Early Review: Sins of the Son by Linda Poitevin

Sins of the Son by Linda Poitevin 

Grigori Legacy #2

When homicide detective Alexandra Jarvis sees a photo of Seth Benjamin on a police bulletin, she knows that Heaven's plan to halt Armageddon has gone terribly wrong. As the only mortal who knows of Seth's true nature, only she can save him. Aramael was a hunter of Fallen Angels until a traitor forced him into earthly exile. Now, with no powers and only a faint memory of Alex, his mortal soulmate, he will stop at nothing to redeem himself—even if it means destroying Seth in the name of the Creator...

Despite wanting to stay far away from all of the Angel business, Alex finds herself dragged back into the thick of things when she finds out that the plan to stop Armageddon is in shambles. Seth was that plan, until he lost all memory, greatly endangering humanity. She rushes to save him so he can save the rest of the world, but there is more going on than meets the eye. Her soulmate Aramael, who she thought dead, is on his own mission, only his ends in taking Seth's life, and triggering the War between Angels and Fallen. 

Sins of the Son dove a lot further into the mythology behind the Angels than the previous installment, which really was great for me because that was my favorite aspect of the series. So much was revealed, and it was great to get the insight into how things came to be the way they are between the Fallen and the Angels. I also really enjoyed seeing Lucifer's perspective. Previously I had thought him to only be a force for evil and that his betrayal of The One was absolute, but I was wrong. Trust me, even after seeing his perspective, I still think he is quite bad considering his hatred of humanity. However, I don't think his betrayal of The One was absolute, and it seems like he would give almost anything to be back with her. It just somehow makes him seem a little less nasty.

While reading Sins of the Son, a certain part really stuck out to me. When The One (Creator) is asked why she continues to love Lucifer despite everything he has done and chooses him over the rest, The One responds: "It is not in my nature - not in my capacity - to favor any one life over another, every living thing in this universe is a part of me, created from me. Who I am, what I am, demands I love them all." Even if you ignore all of the damage Lucifer has done and that she has allowed to happen to mortals, she still has chosen some of her creations over others. The Angels that remained loyal to her were stripped of their free will to a certain extent, but even worse, they were also stripped of their ability to love. I mean what is life other than simple existence with out love in its many forms? Even worse, whenever one of them started to regain those abilities, he was still forbidden to embrace love, all the while Lucifer gets to carry on his merry way. I guess in the end, her powerful love towards him has really blinded her.

I have to admit that Sins of the Son really caught me off guard. I wasn't the biggest fan of the first installment, but I did like the mythology behind everything. So I knew I would be giving the series another shot. I'm really glad I did because Sins of the Son did not have any of the issues that had bothered me previously. In fact, the procedural aspect was pretty much non-existant this time around. Granted, there still wasn't as much as I would have preferred in the romance department, but being an Urban Fantasy, that is to be somewhat expected. So, in the end Sins of the Son has firmly cemented my enjoyment in Grigori Legacy series, and I look forward to the next installment.

(Received a copy from the publisher)

Rating:

 Pre-order a copy from Amazon:
Sins of the Son (The Grigori Legacy)

Other Reviews:

• Rabid Reads
• Paranormal Haven 

Previous Books:

1. Sins of the Son

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Waiting on Wednesday (87)

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly event hosted by Breaking the Spine that spotlights an upcoming release we are greatly anticipating.

My pick this week:

Above

by Leah Bobet

Publication Date: April 1st, 2012

Amazon Pre-Order: Above

A gorgeous urban fantasy about dangers outside and in.

Matthew has always lived in Safe, a community hidden far beneath the pipes and tunnels of the city Above. The residents fled to Safe years before to escape the Whitecoats and their cruel experiments, and now Matthew is responsible for both the keeping of Safe’s stories and for Ariel—a golden-haired shapeshifter, and the most beautiful girl he’s ever seen.

But one horrifying night, an old enemy murders Safe’s founder, Atticus, and the community is taken over by an army of shadows. Only Matthew, Ariel, and a handful of friends escape Above. Now they not only have to survive in a sunlit world they barely know, but they must unravel the mystery of the shadows’ fury and Atticus’s death. It’s up to Matthew to find a way to remake Safe—not just for himself and his family, but for Ariel, who’s again faced with the life she fled, and who needs him more than ever before.

An urban fantasy and a love story, Above is the breathtaking debut of an extraordinary new voice.

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Sins of the Angels

Sins of the Angels by Linda Poitevin

Grigori Legacy #1

A detective with a secret lineage. An undercover Hunter with a bullet-proof soul. And a world made to pay for the sins of an angel…

Homicide detective Alexandra Jarvis answers to no one. Especially not to the new partner assigned to her in the middle of a gruesome serial killer case—a partner who is obstructive, irritatingly magnetic, and arrogant as hell.

