Thursday, May 2, 2013

Review: Angels of the Dark #1: Wicked Nights

Title: Angels of the Dark #1: Wicked Nights

Author: Gena Showalter

Date of Publication: June 26, 2012

Formats Available: Paperback, E-Book

Buy This BookAmazon

Synopsis: Leader of the most powerful army in the heavens, Zacharel has been deemed nearly too dangerous, too ruthless -- and if he isn't careful, he'll lose his wings. But this warrior with a heart of ice will not be deterred from his missions at any cost…until a vulnerable human tempts him with a carnal pleasure he's never known before.

Accused of a crime she did not commit, Annabelle Miller has spent four years in an institution for the criminally insane. Demons track her every move, and their king will stop at nothing to have her. Zacharel is her only hope for survival, but is the brutal angel with a touch as hot as hell her salvation -- or her ultimate damnation?

My Review:

I was very excited to read Wicked Nights because, as weird as it sounds, I think books set in insane asylums/institutions are fascinating. However, it quickly became apparent that Wicked Nights wasn't quite all I thought it would be. While I didn't necessarily dislike this novel I didn't really like it either. Leaving me in an in-between rating and what's going to be a very in-between review.

Annabelle was a fun character, a little childish but fun none-the-less. Likewise Zacharel had a mysterious otherworldly quality about him that made him interesting to read about. The only thing that ruined them for me was that they were perfect, a little too perfect, and that made it impossible for me to relate to them. Neither of them had any faults or qualities that made them seem human, sure they had gone through difficult times but it seemed as though those times hardly affected them at all. As I pushed through the novel I felt more and more distanced from them and their perfect personalities as they fought off demons and fell in love.

I think I liked the idea of this novel more than I liked the reality of it. I loved the plot summary on the back and even when I started the novel I was excited for it to go somewhere. There were parts of the novel that I liked, but those were few and far between, and the more I read the more frustrated I became. This novel had the potential to be good; it just wasn't as good as it could have been. I didn't necessarily hate it, because there were some scenes, especially the shopping one, which I really liked but they didn't outweigh the parts that I was bored by.

Which brings me to my biggest complaint I have with the novel I was, quite simply, bored. Wicked Nights had all the right elements (romance, action, a splash of humor) but I just couldn't make myself be interested in the novel. Maybe it was because the characters were just too perfect or because the plot just fell a little flat in all the moments it was supposed to be exciting, but I just was not interested in what was happening.

Wicked Nights wasn't exactly a bad novel, it just wasn't one I could get into. While I still hold that I'm in-between on this one I feel like I disliked it just a little more than I liked it. Not one of Showalter's best.

3/5

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