I am a huge fan of Laurell K. Hamilton. I was very excited that NetGally sent me this to read.
I took me a while to get through. It was extremely well written of course. I have always loved Laurell’s writing.
A Terrible Fall of Angels is essentially a murder mystery with a bit of supernatural, it wasn’t for me. Don’t get me wrong, the story was good, I just didn’t connect with the characters of this one.
I would definitely recommend this book to anyone that loves murder mysteries because I know it will resonate better with those readers.

This book is the first in a new series by Laurell K. Hamilton and is a shift from her other two series. While this series still follows the paranormal and includes some police work/crime solving it stars a male main character who can speak to (and see) angels. While this book started out the gate very strong and fast paced, I quickly found myself struggling as the chapters seemed to grow longer and longer towards the end of the book. I love the concept of this book and the world building - but I just do not love being in Zaniel’s brain. I am curious to see where his character development goes as the series progresses, but I just didn’t feel as invested as I wanted to. I also struggled to connect with the supporting characters as viewed through his brain. Overall I liked this book, I just didn’t love it.

Thank you Netgalley for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

This is the first Laurel K. Hamilton book I've read in years. An exciting premise convinced me to give her another try after the disappointing paths her other two series took. I got to almost the halfway mark when suddenly the entire story changed. It became unstable as it seemed as if another writer entered into the fray. The writing became repetitive, overly verbose, and almost childlike. The mystery takes a definite back story to the lead's attempt to reconcile with his wife. As I continue to read, the writing switches back and forth as if two people are writing it. I was able to continue for a little bit but the conflicting personalities of the writing was just too great and I was unable to keep track with the varied subplots that seemed to take over like kudzu.

DNF

A TERRIBLE FALL OF ANGELS is different, a good beginning, a little wordy, but with enough action, intrigue, and danger to keep readers glued to the pages, and wanting to see what comes next.

Reviewed for Fresh Fiction by Annetta Sweetko

Complete review: https://freshfiction.com/review.php?id=74925

This is the second book I've read by Hamilton and I'm not sure I mesh well with her writing style. I am not a fan of the asides and anecdotes that are peppered throughout the prose in an almost ADHD-type fashion. Although they can be intriguing, that is almost a problem because they are so short and rarely pay off as plot points. They often interrupt the momentum of the story.
Still, it was interesting world-building, setting up a new character and series. I don't know that I would continue reading the story myself, but I do have friends that would enjoy it that I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it to!

Oh my, was I on the struggle bus with this one! I am more than a week late with this review and I feel terrible, it's the first book commitment I've made that I struggled to keep. I generally fly through books in a day or two - this one took me 16 days. I'm not sure why, I like fantasy and this is a well known author (even though I've never read her myself). The premise was really interesting, a cop who can communicate with angels in a world like ours but where magic is just more accessible.

It had elements I really liked including blending fantasy and religion (although I didn't love the way it treated those religions but I digress...). The magic and the fantastical beings were really cool and the descriptions of them were fun to read.

What I struggled with is there was a total information dump throughout. Even when we were following the characters around, the information about the mundane interactions they had were exhausting. How many times did we need to learn about the main character changing his clothing? His interactions with his wife were really uncomfortable, he seemed to worship her even though she was not the nicest person. It was also not easy to see where the book was going, things happened SO SLOWLY! I literally made it through less than 10% on my kindle each day because I just struggled with the writing. I was compelled to know what was happening but probably would have DNF-ed if I hadn't committed to a book tour. I usually only post reads that are three stars or higher here but this one just didn't get there for me. Even the ending felt like a rushed info dump that I just didn’t find satisfying. But just because it wasn't for me doesn't mean that it won't be for you, so if you're looking for a good mystery with angels and demons and you have patience for some irrelevant minutiae and annoying characters than give this one a try.

Thanks to Berkley for a copy of this novel. All opinions above are my own.

Confession - as much as I read large amounts of urban fantasy, particularly those with some sort of Investigator main character, I haven't really gotten into Hamilton's earlier works. I gave Anita the college try, working through a handful of books, but while I respected her work I never grew invested in the series.

But, Guilty Pleasures came out in 1993. Thirty years is a long time for someone to hone and refine their craft, and Hamilton's body of work and impact on the genre speaks volumes to her skill. So a brand new series made me sit up and pay attention. I wanted to see where this went, and I was not let down in the slightest.

