Book Review: The Angel Hunt (Dark World: The Angel Trials #2)

Release Date: May 17, 2018
Author: Michelle Madow
Publisher: Dreamscape Publishing
Length: 266 pages
Source: Review Copy

The hunt for demons is about to heat up.

Somehow Raven has convinced Noah and Sage—the two wolf shifters who saved her from a demon attack—to let her tag along on their quest to kill ten demons. The payoff for completing the mission? Entrance to the mystical island of Avalon, where Raven will go through trials to gain the strength she needs to save her mom’s life.

Raven wants to help the shifters on their quest. But Noah refuses to put her in any danger—which makes no sense, since he hates her. At least she thinks he hates her… until he catches her off guard and kisses her. Suddenly they’re connected in ways she doesn’t understand, and she feels closer to him than ever.

If she didn’t know any better, she’d think they imprinted on each other. But that’s impossible. Because shifters can’t imprint on humans.

And if they did imprint on each other, then the supernatural world is changing—and Raven’s right in the center of it.

Emotions will flare between Raven and Noah in the second book in The Angel Trials series, an urban fantasy adventure with romance, magic, and twists that will keep you reading long into the night!

  

Review:

Protagonist: Once again I wish I could add an "s" to the end of this section and talk about seeing various POVs in this series, but alas Raven, again, has the vast majority of the story to tell. It's not that I dislike Raven in any way, I really love how she grows and changes over the course of this book, she's still a stubborn spitfire, but in this installment, she really starts to find her groove with her demon hunter companions and starts to feel necessary to their plans of finally getting to Avalon. Raven really starts to take more control of her destiny and pushes herself further in this book. However, I still really wish that we could see from more characters' perspectives, like Noah and Sage, particularly Sage as we learn a little bit more about her and the little that we get seems like it could snowball into something great.

Romance: This is definitely where most of the attention in this installment is placed. In the first installment, the romance between Raven and Noah was merely set up, where here things are turned up to a whole new level. The romance was what really intrigued me most about the first installment, apart from the main plot, I was so interested in seeing how a relationship between Raven and Noah might work if they could never imprint (which is a word I'm not particularly a fan of as it has too many Twilight connotations for my liking, but since it's based on how many animals find a mate, I've sorta let it go.) Then I read the synopsis, and I sort of felt all my interest leave for the romance in this series, I mean, if they can just imprint anyway, where's the struggle, where's the fight to be with each other if their only known roadblock isn't actually a roadblock. All I'll say on the matter is that after reading this book, I might be even more into the romance than ever, I really like the connection between Raven and Noah, even if Noah can be a grumpy little tool sometimes, and I really enjoyed how the author chose to handle their feelings for one another, seriously it's taking so much in me to not gush out spoilers when talking about this.

World Building: Honestly, I don't even know what to write here. There is a decent amount of plot progression and world building in this book, but much like the first installment in this series, I never felt there was enough for a full installment, even by Michelle Madow standards, while we do learn quite a bit more about shifters, and we see more about how the supernatural world works outside of Vampire Kingdoms. Since a large portion of this book is much more about character development and romance, there isn't a whole lot of time to move things along, which kind of bugged me at times as I'm itching to really get things started in this series. There are so many questions hanging in the air going into this book, and I honestly aside from some romance related ones, we don't get a whole lot of answers. In a lot of ways, this felt like the second third of a book, full of action, adventure, and romance, but while the main plot and world building are not forgotten, they're more pushed off to the side for a while, only to spring up when absolutely necessary.

Predictability: There wasn't a single thing in this book that surprised me. Now, that's not the same thing as being able to predict everything, which I was pretty much able to do, but more that when there was something revealed that I didn't know, it didn't shock me in any way. I was really hoping to be surprised by something in this book, even something small, but aside from the synopsis giving a little too much detail and the things I know from the previous series, nothing here took me by surprise.

Ending: So, this was a really great ending. I mean, sure, the final climax could have been better, much like the final climax in the previous installment I felt no real emotional investment on the part of our heroes that would make it special, I mean sure they have their lives to protect and they want to make it to Avalon, both very good driving forces, but for a final climax I feel it should have more depth and mean something more to the characters, now the outcome of the final climax, there's your emotional investment, and it's a really intese few chapters leading to the end of this installment, but since I wouldn't consider that part of the final climax, even though it was to some extent, or really all extent, a byproduct of the final climax, I just wish there was more at stake before the final climax starts than after it's over. Much like nearly all of Madow's previous Dark World books, this story ends with an epilogue chapter of sorts that seems to tee up not only where Book 3 will begin but also introduces a rather interesting new character.

