Title: Envy
Author: J.R. Ward
Series: The Fallen Angels, #3
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Publisher: Signet (Imprint of Penguin)
Date Published: September 6th, 2011
Edition: Paperback
Rating:
As the son of a serial killer, homicide detective Thomas “Veck” DelVecchio, Jr., grew up in the shadow of evil. Now, on the knife-edge between civic duty and blind retribution, he atones for the sins of his father- while fighting his inner demons. Assigned to monitor Veck is Internal Affairs officer Sophia Reilly, whose interest in him is both professional and arousingly personal. And Veck and Sophia have another link: Jim Heron, a mysterious stranger with too many answers… to questions that are deadly. When Veck and Sophia are drawn into the ultimate battle between good and evil, their fallen angel savior is the only thing that stands between them and eternal damnation.
My Review:
In Envy, we jump into the lives of Veck (who we met in Lover Unleashed from the BDB series) and Reilly. Veck has had to deal with living in the shadow of his father’s life of crime while trying to build a career as a detective — not an easy feat. For Reilly, she has always been a little attracted to Veck, but what woman hasn’t? She’s a professional though and TOTALLY won’t let things become anything else between them. But when her and Veck are paired up as partners on the force for the next month, she is starting to find it very hard to stick to that rule.
I really liked this and I loved Veck and Reilly. It’s hard for me to say since it’s been so long since I’ve read Covet, but I might like them just as much (if not more than) Vin/Marie-Terese. I thought their relationship was written really well. It felt pretty gradual but at the same time you could feel the sexual tension between them all the time. As with a lot of PNRs though, I felt like maybe the love word was used a little too quick. But, besides that I really liked them as a couple. There were times when I felt absolutely horrible for Veck at the end there, but mostly their relationship was all good.
Now some things I didn’t like were mostly that it was kind of slow at times. This is a tough series because it sort of has a paranormal romance (with Veck/Reilly) going on at the same time as an urban fantasy (with Jim/Devinia/the angels). So because of this, there tends to be a lot of point-of-views going on and sometimes that can just feel like it’s dragging the book out. So that was a bit of a downer. However, in the same respect, I do like that this is a totally different PNR than I’ve ever read. It has a lot of interesting crossover and continual storylines going on with Jim/Devinia, Nigel/Colin, Sissy, etc. But all of that can be good an bad at the same time. It takes away from the main couple’s story, but it does add dimension to the books.
A couple other things I didn’t like…There were no BDB sightings! I know some people are saying the whole Escalade thing and the Grim Reaper thing at the end. But boo, that’s hardly anything! I want more brother sightings! I also do not like that the sins the characters are committing are not clear. I know this one is titled “Envy”, but I really wasn’t seeing how that was Veck’s sin. I mean, these seven souls that are chosen are supposed to be committing these sins to the nth degree, right? But to me, they’re just average humans and not any real extremes. Oh well, that’s one thing that kind of bugs me about these. I wish the sins were more clear-cut and defined.
Overall though, I really do like these books. I definitely don’t love them as much as BDB. but, they’re still really good, unique, and dynamic. Loved the characters in this one. I’m loving the whole Jim/Devinia completely twisted relationship, and I’m loving the little side relationships we get with the other angels too, that’s kind of fun. So I’m definitely looking forward to the next one. I’m kind of excited that we know who’s next and I’m actually kind of happy about who it is. We’ll see how it goes!
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