A Terrible Fall of Angels gives us a new setting, one where faith and belief can shape your magic, one where children can be taken and taught to act as a conduit for angelic voices. Zaniel was an Angel Speaker, until he left his calling and started his life over. He still works on the side of the angels, for where there are angels there are demons, but he's learning things aren't quite as he was taught and there are more allies than just those of the celestial chorus standing against the darkness.

I'd recommend this book to fans of Hamilton's earlier works, as well as fans of series such as Tad William's Bobby Dollar or Paul Cornell's London Falling.

In A Terrible Fall of Angels, paranormal bestselling author Laurell K. Hamilton invites readers into a new world full of angels, demons, and magic all around.

Detective Zaniel Havelock spent his youth at the College of Angels, training to be an Angel Speaker, primed to spend his life interacting directly with angels. But when he sees the grim reality of the College of Angels, Havelock does the unthinkable and leaves. Joining the local paranormal unit of the police department, Zaniel uses his angelic sight to help civilians with their Guardian Angels. When a demon starts acting out, and survives when he shouldn’t, Zaniel is drawn into a physical and mental battle unlike anything he’s ever experienced before. As old friends return and long-kept secrets are revealed, Zaniel finds his faith tested like never before.

I’ve been a huge fan of both the Anita Blake and Merry Gentry series, so I was very excited when I learned that Laurell K. Hamilton was embarking on a new series, this one full of angels and demons instead of vampires, shifters, and fae. It was refreshing to meet all these new characters and learn about new abilities and situations. Hamilton, I think, has a nice way of world building; she doesn’t lay everything out at the beginning and make things too detail-heavy right from the start, but allows her readers to explore her fictional world gradually and make discoveries right alongside the main character. I do think there were some questions that could have been answered or explained earlier in the novel, and there are definitely some unknowns that will likely be focal points for future books in the series, but overall A Terrible Fall of Angels had great world building with intriguing characters and an engaging plot.

Hamilton has had faith play interesting roles in her previous series, and some of those elements pop up in her newest work. I loved that, in a book centered around angels and demons, Hamilton features Wiccans, witches, and totems so heavily. There was fantastic allegory behind a team of various faiths supporting each other as a team and being stronger together. And as with any other Hamilton story, the main character discovers a lot about himself and everything he thought he knew about his allies and enemies, all while pursuing the bad guy.

Being the first book in the series, Zaniel still needs a bit of fleshing out; he can easily come across as a bit flat when compared to the dynamic characters that Anita and Merry have become throughout their series. As readers, we’re still learning who he is as a character by the end of the book. Despite bits and pieces from his marriage and fleeting mentions of his youth at the College of Angels, there is still a lot to learn about our main character and I look forward to seeing more of Zaniel’s character in the future.

A Terrible Fall of Angels is very reminiscent of early Anita Blake books in style and character development. Since I know one of the larger complaints about Hamilton’s writing involves her including too much sex, especially in the later books in her series, A Terrible Fall of Angels will be a nice reprieve for anyone who enjoyed the early Anita Blake stories for their characters and plots and found themselves turned off by all the sex.

Incorporating both new and familiar story elements, A Terrible Fall of Angels will intrigue new fans, long term fans, and returning fans of Laurell K. Hamilton.

I'm all for urban fantasy that contains angels, demons and all sorts of magics. In A Terrible Fall of Angels, Laurell K. Hamilton introduces readers to a new world departed from her Anita Blake and Mercy Gentry novels. This first book is filled with a lot of world building. Readers are also introduced to some interesting characters including the main character, Zaniel "Havoc" Havelock. We are thrown into the thick of things immediately as Havok is in the midst of an investigation that may or may not involved celestial beings. While the story is interesting and I'm eager to see how she proceeds in the series, I did find some of the flow of the book a bit clunky. At times the transition between plot, Havoc's personal drama, other character development and world development seemed abrupt. For my personal taste, I think the interactions with his wife, Reggie, could have been left to reflection on the relationship with maybe the introduction of the actual character happening in the second book. I think this is the case with a lot of the book, it is mainly a set up for the series, but I am not sure how well it actually stands up on it's own. The world definitely has me intrigued.

First, I have to say that I’m surprised at just how good this book is. Pleased as punch, but also surprised as Heaven, as the characters in the book would say.

