Kristina Douglas - Raziel

She was just an ordinary mortal . . .
“You’re dead” is so not what Allie Watson wants to hear. Unfortunately, it explains a lot. Like the dark, angelically handsome man who ferried her to this strange, hidden land. The last thing she remembers is stepping off a curb in front of a crosstown bus. Now she’s surrounded by gorgeous fallen angels with an unsettling taste for blood—and they really don’t want her around. Not exactly how she pictured heaven.
. . . until death catapulted her into a seductive world she never imagined.
Raziel is unsure why he rescued Allie from hellfire against Uriel’s orders, but she stirs in him a longing he hasn't felt in centuries. Now the Fallen are bracing for the divine wrath brought by his disobedience, and they blame Allie for the ferocious Nephilim clawing at the kingdom’s shrouded gates. Facing impossible odds at every turn, the two must work together to survive. Raziel will do anything to defend his spirited lover against the forces of darkness—because Allie may be the Fallen’s only salvation.

Comment: One more book I had in the pile for more than a decade... I knew the average of the book on some websites wasn't too great, and specifically on GR the friends I have who also read it, didn't give it more than average ratings, but... hopes dies slowly...

In this book we meet Raziel, a Fallen angle who lives in Sheol with other angels and their wives/girlfriends. Sometimes the great archangel Uriel, who commands God's armies, sends them the task to take certain souls to their destiny and when this book begins, Raziel had been tasked to take Allie carter, the heroine, to her fate, but at the last minute he changes his idea because she was about to fall into Hell, and he knows she didn't have the sins for it. This decision forces him to take care of Allie's soul and her presence among his brethren also starts a radical change in their lives. The question is, can Allie and Raziel find a way to compromise, apart from what fate seems to indicate they should do?

Well, there must be a reason for all those average ratings after all, and now I've finished this book the obvious explanation is that this story just wasn't balanced and the romance was not really strong. I feel a little sad I didn't have a better appreciation or the book but things are what they are... and things even started quite well too, it was quite original that the story begins with the heroine's death and what would happen after that. 

I've read enough PNR stories featuring angels and I am Catholic so there are a few details that are just known, but it was quite an interesting take on the whole angel idea that the Fallen ones, instead of condemned to Hell or whatever other fate, have a place where they live and where they fight the real angels that are evil (the Nephilim in this case) while trying to find a way to free Lucifer, in their eyes wrongly castigated by Heaven, as well as defeat Uriel, the archangel that now blindly enforces God's will.

The world building is presented slowly, as the plot develops but I should say the information doesn't seem to be very consistently presented. It felt as if things were told as it was necessary and while this is a need, unless the author wrote an introduction note or something, but I felt the atmosphere/setting wasn't very strong and the characters were more adrift than steady. I liked the angel stuff and the twist to this idea, but then the heroine is there with them because she died. Although there aren't children for supposedly obvious reasons, other angels have wives or girlfriends and it was never clear if they are merely human or dead or something else.

Also, these angels are vampire-like, they need a specific type of blood to survive, since they are Fallen. Sure, what is one more paranormal element in this world, but this didn't bother me that much. I was more preoccupied with the fact Allie dies and now she seems to be like an orphan or a duty the angels need to take care of. Raziel feels responsible and he decides to help her, but he doesn't want her to depend on him... I mean, what will Allie do now? How can they have some things (like food) in Sheol but conveniently not others? As the story progresses and focus on fights and the romance, these things kind of become secondary, but... my logical mind feels there's a lot missing.

I've highlighted the word romance back there because I would not consider the relationship between Raziel and Allie to be a romance. The dynamics and the evolution of what happens between them might be seen as such, but there's an obvious lack of emotional content linked to actions and the end is proof, when they finally give in to yet another "fated" situation and become a real couple. The issue is that now they both have new roles after some plot events, and assuming some explanation might come forward in the books after this one, makes this one feel very unfinished. I kept thinking, what's the purpose of this and that, and OK, this is a series, but shouldn't this book work on its own?

It's true that this feels an easy book to read. It does have several elements which readers used to PNR or even UF would see a connection in what happens with the characters, but after years reading this genre and others, the reading experience simply wasn't great. I kept thinking, what if this scene was like this, what if this situation went into that, and what actually happens feels a little staged. Staged in the sense that the author must have an idea of where things were meant to go, but the transition from one things to another didn't feel very smooth, thus lacked continuity for me.

Again, it's not as if this is a bad book, it's jut not fully appealing anymore. Or, to be fair, not all elements are fully appealing as a whole, as working in a cohesive way. I've checked the blurbs of the other books and that feels enough for my curiosity over where things might go next. I confess  I don't feel the need to investigate further nor read them.

Grade: 5/10