Wicked Nights ( Angels of the Dark #1 ) by Gena Showalter
Paranormal Romance
June 26, 2012
HQN
Reviewed by Tori
Favorite Quote: “I’m done listening to this meaningless jabber. Team Winger sucks!”
Wicked Nights is a spin off of Ms. Showalter’s dark and sexy PNR series, Lords Of The Underworld. Focusing almost entirely on the war between heaven and hell, Ms. Showalter introduces us to a group of winged warriors who are one step away from falling from grace. Disgraced for their brutality and lack of compassion, these angels of darkness are charged with saving mankind from demons and redeeming themselves in the eyes of their creator. Zacharel , whom we saw periodically in the LOTU series, is the leader of this group and whose cold and icy demeanor is legendary. When a group of demons are sighted at a mental hospital for the criminally insane, Zacharel and another angel go to investigate. There Zacharel finds Annabelle. Annabelle Miller was committed to the institution four years ago for brutally murdering her parents. Annabelle knows who killed her parents, she just doesn’t know why. Zacharel feels a connection to Annabelle and when he realizes the abuse she is suffering at the hands of demons and humans in the institution, he steals her away takes her for safekeeping. Now, Zacharel and Annabelle need to discover who set her up and why.
Spin offs are tricky. Often they are written because certain secondary characters are so dynamic and demand stories of their own; with the readers full consent. One of two things can happen though. Either the spin off can maintain enough autonomy to be an enjoyable new story or it merely ends up being an imitation. While I enjoyed certain aspects of this book, I found I didn’t enjoy it as much as I thought I would. The similarities in the characters and the storyline made this feel like a recycled storyline from the LOTU. Names were changed but everything else felt the same. I loved the beginning stories in the LOTU series but as time went on, the focus changed and with it my feelings. We went from serious and dark to over the top and lighthearted. That is what I found in here. I could never be sure if they were being serious or silly. Some of the dialogue and sub plots had me rolling my eyes and itching to skim ahead and get back to the meat of the story. I had so many questions that were left unanswered and a part of me resented that.
Individually, Zacharel and Annabelle were okay. We meet Zacharel in the LOTU series and his dark and forbidding personality is explained in here by his backstory. A centuries old warrior, his descent into darkness is why his deity has decided that he and he alone shall be responsible and held accountable for a group of warriors who are treading the same path as he. These warriors have all been to hell and back, literally, and their compassion is almost nothing more than a memory. Never having experienced desire for a woman, his instant attraction to Annabelle throws him for a loop. He finds himself adorably confused, infuriated, amused, and disconcerted by this little human woman.
Annabelle Miller is young, around 24 years of age. She is intelligent, strong willed, loyal, and compassionate which is surprising considering what she has been through. Her parents were brutally slaughtered by demons right in front of her and she has spent 4 years being tortured by them while incarcerated in a mental institution. When Zacarel finds her, she is ecstatic that someone else sees the demons and she’s not crazy. What she doesn’t understand is why they targeted her family. I like that she stands up to Zacharel and makes sure her opinions are known. She has a huge chip on her shoulder about being caged in any way; which is perfectly understandable. This causes some problems because with Zacharel is pure alpha and Annabelle raises his protective instincts like no other.
When they were together though, that’s when I would found myself un enchanted. I think one of the main problems I had in here was that Zach and Annabelle’s relationship and their individual personalities reminded me too much of Lysander and Bianka from LOTU and unfortunately, they were not favorite characters of mine. It all felt very deja ju.
Our secondary cast of characters are a dynamic force with plenty of dark angst and secrets that leaves you curious for their back stories. Ms. Showalter gives us just enough of their backgrounds to personalize them for us. We won’t go in blind as each hero and or heroine’s book is revealed. We do see a cross over here with some of the LOTU characters and I hope that continues. Our villain wasn’t what or who I expected but I found their tie in to the storyline to be interesting.
The ending is convoluted in that there is much happening behind the scenes and we find ourselves kept in the dark just as much as our heroine and hero until the finale and all is revealed. I enjoyed the wrap up though I did feel the overall story wasn’t as developed as I would expect from an author of Showalter’s caliber. I predict this will be a huge hit with Ms. Showalter’s fans, but I think for me, the fit is not quite right.
Overall Rating: C
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Let me see: very old smexy hero who doesn’t care about humanity, is struggling to keep his life the way it is – well, improving it along the way -, on the verge of falling, meets a young human woman who’s spent the last years of her life in jail for a crime she didn’t commit and refuses to give up or be bullied by smexy hero. I don’t know, but this book, save for little differences, is looking way too much like Lothaire for me.
Now I have to read it. LOL
*giggle* You have a point. :)
Hmmm, I usually love spinoffs because I have such a hard time letting go of a world & its characters once I love a series. But, they’re usually not as good as the origional. I’ve read a few reviews of this book & I’m getting the same impression from others as from you. I will eventually read this because I adore Gena Showalter, but I’m not so much in a rush as I was when I first heard about this series. Awesome review Tori
Nice review Tori! Sounds like one to buy but not read right away.
Thanks. :)
Hey T, I agree: spinoff’s are a tricky thing. I haven’t even read all the LOTU books yet-but I had this on my maybe list. Might hold off for now. Bummer it wasn’t as you anticipated!