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Publisher:
Jove
Release Date:
April 29, 2008
Genres:
Paranormal Romance
ISBN:
eBook
No
ISBN
Print
9780515144628
Bookmark Rating:
Reviewed by
Jennifer Ray
Review Posted:
April 2008
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Sucked into the morass of human emotions and temptation, Gabriel was cast
down from his status as angel, and is now one of the
Fallen, a demon. For
many years he let himself wallow in addiction and remorse, a situation only
worsened by the murder of his mistress while he was in an absinthe-induced
stupor in an 1880s brothel. Could the potent liquor have propelled him into
a temporary madness that caused him to kill the beautiful young woman in the
room with him, or did someone else perform the heinous deed while he himself
was comatose? Thanks to his more than inebriated state, he cannot remember,
and so suffers from the maddening uncertainty on top of his assumed guilt.
Cut to the present day: Gabriel now has his addictions reigned in, although
he still struggles with them. But he is obsessed with the terrible night he
still can’t recall, and determining the truth of what happened to the lovely
Anne.
Now another woman has been killed, and it is almost identical to Anne’s
murder over a hundred years earlier. Coincidence? Gabriel is determined to
find out, and who better to help him research it than the new victim’s own
daughter.
Still reeling from her mother’s violent death and the subsequent trial that
left the case still unsolved, Sara descended into her own addiction. Frail
and uncertain, she can think of no better way to get on with her life than
to help true crime novelist Gabriel St. John unravel the mystery of a
century-old murder. He doesn’t need to know that the victim involved his
her very own great-great-great-grandmother, nor does she plan on telling him
the same cycle of violence has been perpetrated on almost every female
descendent since. Sara will do anything it takes to prevent the same fate
from befalling herself.
On the heels of her most intriguing beginning to the SEVEN DEADLY SINS
series, MY IMMORTAL, Erin McCarthy releases a sequel that is
equally as dark and compelling as the first book. FALLEN is
everything you would expect if you read the first story, but is filled with
plenty of its own surprises.
While the story is
undoubtedly romantic, and the attraction between Sara and Gabriel pretty
intense, the mystery is as important a part of this story as the romance. I,
for one, was immensely pleased with the twists Ms. McCarthy delivered in
FALLEN, and would like to state for the record that I didn’t quite
deduce them all before the big reveal happened. I grew up reading mysteries,
and developed quite a knack for figuring the ‘whodunit’ ahead of time, so when a
book is able to surprise me, I am quite delighted.
One thing I wasn’t quite as fond of was the numerous news stories and reports.
Both of the SEVEN DEADLY SIN books tell stories that began
centuries ago, and understanding what happened in the past is a vital part of
what is happening to the heroes in the current day. In MY IMMORTAL,
the author tells the back history with flashbacks that involve other characters,
which I loved. With FALLEN, the back story is told through the
articles and reports that Gabriel is using to research the murders, and I found
them to be somewhat impersonal, and caused those sections to drag for me a
little. The articles contained important information for the story, but it was
just a little more difficult for me to read them.
One of my closest friends has also read FALLEN, however, and the
news stories never bothered her a bit. So, I think this is not so much a fault
with the writing or the story, but a matter of the reader’s personal tastes. We
each bring our own preferences and experiences to every story we read, and as
such we perceive each book a bit differently that the next person.
All that said, I wouldn’t have missed this book for the world. FALLEN
is a great story of love and redemption in what is becoming for me an addictive
series. Erin McCarthy has proven once again that she has what it takes to draw
realistic characters with whom readers can easily empathize amidst the backdrop
of a wonderfully rich paranormal world. Combine those elements with a poignant
love story and this book is a keeper!
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