a review by Jade Hounsell
The Lost Angels series: backstory
Avenger’s Angel recounts ancient history. 2000 years ago God, or The Old Man, decided to reward his four favorite Archangels, Michael, Gabriel, Uriel and Azrael for their many years of service and loyalty. His reward? The gift of a perfect soul mate, an Archess.
Not everyone was happy. The other Archangels, led by Samuel, demand their own soul mates. Fearing for the four Archesses’ safety, The Old Man scattered their souls to the wind. He sent them to Earth, out of reach before the four Archangels were able to claim their perfect partners.
A choice
The Old Man then gave his favorites a choice. They could stay in heaven as Archangels or they could relinquish their powers and go to Earth as immortals and seek them out. All four decided to leave.
However, on Earth they discovered not all of their powers were lost. Over time new powers developed, some better and some much worse than before.
They lived amongst mortals in the hope of finding their mates, although never in one place for too long to conceal their never agelessness.
When Avenger’s Angel begins, Uriel (the former Angel of Vengeance), is a famous actor known as Christopher Daniels. Michael (the former warrior angel) is a police officer for New York City. Gabriel (the former Messenger Angel) is a firefighter also for NYC. And Azrael (the former Angel of Death) is the lead singer in a popular band called the Valley of Shadow. They have a guardian, Max, another immoral whom acts as a father figure, protector, information gather and agent.
Avenger’s Angel
This book mostly revolves around Uriel and I’m guessing that there will be four books in the series, one for each Archangel.
Anyways, Uriel was the lead actor in a very popular movie called Comeuppance that was novelized. So we start with Uriel and Max sitting in a limo waiting to go into a bookstore for a signing. Once in the store, Uriel ducks into the women’s bathroom to avoid some avid fans and runs into Ellie, a bookstore employee.
As soon as he sees her, Uriel knows that he has found his Archess. Ellie has no idea that she is an Archess. She knows she has powers of healing and weather control for instance. But she thinks she’s just a freak of nature because her parents are normal. She moves continually to avoid suspicion. Ellie is very lonely due to her nomadic lifestyle.
Ellie and Uriel
For her part Ellie is also drawn to Uriel. However, due to her cautious nature she fights her feelings for him and avoids him as much as she can. Uriel must win Ellie over then explain to her what, and who, she really is. But will she believe him?
Secret organization
Now also throw into the mix a secret organization trying to capture Ellie for her powers since she was a child. The Archangel Samuel followed the others to Earth in hopes of claiming an Archess as his own. And you have a very enjoyable read.
I actually thought that Avenger’s Angel would be a fair bit like Nalini Singh’s Guild Hunter series, especially once vampires were mentioned. However there are enough differences to keep me reading and intrigued. I really enjoyed the twists and turns this story took, there was nothing too complex to understand or just so unbelievable (besides the fact the book is based on angels…) that it had me scoffing at the absurdity of it. All in all I enjoyed it and am looking forward to the rest of the series.
Originally published in Dark Matter issue 6, November 2011. This blog has been pre-dated to reflect the date of original publication.
