Book Review: The Angel Gift (Dark Word: The Angel Trials #4)

Release Date: September 30, 2018
Author: Michelle Madow
Publisher: Dreamscape Publishing
Length: 270 pages
Source: Review Copy from the Author

Everyone is separated, and no one is safe.

Raven Danvers didn’t think her life could get any crazier since the night a demon attacked her in an alley and abducted her mom.

She was wrong.

Because now that same demon has abducted her too. He’s thrown her into a secret bunker with a group of humans who have unique abilities that make them “gifted.” They don’t know what the demons want with them, and the bunker is impossible to escape.

Her only hope is Noah—the wolf shifter she’s imprinted upon. She just needs to let him know where she is. But she can’t do it alone. Her only way to get a message to him is to team up with the other humans by making use of their unique gifts.

But they have to do it fast. Because their time in the bunker is temporary. The demons are prepping them to go somewhere else… somewhere far worse than where they are now.

They don’t know what this place is.

They just know they really, really don’t want to find out.

Get ready for a magical, twist-filled ride in the fourth installment of The Angel Trials series, a fast-paced urban fantasy adventure that will leave you on the edge of your seat wanting more!

  

Review:

Protagonists: In this installment, the POV characters are switched up a bit. There’s a greater focus on Noah and Thomas, specifically Noah as I think he has the most chapters out of anyone, even Raven, in this book. We do get to see quite a bit of Raven though, as she learns more about both her captivity and her “gifted” human status. Interestingly, Sage does not narrate any chapters in this book, which makes sense due to her being forced into the blood bond at the end of the previous installment and this story does go into why her having a POV chapter wouldn’t be so interesting without actually addressing it head-on. Finally there is a new POV, or at least I think her POV is new, and that’s Mara, Azazel’s daughter, I was extremely surprised at how much I liked her chapters, sure her character arc does feel a bit tropey, but it’s a trope that I like so I’m completely on board. I really loved reading from all these characters POVs, each one (apart from the last chapter POV) had something to learn and experience over the course of this tale, except maybe Noah, which is a little disappointing, I mean there are plenty of other characters that had phenomenal development in this story, but since he has the majority of POV chapters, not to mention that he’s my favorite character, I would have liked to see some more development from him in this story and more of a purpose in this installment than just the guy who wants to get Raven back.

Romance: There was actually very little romance in this story, I mean it’s not surprising as our two main romantic couples have been separated, not to mention the fact that an individual in one of those couples, Sage, has been so fundamentally changed that she’s pretty much not the same person anymore. There is some romance in this story, though there isn’t much romantic development, and certainly no romantic development with our two main couples as they need to overcome a few obstacles before those relationships can continue to develop. The romantic development that is in this story is more laying the groundwork for another couple, Flint and Mara, finally showing Mara’s side of things and her feelings about her imprinting bond with Flint after the blood bonding ritual.

World Building: How the world Building unfolds in this installment feels a bit different than the previous installments in the series, I mean, there is expansion to the world, we start to get a better idea about what the demons are planning, in fact, I’m pretty sure I know what their endgame is, but I did leave this story with more questions than answers as to HOW they will accomplish this feat. Still, in many ways this story feels like filler, pretty open and shut in terms of the amount of story progress this installment will have, and while we have some new information and we’ve met some new people, this felt like more of an unplanned pit stop (or kidnapping, whichever you prefer) on their way to Avalon and while I didn’t expect they’d reach Avalon in this story, which they didn’t, and even though I told myself to view this story as an episode of a TV drama which helped immensely in the previous installment, this story just felt like it was missing something, maybe more about the “gifted” humans, though I suspect we’ll get more on that later, maybe another Mara chapter, maybe even an Azazel chapter, I’m not sure all I know is it feels like it’s missing SOMETHING. (Edit: About a day after writing this review I realized what that SOMETHING was, I talk about it in the conclusion.)

Predictability: Overall this installment did feel very by the numbers, there were, of course, a few moments over the course of the book that caught me off guard, such as what I think Azazel’s, and by extension many if not all of the demons’, plans are, but even then, when I’m caught off guard like that, I’m not surprised, in fact, I was only surprised two times and they were both towards the end. Also, I will say that there are a couple moments in this tale that seem a bit too easy and a bit too constructed which pulled me out of the story a few times, so I do wish things were a bit harder on our protagonists, that way they feel like they’ve really earned their victory, should they have one.

Ending: Again, as it seems the theme of this review is, the ending was pretty predictable, and while this was the only time in the entire story that I was truly surprised, that only applies to two moments in the last few chapters. The final climax is great and included one of the shocking and surprising moments, but it did play out mostly how I expected. There was also only one point during this story that I was at all confused, and that was the final chapter. In Madow’s typical Dark World form we have a final chapter from the POV of someone new, but unlike past, let’s just call them epilogues, unlike past epilogues this one didn’t have the same cliffhanger gut punch for me that it usually does, I feel like I missed some subtext or just plain text because while I felt I understood what was going on, I just didn’t feel that signature Madow stomach dropping cliffhanger, but then again, I’d rather have a calmer ending than that torture-fest and the end of the last installment.