Second, I feel the need to say upfront that nobody gets laid in this book. I know that’s a strange place to start a review, but as one of the many readers who loved the first few Anita Blake books before they got to be a sex-fest, I felt like that needed to be said early on because it became such an overwhelming feature of both the Anita Blake and Merry Gentry series.. Not that there isn’t a potential romance brewing – actually more than one – but this book goes back to the good old days of urban fantasy, back when the main character had a magical or mysterious crime to solve and a love life like a sinking ship. When the focus was on the story and the world and the insanely powerful beings who were out messing things up and not on how many people the protagonist could get between the sheets.

The above is probably going to disappoint some readers who are expecting more of like her other series, but it was a relief to me. Your reading mileage may vary.

Zaniel “Havoc” Havelock is a detective in the Metaphysical Coordination Unit of the City of Angels, which is probably a stand-in for the city of Los Angeles, whose name literally translates from Spanish as “the Angels”. His world, and his city, are a variation of our own, not just a place where magic works, as is so often the case in urban fantasy, but a place where angels manifest in the world and where specially talented children, including Zaniel once upon a time, are recruited by the hierarchy that serves the Angels to be their representatives here on Earth.

Zaniel was trained to be an angel-speaker. But something broke – it seems like a lot of things broke – just as he was about to take his final vows. So he left, joined the army, and eventually became a cop who deals with crimes that involve angels and/or demons. And that’s where we meet him, called into a case because an angel has deliberately left a feather at the scene of a rape/murder that otherwise has no ethereal or infernal overtones whatsoever.

Until the angel who left that feather tells Zaniel that circumstances are not at all what they appear, and that there is something infernal going on in the City of Angels that not just should not be happening but that should not even be capable of happening.

And that it is up to Zaniel to pick up the mantle he left behind, or at least as much of it as he is willing to carry, figure out what has gone so terribly wrong, and fix it – along with possibly himself – before the impossible-to-exist demon gets too big for anyone to possibly stop.


First Anita Blake book, cover circa 1993
Escape Rating A: I have to say that I picked this up because my curiosity bump itched something fierce. I loved the early Anita Blake books, back when in the day when they were urban fantasy with just a hint of paranormal romance, but I kept on reading long after they turned into recitations of just how much sex Anita had. At least the Merry Gentry series started out that way, so I knew what I was getting into. But for me, at least, there’s a point where other people’s sex lives gets boring, and Anita passed that somewhere earlier in the series than when I finally stopped reading it.

So I came into this book with a whole lot of reading baggage in the hopes I might get to drop some of it. And I’m extremely happy to say that I was able to drop pretty much all of it. Because A Terrible Fall of Angels harkens back in the best way to the early Anita Blake books. It’s solidly urban fantasy, with terrific setup and just enough otherworldly world building to create a strong foundation for a new series.

And in Zaniel “Havoc” Havelock the author has created an appropriately tormented detective with a fascinating background and a foot in both camps. He’s a veteran police detective in the unit that handles crimes that are wrapped around the axle of angels and demons, who are real and manifest entirely too frequently in our world – to both their and our cost.

Because what’s good for the demons, and even what’s good for the angels, might not be what’s good for humanity. As Havoc knows entirely too well. As the story opens, we don’t know what happened in Havoc’s past to tear him away from his upbringing in the College of Angels and place him on the streets of the city as a cop. We just know that whatever it was it was heartbreaking in a way that is still echoing through his life like the tolling of a bell.

The other thing we know about Havoc is that his current personal life is a mess. He’s separated from the wife and child that he loves because she can’t handle being a cop’s wife. They’re still in counseling but even though there seems to be some hope at the end of this story I honestly hope they don’t make it. It reads like there’s something wrong with her – or wrong with the way she treats him – that can’t be fixed.

On the other hand, and very different from the author’s previous series, Zaniel is still married, still hopeful, and still in love with his wife. He finds other women attractive, and he’s tempted but he never crosses that line. And that was a huge surprise throughout the entire book.

One of the things that fascinated me about the way that this world and its magic systems are set up is that in spite of the influence of angels and demons, all faiths and belief systems are recognized as not just valid but as having actual power – by everyone except those who serve the angels. A conflict that I suspect is going to become more overt and more problematic as the series continues. Or at least I hope so.

This turned out to be a fast one-day read for me. I absolutely could not put it down. It reminded me of the early Anita Blake books in all the best ways, particularly the way that it seemed like there was a force embedded between the pages that kept me reading late into the night because I was so caught up in the story and it was just so good.

