Angel City by Jon Steele
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
The sequel to The Watchers (Angelus Trilogy 1). One of things that bothered me about the first book was lack of clarity. I am happy to say the author has kept his sub-plots a lot clearer this time.
The scene with Harper and the terrorists was well-written and finally elevated him out of the murky confusion of the first book.
The cathedral wasn’t a focal point this time, which is a shame and I have to admit to missing the character Marc Rochat.
The descriptions of the cathedral and his role as the Quasimodo-esque watcher in the bellfry was one of the things that I remember vividly and enjoyed the most from the previous book.
I am not sure why it was necessary to have a romantic liaison between Katherine and one of the Swiss Guard.It seemed as if the author was trying to steer her in the direction of the opposite gender, due to the past abuse by multiple men. The female guard was also portrayed as being motherly towards Max. That didn’t gel well for me. Being a female doesn’t automatically mean you will melt at the mere sight of a chubby cheeked cherub or turn into molten mommy lava if the baby happens to coo at you. The relationship between Max and his mother takes up a lot of story. He is cute, we get it but cute doesn’t cut it through an entire book of complex ancient angel warfare.
Ideally I am hoping that book 3 has the complexity of the first and the clarity of the second book. Not much to ask for eh? I am sure the author will be able to balance that creative surge and the evolution of his ideas on paper.
I received a copy of this book via Netgalley.
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