Review: Avenger's Angel - Heather Killough-Walden

The lost angels

Two thousand years ago, four archangels were cast down to Earth in human form.

They came to find their archesses, the other half of their souls, without whom they will never be complete.

After an eternity spent walking the earth Uriel, Gabriel, Azrael and Michael have all but given up hope of success, until one day beautiful and gifted Eleanore Granger crosses paths with Uriel, the former Angel of Vengeance.

But as passion consumes Uriel and Ellie, outside forces just as powerful as the archangels themselves array against them, determined to claim Ellie for themselves.  If Ellie and Uriel are to realise the love that is their destiny they, and Uriel's brothers, must fight to the death against those that would tear them apart...

Because if one archess can be taken, then so can every other...

Sexy, dangerous, immortal - these archangels are definitely no angels...

The Lost Angel Series:
Always, Angel (prequel novella)
Avenger's Angel
Messenger's Angel (2012)

Check out Heather Killough-Walden's website for more information

Review:
Uriel, Azrael, Michael & Gabriel are favoured archangels and as a reward for their loyalty the Old Man created a soul mate for each of them.  Unfortunately before they were able to claim their mates the archesses were lost on earth.  The archangels chose to leave heaven to follow their mates and have spent the last 2,000 years trying to track them down.  As soon as Uriel meets Ellie he knows he has found his destiny but can he convince her that they are meant to be together?  The brothers aren't the only ones searching for the archesses though, they were followed to earth by Samael and he is determined to claim an archess for himself.  Who will be the first to steal Ellie's heart?

I've been excited about this book since I first heard about it back in May so I couldn't wait to get my hands on a copy.  As soon as it arrived Avenger's Angel jumped right to the top of my to read pile and it was a great start to a new series.  I loved each of the archangel's (Azrael in particular) and am very excited to know that they will each get their own story, this is definitely a series I want to continue reading.  I did have one nagging question though - if the archesses were lost 2,000 years ago and Ellie is only in her early 20's what happened to her in those missing years?  Is she a reincarnation of the original archess or did it just take her a very long time to get to earth?  In the grand scheme of things it isn't a problem that I don't know the answer but it is something I hope we discover in a later book.

Ellie has always known she was different, she has healing abilities and is able to control the weather, she never knew why she had these powers but she knows they place her in danger.  She lives in fear of being discovered and has grown up moving from place to place trying to keep her talents hidden.  After narrowly escaping from government agents as a child she is terrified that they wanted to experiment on her and is always ready to run at a moments notice.  When she first meets Uriel she is attracted to him but sees him as a threat, he is a famous movie star and she daren't bring that much attention to herself.  Uriel isn't going to let her just run away from him though, he has spent thousands of years searching for her and wants a chance to prove to her that they belong together.

I liked the fact that the relationship between Uriel and Ellie develops slowly, the chemistry between them is great but Ellie doesn't instantly fall in love.  It takes time for Uriel to gain her trust, especially with the tricks Samael has up his sleeve.  Sam wants to claim Ellie for himself and will use whatever means necessary to keep her away from Uriel.  I have to admit I loved Sam, I definitely have a thing for the bad boys but I get the feeling there are a lot of layers to him and I can't wait to find out more.  I'm really hoping he'll get his own book at some point in the series.  If there was one thing I didn't like about Ellie and Uriel's relationship it was the way he took her virginity, she came across as so nervous when they got started that the way he was so forceful with her left me feeling cold.  I would have preferred their first time to have been more tender and caring but I guess that is down to personal taste.

The plot was a little slow at first but once the story gets going I was completely hooked.  There are some great twists towards the end that I really didn't see coming and they have me very excited about the second book Messenger's Angel.  I'd recommend this series to paranormal romance fans and am definitely planning on checking out Heather Killough-Walden's Big Bad Wolf series in the future.

Source: Received from Headline in exchange for an honest review

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