Rating:

While I did utterly devour this installment, as I said numerous times in this review, it’s missing something, everything that’s in the book is fantastic, except for maybe the epilogue, but it's been about a day since I wrote this review and upon reflection I realized what it was missing, it was missing all of the great character interactions from the previous installments, while I love seeing our main characters interacting with newer and returning characters, because everyone's split up, there's sort of a hole left in the story that not even a fantastic story like this could fill in.

Book Review: The Angel Trap (Dark World: The Angel Trials #3)

Release Date: July 31, 2018
Author: Michelle Madow
Publisher: Dreamscape Publishing
Length: 195 pages
Source: Review Copy from Author

Be careful who you trust, or you might walk into a trap.

After putting her neck on the line to save Noah and Sage’s lives, Raven is on the brink of death. The only thing that might save her? Vampire blood.

The problem is, no one’s supposed to know that vampire blood can heal humans. Anyone who finds out will be silenced. Which means Sage and Noah need to take Raven to a vampire they can trust. But shifters don’t normally trust vampires, so they only know one vampire who fits that category.

Thomas Bettencourt is a vampire prince who rules an elite coven in Chicago. And thanks to his secret history with Sage, he might be willing to save Raven’s life. But only if they agree to his conditions.

Now they have two choices—accept Thomas’s demands, or let Raven die. And after imprinting on Raven, Noah will do anything to ensure she survives.

Even if that means making a deal with a vampire.

Get ready for more romance, adventure, and twists in The Angel Trap, the shocking third installment in The Angel Trials series!

  

Review:

Protagonists: YES!!!! I can finally call this section "Protagonists" again! Seriously though, as much as I love Raven and enjoyed seeing from her POV, her total domination of the books so far did bug me considering that The Vampire Wish series always felt more balanced when it came to other characters' POVs. Anyway, in this installment, a lot of the story is devoted to Sage, and I loved every minute of it. Sage has always been a character that I liked, but I never felt we knew all that well. We know she's a bit rebellious, okay a lot rebellious, and that she comes from the Montgomery pack, but in this story, we learn more about her past and her relationship with a certain vampire named Thomas. I loved getting to know more of Sage's backstory and the hardships she's had to endure in her life. We do finally get a few more chapters from my personal favorite character, Noah, and for those who haven't read The Vampire Wish series, we learn more about who he is and his backstory as well as what Raven may have been doing during the time her memory was most likely erased and replaced. The character development in this book, heck, this series, is fantastic, it's subtle and nothing feels like it's coming out of the blue or that it's out of character.

Romance: I've said before that the romance in this series is probably my favorite part, and that still remains true in this installment, and it's not just because there's twice the romance. While Raven and Noah are still dealing with their seemingly impossible imprint, an imprint that Raven doesn't even know about at the start of this book, Sage has some romantic drama of her own. See she has a romantic past with Thomas, it didn't end well. I wasn't sure if I would like a romance between Thomas and Sage, mainly because I didn't know much about Thomas before this book, and I have to say, even though there's one thing about him, okay maybe a couple of things, that seems sketchy about him, I actually grew to like him as a character and I really like his connection with Sage and learning more about their past together. Of course, there's more Raven/Noah romance and I lapped it up like a parched dog. I don't know why, but I really love the connection between Raven and Noah, probably because she calls him on all his crap and really, what's not to love there?

World Building: So, I've been pretty critical of the plot progression in this series, but that was before two revelations. One, that each installment in this series feels more like an episode of a series, or mini-series to be more precise (this revelation I came to on my own after reading the second installment), and two, that there will be anywhere from seven to nine installments in this series. Because of these revelations, I tempered my expectations going into this installment, and I have to say, not only was I not left disappointed, but I was actually surprised at how much plot progression there actually was in this installment. Like I've mentioned before, a lot of this installment focuses on the past, Sage's past with Thomas, Raven's missing time in "Europe," and even Noah's past. In fact, while we do get to see more of this world, and learn more of its secrets, this installment feels very character focused.

Predictability: Going into this book, as I've said before, my expectations were tempered and I thought I had a good grasp on how this would unfold, and until a certain point I was right. See, after the story moves beyond where I thought it would, I was completely caught off guard and the story just sort of went in a direction I wasn't planning on. I have to say, I love where the author is taking this story and I love how even though I knew something was going to happen, I wasn't prepared for the surprises that awaited in this book.

