Avengers Angel: Lost Angels: Book One, Heather Killough-Walden

I’d like to say I enjoyed this book, but I’d be stretching the truth a bit. 

The first major disappointment for me was discovering that this was actually a vampire novel in disguise. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy the odd novel about vampires but I like to know what I’m getting myself into. When I chose this book it was because I thought it was a supernatural novel about angels, not vampires. Vampires are alluded to from the start of this novel and one of the four angels is in fact a vampire, another is a movie star playing a vampire and ends up becoming one as well. I understand why Azrael, Angel of Death, would fall to earth as a vampire but it seemed a bit contrived making Uriel, who’s name mean Light of God; he is associated with the sun, a vampire. It came across as ridiculous. To then have the Angel of the Christian God compare the taste of something to ambrosia, nectar of the Roman Gods, was just uncomfortable.

 

Don’t get me wrong, this book had some very good ideas running through it, love, loyalty and brotherhood, even the Fallen Angel ended up helping the Archangels in the end but it was so poorly executed it was just difficult to enjoy. The language was heavy handed, some of the metaphors so glaringly obvious I felt like I was being smacked in the face with them. Not something I enjoy, figuratively or literally if I’m honest. Take Gabriel for instance, Killough-Walden has given him a Scottish accent, brilliant! However writing in the accent itself should be left to Irving Welsh, it makes it tricky to read and is jolting for the reader. 

The use of supernatural abilities is referred to throughout the novel, as you would expect from a book in this genre, however to refer to them as ‘Vampire Powers’ or just ‘Powers’ didn’t sit well with me. It came across as a cop-out, our language is diverse and beautiful, to use this basic term seemed weak to me. In the end, the powers were pretty much useless so what was the point in having them in the first place?

That said, there are some positive points to this novel, the part where the two protagonists are spending time together, particularly the bit where they are flying is written well and enjoyable to read.

All in all though, I don’t think I will be reading the sequel!