Fallen
3 Stars

Series note: Fallen can be read as a standalone as aside from the setting of New Orleans and the reappearance of a secondary character from book #1, there is no connection between the books.

The romance has potential but never really gets going and the characters, while interesting in terms of their struggles with addiction, ultimately fail to evoke any emotion or caring.

The mystery is interesting and the excerpts from newspapers, police reports and trial excerpts add a realistic tone to the description of events and the investigation. Nevertheless, the ultimate revelation of the killer is anti-climactic and the motive ambiguous and vague. Moreover, the ending is unnecessarily drawn out and the paranormal elements are superfluous.

Will probably get around to reading the last book sometime but it is not a priority. ( )

This was actually kind of depressing, but I'm not quite sure why. ( )

I quite like Erin McCarthy's NASCAR books, so this was a real disappointment. There were just so many flaws with the internal logic of the book. For example, the hero's situation is such that he can't touch anyone because they become addicted to him. But in the midst of worrying about that happening, he's casually touching our heroine all over the place, and then LETS HER HAVE SEX WITH HIM, because...as long as she does all the work it doesn't count? Maybe it only makes sense to angels. And the heroine is not exempt from the crazy! In one scene she (a forensic SCIENTIST) needs to know whether absinthe could cause violence. So she drinks a bunch. Yeah, because that is a legitimate scientific experiment. I mean, you'd think she might consider variances in body chemistry, psychological state, etc.--or check to see whether there have been large-scale studies, which might actually produce a statistically significant result. It's moronic. These kinds of things just make me pull back and go "WHAT?!?" and I end up not enjoying the book. ( )

not much romance.....more mystery. ( )

Fallen angel turned demon, Gabriel St. John, had spent the last 150 years paying penance for his weakness in falling prey to the vice of gluttony, becoming an absinthe addict and possibly even a murderer. When Gabriel discovers another murder almost identical to the one he may have committed, he requests the aide of the victim’s daughter, forensic analyst Sara Michaels. But when Sara comes to assist in his investigation he finds himself falling for her, and for an already fallen angel, nothing could be more painful than falling once again.

Having only read one other contemporary romance by this author, I wasn't entirely sure how well she would do in the paranormal genre. However, "Fallen" was quite the pleasant surprise for me. This book actually touched on quite a few things I've always found interesting; from the fallen angel/demon mythos to absinth addictions. I even enjoyed Sara's request for a rendition of Kiss' Beth performed on the piano as opposed to Gabriel's classical piano playing. I liked both of the characters in this novel and found the slow progression of their physical relationship more romantic the increasingly usual, "they meet and immediately fall into bed" storyline. Gabriel certainly isn't one of those overbearing manly men types being more artistic and Sara wasn't a complete hard-ass, kick-butt type lady which was a pleasant a departure from what seems to be the norm nowadays. This difference in personality from so many of the paranormals I've been reading was something I kind of enjoyed.

Although this book is part of a series, it certainly stands exceedingly well as a stand alone story. There are no lead ins plotwise or secondary characters you would expect to find in the next novel and it seemed very self-contained. I wouldn't have expected that it was part of a series if I hadn't known otherwise. I certainly wouldn't hesitate recommending this book for paranormal romance readers looking for something outside the vampire realm. ( )