Ending: So, like I said, until a certain point I knew what would happen and then all hell broke loose. The final climax of this book pretty much makes up everything after where I thought the story would go. The final climax honestly just blew me away, it's not a big action scene, but I was sort of in shock from the twists and turns that were happening, the places that this story is going were shocking the heck out of me, and the tension built up never dissipated, even when the story reached the cliffhanger I'm sure many people know was coming. I mean, this might have been the most crippling cliffhanger I've read from this author yet.

Rating:

I wasn't sure I was going to give this book 5 stars until I wrote the review, because even though the author's writing isn't perfect, she tends to over explain things in the exposition a lot, the story was everything I was hoping for and more and now I'm kicking myself for reading this installment so soon, because even if she writes these books rather quickly, it's going to feel like agony waiting to see what's coming next.

Book Review: The Angel Trials (Dark World: The Angel Trials #1)

Release Date: March 19, 2018
Author: Michelle Madow
Publisher: Dreamscape Publishing
Length: 266 pages
Source: Review Copy From Author

She thought magic didn’t exist. She was so, so wrong.

Raven Danvers is a typical college student… until she’s attacked by a demon on the night of her twenty-first birthday. Luckily, she’s saved by Noah—a mysterious, sexy wolf shifter who appears and disappears in the blink of an eye.

When Raven returns home, she discovers her mom has been abducted by the same demon who came after her. And who turns up at the scene of the crime again? Noah. He’s hunting the demons who are taking humans, and he’s ultimately heading to the place where Raven needs to go to save her mom—the mystical island of Avalon.

Now Raven’s tagging along on Noah’s demon hunting mission whether he wants her there or not. And he makes it no secret that his journey would be a lot easier without her dragging him down. But Raven isn’t going anywhere, so she and Noah will have to learn to work together—if they don’t kill each other first.

  

Review:

Protagonists: Really, this section should be called Protagonist, as Raven's POV chapters take up nearly 90% of this book, I did the math, and worst of all after chapter fourteen it's only Raven's POV until the final chapter, but we'll get to that later. It isn't like I hate Raven, I don't, I like her no-nonsense, straightforward personality and she's a great character to read from, especially if you're new to The Dark World Saga, but at the same time, one of the selling points for me was getting to see more Noah who I was really intrigued by during the Vampire Wish season. We do get to see a lot of Noah, as not only does he have a few chapters in this book, but he's Raven's main love interest, but I really wish we got to see more from his POV as this is technically his series too and it would have shaken things up more after it became all Raven all the time.

Romance: Going into this story I was a bit skeptical about the romance of this series, but I was optimistic since I really want to see Noah end up happy (can you tell which character I favor?). Raven is a fantastic counterpart to Noah and I really like their dynamic together. While we don't get too much development towards a relationship between these two, the situation they're in, in regards to their feelings, is very exciting and I can't wait to see how it will progress in future installments.

World Building: So, this is totally and completely a setup book, in fact, I'll go one step farther and say that this really felt like only half of a book. Much like the second book of The Vampire Wish season, this installment felt like a whole lot of setup and zero actual pay off. I mean, it's called The Angel Trials and there aren't any actual Angels or Nephilim in this book. With this being the first book in the series, and since the author is usually very quick and turning out new installments, It's not a HUGE problem, but with how excited I was for this book I was hoping the story would develop further. I did really enjoy the additional world building in this story, most of the world building is a retread of what we learn in The Vampire Wish season, but there's a lot of new stuff about shifters that are revealed in this story that I was practically captivated by. Oh, and let's not forget a cameo appearance from one of my favorite characters, Rosella, which, I won't say how she's involved, but I nearly exploded with joy from seeing her return.

Predictability: I mean look, this book isn't that hard to figure out. While it's definitely an enjoyable adventure, or partial adventure, there isn't all much that I felt was surprising because honestly, I can only think of a couple of twists in this book at most, and they weren't all that hard to figure out. Since this book has so much set up in it, I'm sure the next installment with have a lot more twists and turns, but this book just sort of felt rather unsurprising. Scratch, that, there were two twists in this book that caught me off guard, but they were more detail based and came in the final chapter so I'll talk about that then.

Ending: Much like some of the books in The Vampire Wish season, this book ends with a new POV, who narrates the last chapter, and boy is this chapter a doozy, but I'm getting ahead of myself. Before that final chapter, we have a final climax... sort of. Honestly, the final climax of this book, while interesting, wasn't much of a final climax since it more felt like a climactic moment in the middle of a book rather than the end of one. The final chapter though, that was pretty interesting, while I figured out the gist of what was going on before this chapter, the specifics are really interesting and while it's not the same as a cliffhanger, I am left wanting more.

Rating:

When I read this book I couldn't help but draw parallels to The Vampire Prince, which I had a lot of the same problems with, but this is a promising start, and while there's really only set up in this story, at least it didn't feel like filler like The Vampire Prince nearly did.