that the powers of an archess are passed down in some form of reincarnation, but this is never explained. That didn’t detract from the storyline however, and only actually occurred to me once I had finished the book.
Overall, it’s a good addition to the fantasy genre, and a book that I would definitely recommend.
(I would like to thank Headline Publishing Group for sending me this book for review. Headline’s website can be found here. Heather Killough-Walden’s website can be found here.)
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Between the Pages 