Review – Angel of Darkness by Cynthia Eden

Publisher: Kensington
Publish Date: Out now!
How I got this book: From the Publisher

As an angel of death, Keenan’s job is to collect the souls on his list. He’s carried out his duty for two thousand years and never faltered once. Until he meets Nicole St. James. When the moment of death comes, Keenan hesitates, and instead of taking Nicole, Keenan touches the vampire who’s attacking her.
Cast out of heaven for disobedience, Keenan plummets to earth. Six months later, he finally manages to track Nicole to a bar in Mexico. He’s stunned to discover that the woman he remembers has undergone a dramatic change—she’s become a vampire. And when he realizes that she’s the target of all manner of enemies—other vampires, demons, even shifters—he’ll do whatever it takes to protect her, even if all hell breaks loose…
This blurb came from the author’s website here.

Ms Eden has written in several different genres from her paranormal romances to romantic suspense to some paranormal e-novellas. I have enjoyed her writing style in all of them although I prefer her paranormal romance because her romantic suspense scares the living daylights out of me. I found Ms Eden’s world-building in her previous paranormal series to be extremely interesting as well as populating that world with complex characters so I was looking forward to seeing what she was going to provide in this story.

After reading the beginning of ANGEL OF DARKNESS I started to wonder if Ms Eden was pulling some of what she used in her romantic suspense because I have never read such a descriptive vampire attack including the victim’s trauma. I could almost feel the mental struggle that Keenan experienced as he watched that attack and then his total shock when he discovered Nicole six months later.

Both Nicole and Keenan had serious emotional healing to do. Nicole due to the attack and its aftermath while Keenan was trying to come to terms with becoming one of The Fallen. They both blame each other for the abrupt change in their lives but end up having to rely on one other to survive. As the plot thickens Nicole and Keenan discover that not everyone is how they seem including themselves.

Ms Eden has this way of providing additional information to the reader so you know a little bit more about different characters’ motivation then the hero and heroine but not enough so that you have all the answers. I was carried on the same journey as Nicole and Keenan. I think that technique serves to make me more invested in the story because now I want to see what will happen when/if those bits of information are discovered by the characters. I knew this would have a Happily Ever After (HEA) but I was not expecting all of the complications that the characters had to survive, literally, to get their HEA. I think Nicole and Keenan certainly fit the saying that, “you value what you have to work for.”

I think my favorite subtle surprise was finding out that this book is set in the same world as her other paranormal romances. Makes me wonder about how much more is still unrevealed in her world. I can’t say much more about the parts I really enjoyed because I think the discovery of the various twists and turns is part of what made this read so wonderful.

I give ANGEL OF DARKNESS an A.

Links to purchase:

Kindle eBook | Amazon Book | Barnes & Noble