Publisher: Signet
Publish Date:Out now
How I got this book: ARC from the publisher via Netgalley
Since the beginning of time, the archangels have longed to know true love.
When four female angels were created for the four archangels, Michael, Gabriel, Uriel, and Azrael, a chaos spurred by jealousy erupted, and the archesses were secreted away to Earth. The four favored archangels followed, prompting a search that has lasted millennia…
For hundreds of years, Gabriel has passed himself off as a common Scottish villager. Few know he is the Messenger, a powerful archangel who has secretly scoured the world for the only woman who can complete him. Now, he’s shocked to discover the object of his desire in his own backyard.
Researching her Ph.D. in the Outer Hebrides, Juliette Anderson has always been the rational type—until she looks across a quaint pub into the silver eyes of a stranger. He’s handsome. He’s intense. And he claims her with a searing kiss on the spot.
Every instinct tells her to run. But when a dark force rises, and the truth of her identity is revealed, she must put her faith in the mysterious man who enflames her.
This blurb came from Goodreads.
Back in November I did a joint review with MinnChica on the first book of this series Avenger’s Angel. As I stated in that review I thought the series had potential, so when we were offered a chance to review Messenger’s Angel I went ahead and accepted. Unfortunately this one really didn’t keep my interest.
The three remaining single archangels, now aware that their archesses do exist have hopes that they will encounter them but have not restarted searching. In fact they seemed to just continue their normal existence as they have for thousands of years. They also did not seem to be making any effort towards tracking down the hiding spot of the Adarians even after their experiences with them in Avenger’s Angel. If anything the impression I received of Gabriel was one who was tired of things staying in the same pattern but at the same time not doing anything to change that pattern. On the other hand the Adarians were actively looking for the archesses as well as trying to come up with new ways to rid the world of the archangels. Their leader was certainly evil incarnate and while he had led his men for thousands of years and never actively betrayed any, he had made the decision that it was time to sacrifice the weaker of their number in order to gain a greater advantage over the archangels and therefore the ability to take the archesses for their powers.
Juliette had only recently discovered the fact that she had the ability to do certain things and still really didn’t believe or understand it. While I am sure she was extremely intelligent in her field, outside of that she struck me as not having any common sense and in fact prone to having To Stupid To Live (TSTL) moments which conveniently bring her into the grasp of the Adarians on more then one occasion. She signs a contract with Sam regarding some particular historical research, which brings her to Gabriel’s location. From there she encounters Gabriel, the Adarians, Sam and Lilith. She sways between disbelief, anger and eager acceptance/lust/love. I was not able to buy into her complete switch from anger and hurt at Gabriel’s lies of omission to love/lust during a date that he forced on her. She also had some other strange mental epiphanies that just happened.
I was not very impressed with Gabriel. His method of wooing Juliette consisted of getting personal information that his brother Azrael pulled from her mind and using that to create “perfect dates” etc. Yes he did risk his life for her and tried several times to get her to go to safety, which she didn’t do, but he seemed to be under the impression that he did not need to know who she was as a person or allow her to know him. If he was concerned about what the Adarians were doing and how it would impact not just his archess but those of his brothers’ then he would have made information sharing a priority like they did in the first book.
I found that the things I liked about the first book were sadly lacking in this second installment. Lilith, who played an important role in the first book, appeared to be a shadow of herself without any influence or will of her own. Sam continued manipulating things behind the scenes using his contracts and a few other things but I never had any doubt whose side he was working on. Granted I don’t know his ultimate goal yet but I never had a sense of ambiguity regarding his motives. The interaction between the four brothers outside of fighting the Adarians was extremely limited. The lead-up to the identification of the next archess was extremely obvious from the very first mention of her name. I also noticed some continuity issues for example regarding stolen luggage that then somehow re-appears intact. As a result of the cardboard characters and continuity issues, the potential that I saw in the first book failed to materialize here resulting in a rather disappointing read. While I have hopes that this fell victim to what is referred to at the sophomore slump in a series I have to admit I have my doubts.
I give Messenger’s Angel a D
Links to purchase
I am sorry this one did not work out, hope your next book will be awesome. This is not going on my wishlist though.
Thanks. I was disappointed too.
Great review. I didn’t love the first one and now I know not to even try to read any more.