Chelsea S. (PengQueen) reviewed on 7/21/2010 + 114 more book reviews

First I should confess that fallen angels are probably my favorite paranormal/fantasy creatures. They aren't as easy to find as vampires and werewolves, so when they do show up I'm pretty excited. When I found out that the heroine of this, book four of The Lords of the Underworld series, was an angel with all the trimmings (wings and clouds and flowers) I was absolutely ecstatic. So I was a little biased toward liking this book before I even openned it.

The premise is that Olivia was an angel, originally a joybringer. But out of nowhere she's promoted to warrior and commanded to kill Aeron. Aeron is possessed by the demon of Wrath and has spent many lifetimes punishing wrongdoers. But more importantly, he broke divine law by releasing the demon minion Legion from hell. Olivia, having watched Aeron for a long time and decided that he doesn't deserve death, chooses to fall instead of killing him. She fully expects to become part of his life and experience fun and happiness. But Legions jealousy, the will of gods, and Aeron's own reluctance to give into his softer feelings stand in the way of their blooming relationship.

What I loved: At Olivia is pretty useless and pitiful, so I had some doubts about her. But if you get passed the first 70 pages or so, she becomes much more likeable. She never loses her goodness or kindness, yet she does gain a tremendous amount of backbone and toughness. Aeron was pretty frustrating at times, and I didn't feel he developed as thuroughly as Olivia, but I still liked him. The romance was warm and more or less believable. Lets face it, it's hard to build chemistry between two people with such opposing world-views. Showalter does it pretty well.

As for the plot, both romance related and not, it's complex enough to be interested and only slightly rambling. By that I mean, there are some unnecessary sequences but no really boring ones.

What I did not love: Legion. Ok, she's not the only flaw, and maybe she's not even a flaw for most readers, but she drove me crazy. Every scene that she appeared in was awkward and frustrating. I think the reason I didn't quite like Aeron as much as I might have was that he kept standing up for her, burying his head in the sand, and wanting to help her even in the end. I liked her previously, when I though she was a child or a pet, but the entire plot point with her in this book made me want to give up on it on several occations. I mention this because, if you don't like the two women fighting over a man type of plot this may seriously irritate you as well.

The other flaws are pretty minor. More time could have been invested in the romance, making it just a tad mor believable. I still think the cast of characters is too big but, actually, Showalter did a better job of controling that problem in this book by splitting them up. And the Hunters continue to be lousy villains. I'm sorry, but sometimes I think the Lords remain alive only because their enemies are so imcompetent.

Overall, if you like the series you'll like this book. It keeps a lot of the best elements from the previous books, and adds some new stuff as well.

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