I know I’ve been more quiet than normal around here lately, but I found a fantastic reason for breaking the silence and returning to blog land. I got to read a book. Not just any book, but the newest ‘The Original Sinners’ novel, ‘The Angel’ by Tiffany Reisz. (and as an aside, she has a fantatsic promotion/publicity team working on this series)
For those of you who don’t know, I read ‘The Siren’ earlier this year, and immediately proclaimed it my favorite novel ever, something I’ve only ever proclaimed two other times (that I’m aware of. It’s possible that when I was four, I said the same thing about the picture book version of ‘Bambi’). So when I saw ‘The Angel’ was coming soon, I had to get my eager little fingertips on it.
Here’s the thing…I was almost certain my favorite character from ‘The Siren’ wouldn’t be back for ‘The Angel’ (because I’m the one odd reader, and I adored the editor, Zach, even though I knew how that would wrap up), so I’ll be honest, I didn’t know how this book could compete (wow, long intro).
(possible spoilers, though I’ll try and avoid them).
I shouldn’t have been worried, and I was not disappointed in any way. Once again, Ms. Reisz exceeded expectations with an amazing and fantastic book, and with one touching love-story that scorched the paint off walls, and another heart-wrenching one that’s enough to make Care Bears cynical.
And something I didn’t expect at all. I know a lot of readers are huge, massive, stupendous fans of Soren. I never really felt like I got close enough to him in the first book to make the judgement. I could see his appeal physically, and I saw his was strikingly intelligent, but for me personally, there was no burning passion about the man inside the white collar.
All that changed with this book. I felt like I got closer to a lot of the characters introduced before, and I was really drawn into the snippets of all of their stories. And I even got my extra happy from a conversation with Zach.
But, and here’s the big but, there was a scene in ‘The Siren’ that made me sob, and was just completely gut-wrenching above all others (for me anyway), and it was the scene with the box from Tiffany’s. And I never even thought to expect something similar again, because that’s the kind of phenomenon that can’t be reproduced, right?
Wrong. It’s there, that gut wrenching, rock-bottom moment, in ‘The Angel’ as well. There’s actually a couple that made my soul cringe and cower (in a good way), but for me the ‘gasp out loud’ moment was when Nora is talking about her past, and what happened around when she left Soren.
There’s so much depth to every one of these people, that they really do come off the page and come to life. And this book did inspire me to do one thing that ‘The Siren’ didn’t (no, not that, you and your dirty thoughts). I have to go read all the supporting novellas now. I have this drive and urge to submerge myself in these unique and compelling lives, and figure out how these people who are so very different from me, but still so fascinating and brilliant, make it through their days.
In short – fantastic book. If you’re a fan of compelling characters, steamy sex, and gut-wrenching stories, I recommend ‘The Angel’ 110%. (And, as a PS – I can’t wait for the next book, because I *have* to know how *that* relationship plays out.)