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If you missed my last KU article about Honed In Havoc, you can find it here.
Hi everyone. It has been a minute since I brought you a new KU review. Life has been lifeing. Plus, I enjoyed reading the Corrupt Credence trilogy so much that I have been having a hard time finding something else to read. I’m probably weird for that, but it is a thing for me. Anyway, my offering today is Sins and Vengeance, part of the Fall of the Lightbringer duo by Katerina Martinez.
In the book, we meet Sarakeil, an angel of the Lightbringer choir. She works with a team to bring aid and justice to those God tells them to. Justice runs through her very being, and when one of her friends, Gadriel, is unjustly imprisoned, Sarakeil wants to break her out. When she does that, a cherub, Micha, calls forth a guard to imprison Sarakeil, but the angel in charge of the prison, Medrion, comes to drag her to prison personally.
Medrion decides that Sarakeil deserves to be sent to Hell for her trespass. To do that, Sarakeil must be broken. Micha even tried to intervene on her behalf to no avail. Medrion seems to take special pleasure in breaking angels, Sarakeil especially. Before Sarakeil can be broken, something happens, and she ends up on Earth, where she meets The Tyrant, or Tyrant for short.
The Tyrant sees her as a tool rather than a person and is willing to train her in order to hone his weapon. Sarakeil already knows how to fight and has had to fight since coming to Earth, but Tyrant is improving her skill. Sarakeil also has to deal with human emotions as well as the temptation to “sin,” which she has never had to do before. Not that she was without emotion before. It is just different for angels.
This book was a departure from my usual books. I tend to go for magick, such as witches or shifters and such, if I am going for a supernatural book. Angels aren’t generally on my radar. I don’t necessarily regret reading this, but I am not in love with it either. This book is great in some areas but not so great in others.
I was invested in what was happening to Sarakeil and hated Medrion, I felt sorry for Gadriel. Unfortunately I don’t know how I feel about The Tyrant, he is intense. He has sinned enough that his appearance has changed from the angel he once was, so he has horns, and his wings are more bat-like than angel-like. I truly enjoyed how kick-ass Sarakeil was. She took no crap from anyone, even Medrion, who was technically he was above her in the hierarchy of Heaven.
There was foreshadowing, which was great, but nothing truly happened for the middle half of the book except foreshadowing. There were a couple of minor skirmishes, but not much. Things like why two particular angels hated her weren’t cleared up. It wasn’t really explained, even after they got their asses handed to them. Twice. Also, there was focus put on things like what was going on around them, while yes that is important, we aren’t getting much information on why things are happening. I have a feeling that everything will be explained in the second book, which sucks for this one because if I am not getting enough information on why I should care about the fight, I’m going to be a bit bored. If I am bored by this book, why am I going to read a second potentially dull book? I am not saying this book is entirely boring; it’s just that I don’t care enough about the plot. One last thing: I don’t want a graphic explanation of the torture endured by Sarakeil, but I think a little bit more of a picture of it than we get will make you hate Medrion more, and I would have liked that.
I also think that the whole book could use better editing. There were mistakes in words, such as which words to use or misspellings. It wasn’t a bunch, but enough for the editor in me to notice.
All-in-all, the book is decent. I don’t think I will read the conclusion book, but it is decent. There isn’t spice. There is a touch of steam but no spice, so if you are looking for that, you won’t find it here. Have you read Sins and Vengeance or anything else by Katerina Martinez? Let me know in the comments below. Until next time, have fun storming the castle!
