If Angels Burn - Lynn Viehl

1. Title/Author If Angels Burn - Lynn Viehl [Book 1 of the Darkyn series] 2. Genre Vampire romance. 3. Brief Synopsis [Taken from Amazon.com] Alexandra Keller is Chicago's most brilliant reconstructive surgeon. Michael Cyprien is New Orleans's most reclusive millionaire-and in desperate need of Dr. Keller's skills. In the heart of the Garden District, Alex encounters the extraordinary Cyprien, uncovering a love Alex is willing to embrace, even if she must sacrifice her heart and soul to do so. 4. Copyright Year 2005. 5. Indicate if you liked or disliked it? Neither. There aren't many books that I approached with high expectations, but I did with If Angels Burn. I'd been looking forward to read it for so long that I'm unsure if it was my high expectations that makes it a disappointing read or it's indeed not that fantastic. So I'm holding back comments on some specific details of the story until I re-read it. Until then, this is my first reaction on the basis of having high expectations. My biggest disappointment with If Angels Burn is there isn't a real sense of character growth in Alex and Cyprien. This book has been marketed as a vampire romance, but it isn't. I don't know if it is due to lack of chemistry between the h/h or the fact that there isn't many romantic scenes to further their relationship that makes it so. I think it's the combination of both and lack of their character growth that eventually made me indifferent to the h/h and their fate. The next disappointment is there is lack of solid background information to various aspects of the plot, which generated many questions that got in the way of my reading. Then again, to be fair, I am a fussy reader who likes a story that makes sense. When it doesn't, I'd try to reason it out, figuring out how this or that happened and why, and this usually distracts me from the story, which is the case with If Angels Burn. I felt that the focus of the story was all over the place, due to its web of subplots, which I won't go into details here. I also felt that since it's a vampire romance, the focus ought to be on the romantic development of Alex and Cyprien's relationship while they grapple with the effects of an ongoing war. Then again, it is the first in a series, which makes If Angels Burn is, basically, an introductory novel to a new series, but I felt it shouldn't be made at expense of Alex and Cyprien's relationship. Even with lackluster romance, underdeveloped characters, and many clichéd elements of the vampire genre, If Angels Burn is good, but not so good that I'd put a gun to someone's head to read it. Having said all that, I've learned my lesson from my experience with Liz Maverick's The Shadow Runners, which failed very colourfully for my first read because a) it was marketed as a futuristic romance, b) it was one of a few highly antipicated novels, and c) my lasting shock over Maverick's decision to make Australia a British colony. Yet when I re-read it by accident some months later, it - although it still doesn't work as a futuristic romance and I still don't like Maverick's decision to make Australia a British colony - turned out to be a thoroughly enjoyable read and Jenny Red becomes one of my favourite heroines. This may be the case for If Angels Burn as well, hence my caution with comments, but I intend to re-read it one day. My verdict? Still out. From what I see, I'm one of a very few who didn't think highly of If Angels Burn, so there is a very good chance that you may enjoy this book. As a cover bunny, I love the book cover. It looks so moody and atmospheric that I wanted to bring out my music CD copy of Crackle: The Best Of Bauhaus to accompany this read. I would have if I knew where the damned copy was. 6. Is this a new author for you? No. I've read Into the Fire and The Deepest Edge, both were written under her other name, Jessica Hall. 7. Would you read more by this author? For this Darklyn series, it depends. First book of a series tends to be the weakest and with each successive book, the series is likely to improve [or vice versa], so I probably will get Private Demon, the second Darkyn book, to see whether the series is worth following, but not until I re-read this, though. Coming up next: Intergalatic Bad Boys - Jaide Black Fox [ebook] P.S. Many thanks to Alyssa for her accidental inspiration of an idea to nick Keishon's TBR Challenge review structure for this. :D Be good, be bad & be safe.