The world here is complex and compelling. Even as Havoc keeps unravelling the case and the case keeps on unravelling all the trauma in his past, there’s just so much going on and it was all just so captivating that I kept reading long after the point where I should have called it a night because I could not stop. I loved Zaniel as a character and really liked the cop shop vibe of the people who surround him at work in spite of not really liking his wife at all but still loving his continuing to try to make things better.

And the creeping evil of the crime spree put just the right amount of shiver up my spine. This was just very well done all the way around. I want more! Please!

Reviews by the Wicked Reads Review Team

Sarah – ☆☆☆☆☆
This is a weird and wonderful treat from a favourite author. Laurell K. Hamilton has swapped vampires and shifters for angels and demons – and she immediately pulled me into her fabulous new world.

Laurell K. Hamilton isn’t the first Urban Fantasy writer to take on angels, but this feels fresh and exciting. Part jaded cop, part angelic interpreter, there is nothing straightforward about Zaniel. This first book is part theology, part police procedural, and part horror. Zaniel and his team are chasing something demonic. The tense encounters between the police and the demonic being and the trail of gore left behind will satisfy fans of Anita Blake the marshall. Zaniel’s messy personal and professional life will appeal to readers who love a complex central character.

I really enjoyed the world building here. I love the murky sense of good and evil that develops in this first book as nothing is quite what it seems. Zaniel’s early experiences as an Angel Speaker prompt reflection from readers. Zaniel’s struggle to hold onto his faith while rejecting the cruelty and inconsistency of the cult-like group who raised him will be relatable to many readers.

I feel like this book works on many levels. On a basic level, Zaniel slots easily into the role of a self-destructive Scandi-noir detective in the tradition of Wallander or Harry Hole. The first book is fast paced, carefully plotted, and exciting. On a more complex level, readers are only given a taste of this new world and left with many questions. I can’t wait for the next book in this series!


Avid Reader – ☆☆☆☆
3.5 stars
M/F Paranormal

Havoc, aka Zaniel, is a police officer in the Metaphysical Coordination Unit. His job is to notice details that other officers might not notice or see details that others simply can't see. Havoc is trying to find out why there has been an uptick in deaths, with angel feathers in connection to the deaths. That's not normal for angels.

Havoc is also going through a trial separation. I'm not entirely sure why this is in the story. It seems strange to have this line in the book, but maybe it'll play a larger role in the coming books. For this one, it was off topic and didn't mesh well.

The mystery behind the College of Angels and what they are supposed to be teaching is what makes this a mystery. Havoc has only known that the college was doing good, training those around them to be conduits for God. To fight off the evil in the world. But when his long-lost friend is found again, with no signs of being as disturbed as he had been, Havoc has to question all that he was taught.

Then, on the job, Havoc has to deal with a demon who simply won't die in the normal way and has an uncanny ability to evade them. What's going on? How is the demon able to travel and be part of a human? Is the human a willing participant? All of those questions are planned out and asked.

This book is intriguing, and I definitely want to see where this goes. There are a lot of characters introduced in this first book and I hope we get to see them more in the next one.

Somehow this author was never on my radar but after reading this story I realize it was my loss and that needs to be corrected.

There may have been some weird stuff going on in the story but to me it felt rather refreshing. Just traveling along with the characters and his creative take on “guardian” angels.

Havoc, as he was called, is an Angel Speaker and was raised in a cult-like academy for youngsters who displayed superior attributes or powers. The story revolves around him and 2 of his close friends who all took different paths because of the institutions training and influence.

In his current position he works with the human police officers in a unit called “Metaphysical Coordination Unit” dealing with mystics and supernatural cases. I will leave it to you to discover why and how he left the academy with an aspiring position. Not all blessings are welcome at any price!

Nice paced read with interesting characters and events.

A fantastic first in a new series.
I fell in love with Havoc!!!
He is a shredded human, on track to rebuilding his life in the Metaphysical Coordinators Unit. For those who need a little help? It's the Heaven & Hell Unit.
Havoc aka Zaniel has a brutal murder to solve, a partner who may have gone crazy, and a marriage that is crumbling. He also has a demon who refuses to die.
We get a mystery to solve, angels, demons, guardians and so much more intriguing things. Way to go LKH I can't wait to see who is next.

