My Book Rating System

My book rating system is based on 5 stars. The book must be rated at least 3 stars for a review.

3 Stars: Good story, good plot, good writing.

4 Stars: I was wowed, but something about the story fell short of perfection.

5 Stars: I was either drooling, on the edge of my seat, or falling in love.

If you would like me to review your book, please contact me at 00ibitz@charter.net.

Saturday, August 27, 2011

Book Review: Angel, by Nicole "Coco" Marrow and Laura Hayden

Angel
by Nicole "Coco" Marrow and Laura Hayden

I'm usually wary about reading books written by celebrities because many times the talent doesn't extend beyond the name. This book was different.

Angel begins with a woman waking up on a plane right before it crashes. The twist is she has no idea who she is. No clue. Nada. Nothing. Then the plane crashes, she's rescued, and is hoping that something--anything--will spark her memories. She is dubbed "Angel" because not only did she survive the crash, but she saves the only other survivor...a baby. While nothing about her past surfaces, she learns something about herself. She can read mens' minds, she can ferret out their deepest desires, and she can transform herself in order to meet those desires and become the object of a man's dream. But the question still remains...who is she and *what* is she?

The opening to the book is riveting. You get Angel's confusion, and fear, when the plane is crashing. You discover her "talents" as she does, and the reader is as befuddled and alarmed as Angel is over her seemingly slutty nature as she tunes into men's thoughts and reacts to their inner desires. She seems to want what they want, and is horrified. This is all the more scary to Angel because she can't remember any detail of her life...is this something that has occurred because of the plane crash? Has she always been like this? Who--and what--the heck is she?? The answers to these questions slowly unravel in a gripping read, and the mystery of her life and what she is becomes clear. It kept me turning the pages to see how it all ended.

There are some elements of the story that didn't quite work for me. Saving the baby seemed an instrument to giving Angel her nickname..."Angel" and was a tad contrived. There is no other angle for the baby, and I expected there to be more significance given the high profile of the baby in the beginning of the book and even on the book jacket. The story escalates about 3/4 of the way through as Angel and her friend, Dante, work together to settle a score...but then dips for quite a while as they work to help Angel channel her "talents". For me it takes too long to get to the end where the tension works its way up again to a climax.

Except for this minor flaw in pacing toward the end, this book was an overall good read, and the put-downability factor was a solid 2!

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