Members with This Book
Newest Reviews
see all reviews-
“Review courtesy of Dark Faerie Tales.
Dark Faerie Tales wrote this review Thursday, February 14, 2013. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
Quick & Dirty: Potentially great story about an Archangel falls short of my expectations.
Opening Sentence: Aurora Robinson counted seventeen steps east of the ancient oak, three steps north, and then narrowed her eyes at the woodland that bordered her family’s property ten feet in front of her.
The Review:
Archangel of Mercy by Christina Ashcroft has a pretty hot cover. Like in most paranormal romances, Ashcroft promises heat, and lots of it. I would categorize Archangel of Mercy more as an erotica, rather than a romance, so you know there will be a lot of sexy times. Just from the first few pages, it was starting to steam up my glasses. Angel romance does that, but I’m picky. Archangel of Mercy started out great, but slowly lost my attention.
Aurora Robinson yearns to find out more about her mother’s heritage and her past. In order to do so, she opens a rift between dimensions. Consequently, she manages to bring an Archangel, Gabriel, to her as well as alert the paranormal authorities, the Guardians. As a psychic, Aurora can retain her mother’s memories through dimensional rifts. What she doesn’t expect is an out-of-this-world with Gabriel. He brings her to his private sanctum to protect her from the Guardians and herself. Together, they reluctantly discover more about each other than they have before.
Aurora is a good character, but I was concerned about how quickly she gave in. She is a woman with an undiscovered past with psychic abilities. She can open dimensions, but quickly falls for an Archangel that oozes sex. She falls into lust with Gabriel just from a single look. After a few moments (or days) of sexual lust, she thinks clearly and carries out actions that I question.
I had a love and hate relationship with Gabe. I liked his sex appeal. What romance story would be successful without a hunky leading man? But I didn’t like how he was written. Well, not all of him at least. His attitude as an Archangel left me with a feeling of disappointment. My preference of leading men do not include forceful and aggressive personalities. He calmed down his actions near the end of the story, and maybe that’s the whole point, but I could not connect with him at all.
My focus was lost several times, causing my interest to disconnect from the story. The original objective, finding out about her mom, was lost within the sex, hiding from the Guardians, finding out about Gabe’s past, and more sex. The beginning pulled me in, but it went away as Ashcroft introduced more details into the mix. I didn’t think that the reasons were explained thoroughly and I often had to go back and piece things together.
I was excited to read this paranormal romance with an archangel. I just didn’t think Archangel of Mercy was for me. I didn’t find out much about Gabe’s world, at least not fully, and I didn’t think I found out enough about Aurora’s either. I wanted more of this and less of that, but again, this is how my mind prefers things. I would give Archangel of Mercy a try, because those scenes are steamy and hot.
Notable Scene:
The necklace that had haunted her dreams for as long as she could remember. Recurring, endless dreams of rainbows and gold dust and magnificent jewel-like butterfly wings had been her nightly companion as a child. And as an adult she had sought to capture the dream, to make it a reality. To her dad’s horror she’d used a good chunk of her grandmother’s inheritance to commission the piece from one of the top London jewelers.
She’d never seen anything similar to it before. Yet here, in an angel’s treasured painting, was her beloved butterfly necklace’s twin.
It couldn’t be coincidence. There had to be a connection even if for the life of her she couldn’t imagine what.
Besides, it was a lot easier to focus on that than the mind-shattering reality that she’d been saved by an angel.
FTC Advisory: Berkley Trade/Penguin provided me with a copy of Archangel of Mercy. No goody bags, sponsorships, “material connections,” or bribes were exchanged for my review.”
“2.5 Stars
Under The Covers Book Blog wrote this review Saturday, December 29, 2012. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
Reviewed by FRANCESCA & posted at Under the Covers Book Blog
The writing in itself was very good and it flowed." ~Under the Covers
You know what they say...never judge a book by its cover. I'm sad to say that this was totally the case here. I saw the beautiful cover and had to read it. I started the book and it didn't grab me right away, so I put it down for a bit. Then I finally picked it up again and... well lets just say that I tried to be open minded but had quite a bit of trouble with this book.
See, it's really hard to enjoy a book when the hero is egotistical (most of the time, there were a few exceptions) and the heroine tries so hard at being tough and kick ass that she just annoys the hell out of me. Yes, I'm sad to say this is a heroine I would gladly stab... repeatedly. Just when I thought she was getting a little better she would do something stupid again that would make me cringe or pull my hair out. I'm actually not sure if I disliked her more, or maybe it was the hero. But they were very close in that department. Although towards the end I could say at least he redeemed himself a bit while she stayed annoying. So yes, she wins.
But enough of that. The writing in itself was very good and it flowed. It was actually a fast read. The storyline had a lot of potential that was never developed, but maybe it suffered a bit from all the pointless sex the book had. Yes, I just said pointless sex. Something is wrong with me. *Checks forehead for temperature* But if I start to feel the need to skim a sex scene, there is a problem. And I found myself wanting to do that a lot in this book.
So what can you expect of this book? Well, fallen angels and Archangels with a bit of a chip on their shoulder, who really need to work on their attitude and how they use women. A story about lovers getting a second chance at love (that is quite obvious from early on). An undeveloped (to my taste) side story about a missing girl that is talked about in the first 20% of the book and then gets pushed aside by all the sex and doesn't pick back up until the very end. Oh and the mix of sci fi with PNR that I'm not sure I was all too excited to see (aka aliens traveling through lightening, fallen angel battling said aliens to protect human half-ling soulmate).
In the end, although I should say that I was happy with how things turned out and how they got their HEA, all I could do was sigh in relief that it was done before I had to subject to my friends to anymore text messages about what was going on in the book. But no worries, the pretty cover was not harmed in my fits of wanting to throw the book across the room.
*Review copy provided by publisher ”
Displaying 1-2 of 2