I greatly enjoyed the first six books in the Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter series until the books became more focused on the protagonist's erotic exploits rather than the excellent mystery and supernatural elements that I loved (with one exception--Book 8 of the series that focuses on fellow supernatural hunter, Edward, is one of the series good entries because it focuses more on plot and less on erotic content). Having loved what Hamilton did with vampires and vampire hunters (at least for the start of her series), I was curious to see what she would do with angels, hence the first book in a new series, "A Terrible Fall of Angels", the Zaniel Havelock Series. It seems to be an attempt to return to the glory days of the Anita Blake series by introducing another detective, Zaniel, who can communicate directly with angels. After being in Castiel withdrawal after "Supernatural" the television show ended, I have been eager for more angel characters who are written well.

I had hoped to enjoy the novel more, but although it was not my cup of tea, fans of Hamilton's previous series will enjoy this work as well as those who crave urban fantasy mysteries.

A Terrible Fall of Angels features Angel Speaker (someone who can speak to celestial beings without going crazy) slash police detective slash separated-and-sexually-frustrated husband Zaniel Havelock, who gets called in to a macabre murder scene and spends the rest of the book chasing the perp, reliving his childhood, trying to reconcile with his wife, and flirting with every female in his vicinity.

What I liked about A Terrible Fall of Angels – there’s an actual murder to solve, there’s actual conversation between the characters, the bad guy is a mystery (as in the how, not the who), and there’s threads hanging for the next story to expound on but this one can be a standalone.

What I didn’t like so much about A Terrible Fall of Angels – there’s too much stuff being repeated about the blah blah blah of seeing celestial beings, Zane’s sexual frustrations feels like Hamilton’s trying to not go all sex-orgy-every-other-page à la Merry Gentry, Reggie’s repeated issues with Zane’s job (I really only need to read it once, really), the villain is so predictable, and why is Zane so wishy-washy???

I thought this was a “good enough” book in that most of the stuff I liked was “good enough” – especially when compared to the all-sex-all-the-time that became the Merry Gentry series. Pick this up if you’re a Hamilton fan but got tired of all the sex.

drey’s rating: Pick it up!

As a fan of Laurell K Hamilton, I was pretty much guaranteed to read this first in a new series - but if I hadn't been, that title would've grabbed me. A Terrible Fall of Angels! Isn't that an attention-getter? The story has an attention-getting start to match with the main character, Zaniel, at a crime scene, and there are angel feathers! Rather than spill the book's secrets, I'll stop there and focus on the fundamentals.
One thing I've always liked about Hamilton is that her characters are relatable. I'm not saying that I can relate to Zaniel's job or talents, but his thoughts, his desires, his determination, those things are relatable. The story also has some interesting secondary characters that I hope to see more of as the series progresses,.
I really like the premise for this series and the world the author is creating. That said, I do feel like the story is still finding its footing, so I'll be interested to see where things go from here. All in all, this first Zaniel Havelock book gives us an entertaining introduction to the character and his world. I'm not sure it's a storyline for everyone, but I enjoyed it.

A Terrible Fall of Angels is a different take for Laurell K Hamilton. The last time I read one of her books was an Anita Blake book many years ago. At the time, those got WAY to spicy for me (I read super spicy now, though). However, this book is different. First, the focus is a male protagonist (LKH writes great kick ass females). Second, this is a whole new world that is being built from the ground up.

Zaniel, the protagonist, is a supernatural cop of sorts. There is the classic battle between angels and demons with the human world caught in the middle. Zaniel is an Angel Speaker, and is turned on to this new demonic possession that is breaking all the rules. The raping/murdering demon possessed human leads to some pretty gruesome crime scenes, so be prepared for that.  Lots of religious overtones both with the angels/demons angle and with Zaniel's past in the College of Angels.

Here was my struggle with A Terrible Fall of Angels: I was so lost more often than anyone should be while reading. This is a complex world to establish, but Zaniel is a complex character to unpack as well, and then there are the side characters too. It was just a LOT to take in. Zaniel's past and present (messed up relationships galore), the rape/murder plot, creating this new world...there is a lot of diversion from the main plot as I saw it (the murders). I'm hoping that it will become a little less tangental and more focused as the series goes on or I don't think I could stick with it! Also, Zaniel is a hard protagonist to like. I had to really remind myself that not all protagonists are likable people. I think because 90% of what I read is romance, you expect likability or at least redemption. I kind of just want to throat punch Zaniel and find a replacement.