Aramael is a Power—a hunter of the Fallen Angels. A millennium ago, he sentenced his own brother to eternal exile for crimes against humanity. Now his brother is back and wreaking murderous havoc in the mortal realm. To find him, Aramael must play second to a human police officer who wants nothing to do with him and whose very bloodline threatens both his mission and his soul.

Now, faced with a fallen angel hell-bent on triggering the apocalypse, Alex and Aramael have no choice but to join forces, because only together can they stop the end of days.

Alex is a homicide detective that doesn't play well with others, so when she is forced to take on a new partner whose arrogance knows no bound, the sparks were bound to fly. But personality conflicts are soon to be the least of her problems as there is much more going on than meets the eye in her latest case to catch a serial killer. Unknown to her, she has a secret lineage, and her new partner Trent is actually Aramael, one of the few Powers of Angels that hunt the Fallen. One of which is his twin brother and the very killer she is trying to catch, but there is much more at stake than a few mortal lives, for one misstep could trigger the apocalypse.

The romance between Alex and Aramael had so much potential to be a scorcher, but unfortunately things barely simmered in the end. I had such high hopes after seeing Aramael's almost violent reaction of hatred towards Alex in the beginning, just because one strong reaction usually leads to another. Seriously, how many times have we see seen characters in movies and books be fighting one minute, and then can't keep their hands off one another the next? Unfortunately, things just didn't play out the way I would have liked as they both seemed rather oblivious to the attraction for most of the book. Then all of a sudden it was like a switch was flipped and they were head over heels. But even then they wouldn't do anything about it, because their relationship was forbidden. I was just left feeling rather unsatisfied. 

Despite my issues with some of the aspects of Sins of the Angels, what kept me reading was the interesting mythology behind it. There are Angels, with different castes who follow the One true God (who actually is a Goddess), and then there are also the Fallen Angels who followed Lucifer in his betrayal of the Goddess. A war has been brewing between them for millenia, which is held by a very fragile truce. In the middle are humans, but they are at least protected from the fallen by one cast of the Angels, Guardians. The descendants of the celestial beings, called nephilim have no such protection, and are generally hated by the Angels, but coveted by the Fallen. All of these elements blended together made for quite the interesting cast of characters.

As much as I enjoyed the unique factor of the mythology in Sins of the Angels, in the end the book was only a mediocre read for me. There really wasn't enough forward momentum in any aspect of the plot or romance to really keep me engaged. In fact, the procedural aspect really seemed to be the main focus, and as I'm not a huge fan of them, it did make it a little hard to keep reading at times. In fact, I found myself skimming the areas of police work to just get past them, but unfortunately it felt like I was skimming more often than not. That being said, I don't plan to write the series off quite yet because the mythology is interesting, and I am curious to see the fallout from the ending of Sins of the Angels. Hopefully the next installment will focus a little more on the characters rather than the investigative side of things. 

Rating:

Order a copy from Amazon:
Sins of the Angels (The Grigori Legacy)

Other Reviews:

• Book Chick City 
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Book Blogger Confessions (2)

This meme is hosted by Tiger from Tiger's All Consuming Books and Karen from For What It's Worth on the first and third Monday of each month.


This week's question: Everyone LOVES that book! Why don't I? How do you handle being the one reviewer who doesn't like a book that's taking the blogosphere by storm? Do you write a review? Pretend you didn't read the book? 


I always rate each book that I have read on Goodreads and add them to my challenge lists. However, I very rarely review the books that take over the blogosphere whether I liked it or not. I just don't feel like there really is anything fresh and original to say after so many other people have written. Also, I don't like to write reviews of books that are hugely buzzed as I'm afraid of that being an outside influence to my opinion. I'd rather write my review without knowing what anyone else thought, and then use comments to discuss other's thoughts. Of course this doesn't apply whenever I had received a review copy in advance, but in those cases, my review is typically written before most of the "buzz" starts to happen. So that outside influence isn't typically a problem.

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It's Monday What Are You Reading (87)

It's Monday! What Are You Reading, hosted by Book Journey, is where we gather to share what we have read this past week and what we plan to read this week. It is a great way to network with other bloggers, see some wonderful blogs, and put new titles on your reading list.






Here's what I read this past week:





Spellcaster by Cara Lynn Shultz (Early Review)
The Kingdom by Amanda Stevens (Early Review)
Goddess Interrupted by Aimee Carter (Early Review)

Tada :)

My Upcoming List:

Sins of the Angels by Linda Poitevin
Sins of the Son by Linda Poitevin (Early Review)
Magic Without Mercy by Devon Monk (Early Review)

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IMM (1)

In My Mailbox is hosted by The Story Siren :)

Here's the books that I have received the last two weeks:

For Review:




Thank you Penguin!!

From Netgalley:



Thank you Random House!!

From Edelweis:



Thank you Harper Collins!!

ARC Swap:



Thank you Jessica!!

Won:



Thank you Christy from The Reader Bee!!


Bought:




From the Library:

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