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Thursday, April 14, 2011

Review: The Fallen: Raziel by Kristina Douglas

The Fallen: Raziel (The Fallen, #1)The Fallen: Raziel
by Kristina Douglas
Mass Market Paperback, 384 pages
Published January 25th 2011 by Pocket
ISBN 143919192
Kristina Douglas’s sexy new series introduces a realm of fallen angels and ruthless demons, where an eternal rebellion is brewing . . . and one unsuspecting woman can change the fate of the Fallen forever.                                                  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.
My Thoughts:

Just when Allie Watson meets a beautiful man she dies, what luck. But when the man turns out to be a fallen angel and saves her from the fires of Hell she doesn't know whether to be relived or apprehensive.
Raziel doesn’t know why he pulled the human woman from the gate when Uriel ordered her there but now he’s stuck with her and that is the last thing he wants. He gave up human women long ago and doesn’t plan to start hanging around them now. But until he can figure out what else to do with her he must take her back to Sheol, the hidden home of the fallen.
When Allie arrives she receives the cold shoulder by everyone but the women there, Raziel avoids her as much as possible and then when the Nephilim end up at Sheol’s gates everyone blames her. Maybe Hell was the better option.

The Fallen: Raziel was an okay read, the concept unique and interesting, but the plot moved along at a slow pace.  Also, I enjoyed the story itself more then the characters, I wasn't able to connect with them at all.
With a new spin on fallen angels, Heaven being the bad guys and the fallen and Lucifer being good, it gave the story an intriguing twist; along with the fallen resembling vampire myths and the nephilim zombie. The world building was complex and well written. First person point of views flowed smoothly to each character but in some instances where we moved to a secondary couple it was told in third person, which was odd.

The main characters were disappointing. Allie was vain, selfish and annoying; though she did redeem herself at the end I still wasn't buying her as a heroine. The secondary character, Sarah, was more of one then her. While Raziel is the poster boy for the brooding hero and I felt, lacked depth and dimension. As a couple I never saw a true connection between them; there was a fated bonding, physical attraction and lust but no love or passion, I don’t even think Raziel told Allie that he loved her anytime throughout the story. There were several hot love scenes but sex does not make a relationship. 

I also never understood how Allie was a ghost but still basically alive; she could bleed, ete, drink, ect., and be killed. How can someone who was already dead be killed again? That whole concept was never fully explained.

The villain of the story, Uriel, was missing throughout the novel, only being referred to.
The action at the end and the closing of the story, which there were only 2-3 scenes that had action, was very anti-climatic.  There was a cliffhanger at the end but it didn’t leave me anticipating the next book in the series, it left me just wanting to toss it across the room and be done with it.

I’m sorry to say that I probably won’t be picking up the next book in this series. It had potential but fell flat with the characters and unexplained important aspects of the overall story.

Rating: 2.5 - Okay


Megan@Riverina Romantics said...

I don't know anyone who really liked this.

DarkBloodyVamp said...

I won this book and still have not read it. Many didn't seem to like it thought there were a few that diod.

I love the cover and by the summary it sounds like such a great plot. If book one turns out not to be great I hope book 2 is better. Sometimes a series has potential if the author hears what needs to be fixed. I hope so. :)

quimbayai said...

i read this book last week... to me it was a big disappointment... beautiful cover and good plot but slow and no connection what so ever. the day that only sex can make a working relationship between two people without leading to separation at the end; is the day when there is no such thing as divorce. But if it helps i did like the way she died. i couldn't help but laugh a little to myself when that happened [dead by shoe/bus]