Rating:

So, I did like this book better than the first in this series, but it also suffers from a few of the same problems as the first one, mainly that even for a Michelle Madow book, the pacing is just off and it doesn't quite feel like a full installment, nor does it feel like the second half of an installment. I am still very invested in this series and cannot wait for the next book, I'm just hoping for something a bit more than what we have been getting.

Book Review: The Vampire Fate (Dark World: The Vampire Wish #4)

Release Date: October 5, 2017
Author: Michelle Madow
Publisher: Dreamscape Publishing
Length: TBA
Source: ARC from Author

The vampire queen is dead.

Annika shouldn’t have been able to kill the vampire queen Laila—such a task can only be done by the Nephilim, whose race is extinct. But somehow, she did kill the queen. Now she’s the number one target on multiple hit lists, and she’s only alive because she’s a fugitive at the neutral kingdom of the Haven.

As if that weren’t enough to deal with, the world is in danger and she’s the one prophesied to save it. But she doesn’t have to do it alone. When fate brings her and Prince Jacen together again, they team up on a quest to find the only object that can save the world as they know it—the Holy Grail itself.

The adventure continues in the fourth book of The Vampire Wish series, and get ready to brace yourselves, because it’s going to be a bumpy ride!

  

Review:

Characters: I seriously love the characters in this story. I mean, as much of an ax wound as Camelia is, there's a small part of me that really and truly wants her to have a happy ending, one that doesn't conflict with the more heroic characters that is. While for the most part, this is still Annika's story, and boy what a story it is, Karina definitely rules the second half of this book and the lengths that she'll go to to get her soulmate Peter back are staggering. Her mission takes a few twists and turns in this story and where it ended up had me gasping for air. Annika, after kind of, sort of, accidentally killing Queen Laila flees to the Haven where she learns of her Nephilim blood and what that means for her fate. She embarks on a dangerous quest that will determine the fate of the world and I loved every minute of it. Annika is a strong and capable character and watching her adjust to her newfound abilities, and her reactions to said abilities, is fantastic.

Romance: After the end of the previous installment, where Jacen learns that not only did Annika not die as he thought, but she deceived him for reasons he doesn't quite know or understand, their romance is sort of left up in the air. It doesn't take too long to know where things lie with these characters. The romance in this book isn't the building of relationships, in fact, all in all, most of the romances in this series have already been established and now they just get the chance to evolve and strengthen, or weaken should that be the case. I liked seeing Annika and Jacen interact truly as each other, and there were a few moments that really solidified why I root for them as a couple. As I said above, Karina will stop at next to nothing to be reunited with her soulmate, but she's bonded with Noah, the First Prophet, and that bond may or may not be romantic, throwing a possible wrench into her plans. Will she drop her mission to try and find love again, or will she risk it all for the smallest of chances to raise the dead?

World Building: So, I'll say that this story doesn't feel as much like filler (without actually being filler) as The Vampire Prince did, and honestly there is enough of a story for me to not even think of describing it as anything even adjacent to filler, but I did feel like there was something in this book. I think because I still feel like there's more to tell for just one more book, as this series is tentatively a five book series, and soon the whole it feels like it's missing something. As for what is in this story though, there's quite a bit. We learn a whole lot more about the Nephilim and the supernatural community at large. We learn more about the origins of certain supernatural(s) and there's some serious magic in this tale. Things are definitely coming to a head, though I was sad that there was no more plot progression on the cliffhanger twist at the end of the previous installment... maybe that's what was missing.

Predictability: In terms of things with actual foreshadowing to them, I pretty much nailed those "twists," I mean part of me doesn't even want to call them twists since the author's biggest twists don't usually have that much, if any, foreshadowing to them, and, well, this book had a few great twists. There are a few really interesting twists in this story that will be interesting to see explored as this series comes to a close and I can already see some seeds for the extensions to this world.

Ending: So, this ending is neither as anticlimactic as the previous one, nor does it have as mind-shattering of a cliffhanger. There is a cliffhanger, as this author loves to torture her readers, though she writes books quickly so it's not like there's a long wait, and this cliffhanger is more of one to really ponder on the ramifications rather than freak out over some big reveal. The final climax of this story is fantastic, and while I would have liked a bit less of a straight up cliffhanger on one character's story, overall I'm excited to see where this all leads.

Rating:

I'm honestly shocked I'm giving this book 5 stars, but looking back on it, even if there feels like something's off, it's not a big enough thing to get annoyed over since it probably won't be that long of a wait for the next (final?) book, and even though sometimes elements of this story might feel a tad derivative (something I didn't go into in this review to avoid spoilers) it's still a fun adventure and an exciting ride!