Title: Demon Angel
Author: Meljean Brook
Series: The Guardians (book 2)
Publication Info: Berkley Sensation, January 2007
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Rating: <3 <3 <3 <3 < 3

Ms. Brook has crafted one hell of a great narrative in her book Demon Angel. It is a powerful story of love and redemption, heaven and hell, and the complex forces that make up the human condition. I couldn’t put it down, on the edge of my seat until these fabulously unique characters triumphed over evil and found their happily-ever-after. Ms. Brook’s story has the complex world building and epic struggles of truly great sci-fi/fantasy, with all the true love I crave from the romance genre. I cannot say enough good things about her story or her writing.

This book wins the Best Line At-First-Sight, when the hero first sees the heroine: “No beauty was she, but broad-beamed and flat-featured, like an ill-tempered cow,” (p 9).

Another line I like, just to illustrate Ms. Brook’s talent: “the familiar verdant landscape receded under the fog as it smudged groves of trees into vague shadows, erasing distance and detail with unrelenting gray,” (p 3).

As you can see, Ms. Brook’s writing is both humorous and eloquent. The book begins in 1217, and the language patterns reflect the time period. As the centuries progress the hero and heroine’s language does as well.

When the hero, Hugh, and the heroine, Lilith, first meet, Hugh is a virtuous young knight and Lilith is a conniving demon. Their relationship is torturous and complex; they are two halves of a whole, one whose gift is truth, the other whose gift is lies. When Hugh sacrifices himself for another and becomes a Guardian, whose purpose is to protect humans from the manipulations of hell and the danger of nosferatu, he and Lilith begin a centuries-long contest; one to save humankind, the other to damn it.

The centuries are hard on both, and Hugh finally must end it. He choses to Fall, living out the remainder of his life as human, haunted by his actions and his memories of Lilith. But the devil has other plans, and when he sends the nosferatu to kill Hugh’s students, Hugh is brought back into the struggles he left behind. Ultimately they must use their gifts and each other to find redemption.

The passion is hot. The hurdles are many. What would you sacrifice for Love?