 | Title: A Touch of Crimson
Sexual Content: Several graphic sex scenes Rating:
Good - A fun read with minor flaws. Maybe read an excerpt before buying. |
Description
Can a love that transcends death survive a war between angels, vampires, and lycans?
An angel with immense power and insatiable desire, Adrian Mitchell leads an elite Special Ops unit of the seraphim. His task is to punish the Fallen--angels who have become vampires--and command a restless pack of indentured lycans.
But Adrian has suffered his own punishment for becoming involved with mortals--losing the woman he loves again and again. Now, after nearly two hundred years, he has found her: Shadoe, her soul once more inhabiting a new body that doesn’t remember him. This time he won't let her go.
With no memory of her past as Shadoe, Lindsay Gibson knows only that she can't help being fiercely attracted to the smoldering, seductive male who crosses her path. Swept into a dangerous world of tumultuous passion and preternatural conflict, Lindsay is soon caught between her angel lover, her vampire father, and a full-blown lycan revolt. There’s more at stake than her love and her life--she could lose her very soul...
Review
Sylvia Day does something that I wish more paranormal authors would do: she includes a glossary at the beginning of A TOUCH OF CRIMSON. She still introduces new concepts and mythology to us throughout the course of the story in natural ways, but having that info up front helped me dive right into this book and focus just on the story and characters which mostly soared in this paranormal romance series debut.
Another thing that Day does well is juggle multiple mythologies while making them relate and connect together. There are several classes and ranks of angels, but essentially, angels who fell we’re given the choice to ingest demon blood and become lycans and eternally serve the angels, or they were stripped of their wings and souls to become vampires. The much plundered Book of Enoch provided the source material for this mythology. A band of angels now hunt down and eliminate vampires who break the rules. There are lots of interesting nuances and personal politics involved that unfortunately took a back seat the the less compelling romance.
Adrian Mitchell is the seraph who leads the angels on earth and is responsible for tearing the wings off the fallen. The irony is that he is guilty of the same offense he punishes other for committing: falling in love with a human. Lindsay Gibson is the latest human to carry the soul Adrian loves and when these two meet by chance, Lindsay doesn’t understand her reaction to him. Things get hot and heavy pretty quickly, but when Lindsay learns some of the truth, she fights her growing attraction so as not to cause Adrian to fall. Adrian, meanwhile, doesn’t share her reticence. There are some fun cat and mouse scenes between these two and Adrian embodies all the alpha male qualities that make those type of characters so appealing, but their past lives history became rather silly as it was explained and heat level was a bit hot for my taste.
Sharp eyed readers will recognize the character of seraph Adrian Mitchell from his appearance in the short story Eve of Warfare which was included in the 2010 anthology MAMMOTH BOOK OF PARANORMAL ROMANCE. Don’t worry if you missed it, A TOUCH OF CRIMSON rightly feels like the beginning of this series without any vague references to events from that short story. Overall, the writing is solid, the pacing near perfect, and the multiple mythologies intriguing and well balanced. Paranormal romance fans will appreciate the hot if occasionally messy romance and look forward to the next book in the Renegade Angels trilogy, A HUNGER SO WILD, which will be published in Summer 2012.
| 0.1 Eve of Warfare (Mammoth Book of Paranormal Romance 2) |
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I'm so with you on the paranormal glossary. I don't know how many times I've gotten lost reading a book because the author never explains what a certain species is and things like that. This sounds pretty good. I haven't picked up anything by Sylvia Day yet so I may start here.
ReplyDeleteParanormal Haven
Hey! I just finished this book for a review, too! Mine will go up next Friday. You did a wonderful job with yours!
ReplyDelete~LD
Paranormal Haven - I love a complex world as much as the next UF fan, but it can be frustrating when you forget was a term means and have to go back hunting through the book to remember. Glossaries are soooo helpful. & this was my first Sylvia Day book too. I'll definitely be back for more.
ReplyDeleteLivia - Thanks! Come leave your link when you post your review :)