Is the first book in the Santa Cruz Vampires series by Maria Booth. It’s a MM romance with a paranormal spin. I would say it is also set in the same universe as the Santa Cruz shifters but I’m not entirely sure. The book was self-published 2021 and the audiobook is narrated by Tim Paige and Liam DiCosimo.
The story follows Asher and Ezra who are two fallen angels who had their wings cut off and turned into vampires. The story starts off with Asher being banished while Ezra is the one who caught him and tries to keep him alive. Asher is determined to continue doing what he does best, which is healing. A task not easy by former angels betrayed by their Archangels who wants to use them as weapons to take over earth. They still want to protect the human though the question is if they can succeed when they have to go up against the archangels and lose whatever slim hope they have to return to heaven.
Now I don’t mind the characters but I though find them problematic. I really had no interest in them and it took me a while to figure out why. It’s because they are perfect. Whatever flaws they have comes from them wanting to do good but are stopped by the very cartoony evil archangels who just want to take over the world because they are evil.
Asher has his wings cut off in a horrible manner and he gets over it pretty much immediately. Ezra wants to get back and prove his innocence but none has any interest in revenge. They are healers and warriors who are perfectly good with no nuances at all. I quickly lost interest in them and the only one I was interested in is the one who is hinted (not shown) to have some flaws but their knew “master” is barely in this book.
Asher also don’t really face any repercussion or is even called out on some of the strange things he does or say. He, for example, tells them to go against an order of Michael and Michael takes Ezra and whips him as a punishment when they do it. Then Asher turns around and blames the leader for doing it despite he being the cause of everything and everyone seem to agree. Apparently Asher can’t do anything wrong. It easily could have been a very good way to cause some conflict but the author just runs past it to make these godlike characters fight the ultimate evil. Who becomes an allegory for corruption among those in power.
I also felt that some things were glossed over. Such as the mention of a virus which ravaged the human and shifter population but not what it actually was. Is it just a lazy allegory for Covid or an actual plot point from one of her other series. I don’t know. Why would they turn angels into vampires? There are no real advantages to that idea since the angels wants humans to worship them so they can rule over them. That would have been far easier to do as angels claiming to be gods messengers.
Now, is there any good points. Well, the world does feel unique. The angels becoming vampires when their wings are cut off, the war between the demons and angels where both sides see themselves as the good one, the virus ravaging the world. All of this gives a unique world and the story, a bit of a underdog trope, could have worked really well if the author was just able to bring it all home and connect them. She wasn’t able to do it and it felt a bit rushed. It doesn’t help that the book, apparently, had a lot of spelling mistakes, such as missing words or punctuations, like it hadn’t been edited. I haven’t read the book, instead went for the audiobook, so I didn’t notice but a friend of mine barely was able to get through it because of it. This is a clear sign of a rush job, especially considering that some of them could easily be spotted if she just read through her own work.
I would say that the book has plenty of ideas and potential and with a bit of time and patience the author could have a really good book. For now there is too many missed opportunities and rushed job to give it that high of a rating. I would say it is a solid 6 out of 10. It was fine, but unfortunately lacking in editing. I would have liked a bit more flaws and less cartoon feeling over the characters, but the world had potential and I do hope she expands upon it in the future.
With Kind Regards
Senefer.
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