Friday, 27 July 2012

Book Review-Angel Dust by Sarah Mussi


Title: Angel Dust
 Author: Sarah Mussi
Series:  N/A
Published:  2 August 2012 by Hot Key Books
Length: 352 pages
Warnings: violence and romance, 11+
Source: Publisher
Other info: Sarah has also written The Door of No Return and The Last of the Warrior Kings.
Summary : Would you move heaven and earth for the one you love? ANGEL DUST is a powerful, gritty and utterly modern tragic love story with a twist. When Serafina, the brightest and most beloved of all God's angels, is sent to collect Marcus Montague - the original badman - and take him to Hell, she finds herself powerfully drawn to him and makes a decision that places her in the middle of a war between Heaven and Hell. Can Serafina fall in love without falling from grace? Can Marcus's soul be saved? And just who is the mysterious and ever-so-helpful stranger Harry?

Review: Serafina is an angel, who has been sent to collect dead souls. One night, she goes to a night club to collect Marcus-but then falls in love with him. Because she can, she makes a deal with mysterious Larry as an extension on Marcus's life. Serafina now has until Halloween to get Marcus to repent- otherwise he goes to Hell.
The first thing I picked up on was Serafina's voice. It's got a distinctive quality to it that I can only really describe as being whiny. There's a lot of refering to Heaven and such, and also a lot about her-more than I'd expect an angel to. Serafina is also over-excited about something-there's an overabundance of exclamation marks, at least to start with, and then a little further on.
The characters are good. Marcus's friends are all your stereotypical London gangsters, but Marcus and his family had a bit more to them. Serafina, while not being all that likable due to her narration style, is built up well.
The Heaven and Hell that Sarah's built up is good. It's not the most interesting one I've seen, but the set up was what we're familiar with, with all happy clouds for Heaven and smoke for Hell.
I was slightly disappointed in the Devil character. He was fun, but not that deep. Same goes for all the characters really.
The romance was nicely done, with Serafina's love for Marcus being evident from start to finish-even if I couldn't really understand why she was in love with him for a reason other than a pretty face.
I liked the plot idea and the setting. It was well developed, and there's a slightly gritty feel to it.
The ending is a little bit confusing. It all happens quite fast and it does feel like, for little bits of it, in-world logic has been twisted to create the ending.
The story of Serafina's standing in Heaven due to her love is the most interesting thing. The most satisfying thing is seeing her dropped into the middle of London, and her being unable to get by without money. With the use of scenes like this and her confrontations with various characters, Serafina's definitely grown up.

Overall:  Strength 3 tea to a different take on angels with good romance and setting. Best not read if you want a heroine you don't want to kill for her narration skills.

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Thanks for taking time to read this!
Comments are much loved.
Nina xxx

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