This Side of Heaven by Fallon Blake
February 9, 2010
Paranormal Romance
e-book
Loose ID
Reviewed by Mandi

Samara Hale is dealing with another loss in her life. Her uncle, Oliver, who acted as a father figure to her growing up has passed away. With her mother dead, and her father who abandoned the family before Samara was even born, she is taking the loss of Oliver hard. As she is lost in her grief, a man strolls into her Uncle’s house – a very sexy man, but that is not the point. What Samara doesn’t know is that his name is Nathaniel Greyson and he has been protecting Samara for most of her life. In fact, there are many things Samara is not aware of. Long ago, Lucifer had demons possess some of the women the fallen angels were mating with, creating a half angel, half demon offspring, aka Telal. An offshoot of the Telal is the Sect, those choosing to fight with the angels rather than the demons. For years, Nathaniel and his fellow Telal, along with his friend Seth, were destructive and chaotic in their demon ways, until the angel Uriel took Nathaniel under his wing and showed him the error of his ways. Since then, Nathaniel has worked hard to be good, and he is now the leader of the Sect. Unfortunately, Seth has stayed with the demons and still causes the world harm.

Samara is not in the dark about all supernatural things. She herself has been able to read and feel peoples emotions her entire life. It was Oliver that taught her how to block out those emotions, so she could lead a normal life. Now that this stranger has walked into the room, she decides to take down her shields a bit to get a read on him, and what she gets hit with is a huge blast of lust. So much so, she can’t help but get a little physical with him.

After getting in control of herself, and hearing the truth about Nathaniel and his history, Samara learns another shocker – she is part of a prophecy, only having to deal with balancing the world and such – no pressure for Samara! Worse, the demons, led by Seth are out to make sure Samara can’t follow through with this prophecy. Nathaniel is going to do everything to protect her, but there is that little rule that the Sect are not allowed to be in a relationship with those they have sworn to protect. I bet you can guess if Nathaniel sticks to that rule!

I enjoyed This Side of Heaven, but I think it could have been even better if it was two hundred pages longer. A lot is introduced for such a short story and we get a brief glimpse into too many things. I like the world and the ideas behind it, but I think it is too much for a book at one hundred pages. However, this is the first book in a series (there are at least two more planned) so there will be an opportunity to revisit the world and discover more about it.

As Nathaniel says, “Sometimes being good sucks divine ass.” It is his decision to fight on the good side and something he lives with every day. Nathaniel finds himself in a predicament with Samara, he has known her whole life – and has fallen deeply in love with her, however Samara has just met him. He wants to give her time to get to know him, yet he is so anxious to actually be with her. I loved the character of Nathaniel. He is charming, yet lethal and has a bending the rules type attitude.

Samara is an empath so she can feel his lust for her. Although Nathaniel is a stranger to her, in a way she can trust him from the start and knows where he stands because she can read his emotions. This gives her a solid starting ground for their relationship. That doesn’t mean Samara doesn’t have spunk, and she makes Nathaniel work for her love throughout the story.

The demons in this book are evil, and conniving and I really liked them. Seth is an interesting character – he used to be friends with Nathaniel when they were both fighting with the demons. His character takes an interesting journey and I am looking forward to see where he goes in the next book.

Another character I enjoyed is Uriel, Nathaniel’s “boss.” It was fun to have someone put Nathaniel in line, being all alpha that he is. When Nathaniel crosses the “no dating” line, Uriel shows up with very poor timing (at least for Nathaniel and Tamara) and his no-nonsense attitude makes the scene humorous.

On to the smex! Fallon Blake is one naughty author and I like it. This book is only 97 pages, and many of them are filled with very steamy love scenes. Nathaniel is a bad boy. If I were Samara, I would be extra naughty just to get some more spankings out of him. Oh yes.

“Do you remember what I told you earlier today?”

Hear racing, her gaze flew to his face. He didn’t mean to go through with her spanking, did he?

“Turn over.” The command in his voice had her trembling with salacious anticipation. She wasn’t sure what possessed her to obey, but she did.

Good choice Samara.

This Side of Heaven is a steamy debut and sets up a world that I am eager to learn more about. There are at least two more books to come in the series, and I look forward to them.

Rating: 3/5

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