3.5⭐️
Audio: 4.5⭐️
Things I loved:
– I think Himes does a good job shifting the focus onto Isaac without disrupting the overall feel of the series, especially with a character as distinct and all-encompassing as Angel who has a relationship and partner to match.
– Showing more of his love for and bond with Daniel as well as Daniel’s healing is great. It also sets up Rory and Daniel’s own book well.
– It is a well-written foray into the heart of Isaac’s trauma and how much damage he inflicts on himself as recompense for something not his fault. He’s trapped as that 13yo boy who believed he killed his family and logic doesn’t make those deep-seated emotions just disappear.
– I enjoyed learning Constantine’s backstory and liked how it connected to the main conflict. The large amount of info is incorporated as smoothly as it can be, but doesn’t slow the pace that much; it’s already slow bc it’s interspersed with Issacs’s reentry into his real life.
– I like the case they are working on. There’s a whole branch of magic users no one really knows about, and with all his knowledge, Angel is practically clueless and has to be educated by Batiste—a novel experience for him!
Things that didn’t work for me
– As much as I liked individual pieces of Isaac and Constantine’s development and history, I just didn’t click with them as a couple.
– I’m not a huge fan of recovery addicts coming straight out of rehab into intense emotional relationship with relative strangers. For all the awe of the one kissed they shared and Batiste’s secondary stalking tendencies, they don’t know each other. By Isaac and Batiste’s own admission, Isaac is still fragile despite his inner strength, and Isaac’s emotional struggle is that he doesn’t know who he is. Yet, he jumps into a relationship. The book handles this as well as it can, but I’m still not onboard with that power dynamic. Speaking of which. . .
– Isaac and Constantine do not feel like equals to me. Between the fact the Batiste is over 2 millennia old and that Isaac is 23 (and feels like a relatively immature 23 despite his trauma), I couldn’t get over my initial misgivings about them being together at this moment in Isaac’s life.
– This mismatch in life experience, personal awareness, confidence, power, etc. also makes it hard for me to accept the Hussain Bolt speed into mate-bonding. I guess between Isaac’s dire need for protection and feeling valued and Batiste’s long life and knowledge of what he wants, they could skirt the whole getting to know one another bit?
However, Isaac getting his happy ending is what he deserves, and while I may not have been all-in on the romance, I enjoyed the story.