A TERRIBLE FALL OF ANGELS is a fast-paced and interesting first book in a new fantasy series from Laurell K. Hamilton. Fair warning — this new series isn’t the smexy and steamy books we’ve come to expect from LKH and Anita Blake, but instead it’s a refreshing and dark urban fantasy that has all the classic UF feels with a hefty side of crime and investigation. Like the Merry Gentry series, and even the early AB books.

The bones of this story revolve around religion and angels and The Man Upstairs. Our MC, Zaniel “Havoc” Havelock, is a detective with a special branch of police who are tasked with investigating crimes involving anything related to angels and demons. Havoc has some very special abilities that harken back to a time in his past that’s slowly uncovered through the course of the book, and it’s a very interesting past indeed. All of that is revealed when Havoc is called to investigate a series of murders that all tie back to angels. Or at least it appears to be angels, as angels’ feathers are left at each murder scene. Soon it becomes very clear that Havoc and the rest of his team may be chasing after the wrong suspects, that perhaps the murders are being committed by something much darker and certainly much more dangerous.
⁣
While the storyline does have a heavy hand when it comes to religion, don’t expect a “religious” book by any means. There’s murder and mayhem and bad things aplenty, which is exactly how I like my urban fantasy.

I was on the fence about starting this new series, for no other reason other than I wasn’t in the mood for something sexy and steamy. I needn’t have worried because this is a romance-less book. Instead, it’s dark and gritty and filled with demons and angels and magic and murder, and I can already tell this is a series I will follow along with, no matter how long it runs. 4 stars.
⁣

*Many thanks to NetGalley and Berkley Publishing for the digital arc.

A Terrible Fall of Angels is the first installment in author Laurell K. Hamilton's Zaniel Havelock series. This book is about angels and demons and a man named Detective Zaniel (Havoc) Havelock. Havoc works for the Metaphysical Coordination Unit in the City of Angels. Zaniel was trained and raised in the College of Angels, where they take kids with these particular types of magical talents. He was trained as an Angel Speaker who walked away and joined the military before becoming a police officer. As the book begins, there's a very brutal with angel feathers left behind.

The woman who was murdered was not supposed to die for many more years which begs the question as to who could have been this evil. An angel tells Havoc that someone is blocking angels from finding out who the murderer is, and the only one capable of doing that might be Satan, or something that shouldn't be. There is a whole lot of unnecessary banter that sometimes turns sexist. One minute Havoc is talking to a Medical Examiner assistant, the next they are talking about what is appropriate or not, and it doesn't stop for 5 pages.

Getting back to the College of Angels. The College apparently takes kids in who are really young and cuts them off from their families entirely, and raises them to believe only in Christian theology and the power of angels, even though other theologies clearly have powers of their own, and these are visible to Zaniel and apparently other people trained at the COA. Zaniel was close to two people; Suriel, who is someone of importance when it comes to the Infernals, and a boy named Levanael aka Jamie who lost his mind and was thrown out to fend for himself.

This book also has a fairly large number of Angels like Angelus Lucis which is apparently what Havoc is referred to because he somehow managed to walk through Angel flame and survived. In this world, everyone is given a Guardian Angel when they are born. Someone people also have Totems which can come in three different variety. On the side, Havoc hasn't exactly had the most solid relationships. He married a hooker, no I'm not lying, who divorced him hoping he would die in combat. In this story, his second wife has been heading for divorce and makes it clear that it's OK if Havoc sees other women.

Getting back to Suriel. She gets sent over to the police to help a witch co-worker of Havoc's who was cursed by contact with some demon blood, and hints that maybe some stuff isn't right at the COA. But there's hints that something just isn't right at the COA and that might be the next area of discovery by this author. That and the fact that someone is stealing people's totems for no reason that makes sense.

As you are aware, Hamilton is the author of the Anita Blake series, as well as the Merry Gentry series. Once upon a time, I vowed to never again read anything by this author since she truly destroyed what I loved best about the Anita Blake first 8 books. When this title was released, I said to myself, self, if you read this book and don't like it, you have nobody to blame but yourself. Point taken. I'm done.

A Terrible Fall of Angels is the first book in the Zaniel Havelock by Laurell K. Hamilton. An intriguing kick-off to a new contemporary supernatural mystery series. A fast-paced read with lots of action, mystery, and lots of paranormal fantasy. Once you start reading, you will not want to put this one down.