Melanie Nilles

You know how I get, I have a vision of a kind of book in my mind, and I just don't feel right until I read it. Luckily, it was pretty easy for me to find an angel book in my library, and this one was so interesting I was easily able to dive right into it. A different take on the usual kind of archangel books I've read, this one contained a new species of aliens I've never read before, ones that look exactly like humans and are able to hide their huge angel wings to blend in. I really enjoyed reading it.

Check out my full review here!

https://radioactivebookreviews.wordpress.com/2021/01/25/starfire-angels-dark-ang...… (més)

I'm going to preface this review with a trigger warning for drugging and rape. It's something that needs to be said before someone reads this book and my review and have it bring up horrible memories.

Honestly I wanted to like this book more, but where the author took this book is just... wrong. If you think this book is about Raea, you'd be wrong and that is where most of the fault lies.

Nilles builds Raea up to be a strong character and about 70% into the book.. yeah. So much for that.

We find out that she is drugged and then raped by Pallin. While rape isn't a forbidden subject, the way it's handled here is merely to get ELIS bothered. Depowering not only Raea, but making her an object to further Elis's motivations. As this is the catalyst for him to start the ending of the book. It's Elis that get's mad and doesn't listen to Raea, Elis that goes to the motel and Elis that begins the fight with Pallin. Actually this book is about Elis it seems.

But "OH" you say "She finishes it!" That doesn't make up for the fact that she was rendered a 'damsel in distress', 'Elis's "property" that was soiled that he had to fight the honor of', and even is the 'hostage' at the very end. Because really, Elis going after Pallin like that just makes Raea nothing but property, like he owns her. "I have to hurt Pallin because he did that to MY lover/girlfriend/mate."

Another thing is that these angel people are supposed to be SOOOO technologically advanced, yet they fall into the standard gender dichotomies. Nilles writes "he needed the touch of a female," (dehumanizing language) "just as any man did." That wasn't written from the character's perspective either. Also, some of the "any man" out there that I know of prefer the touch of a another man. So these scifi angel people haven't seemed to advance that far yet either.

Overall the book wasn't written badly, however where the book decided to take itself was into territory that it would have been better off just not going there. It could have easily ended that same way without the things happening at the end that seemed to steer the car off the road into "Don't-Go-Thereville"… (més)

Thanks to Goodreads for sending this First Reads book for free through Goodreads Giveaways.

Unfortunately, I'm finding difficulty in describing anything I liked in this book. It seemed to have potential, but this book was so predictable in an annoying way. The identities of who the main character dates, who she ends up with, etc were pretty clear from the first few pages. Character development for the main characters and the side characters was seriously lacking. The writing at times was plain confusing, hard to follow, and repetitive while explanations about the plot were often unclear. And the main character - the worst part of the book. She was stupid, shallow, and supposedly 18 years old though she acted much more like she was under 15. She was obsessed with a guy because he was cute, bored with her best friend because of his interests, rude to everyone around her, and completely unlikable.

This is just not a book I enjoyed nor is it one I'd recommend.… (més)

At The Water's Edge (Adronis Novella #1) by Melanie Nilles

At The Water's Edge was a great book as an introduction to Melanie Nilles. I can't say it's the best book, I won't do that until I've read a few more of her's. It's a great entertaining light read with some heart.

This book is touted as a Novella but it comes off more as a novel. The reason I say this is that though it has some of the hurry up and get there nature of a novella Melanie still delves enough into her characters to allow the reader to have feelings for them. I find in a lot of novella's that becomes difficult because of the short nature of a novella. Most time's the characters are the one that get short changed in the Science Fiction category.

But, this is not just a Science Fiction Fantasy this is a Romance and I would agree that it is first a romance and second Science Fiction. This is a romance between to seeming different species. It is also the story of people who have advanced genetic engineering. The science is never dealt with on a heavy level and is mostly ancillary to the characters and the romance.

I love Science Fiction and I enjoy Romance in my Science Fiction so this was no large stretch for me. And, though at the beginning it seemed like the character of Sara Adams was going to get shorted by the novella I think the author slowly developed a better liking for Sara as she went along and began to give her some more depth. All kidding aside Sara was well developed as an almost spoiled but wounded young lady who really wouldn't be doing what she was doing if she'd not been so wounded.

It's that wounded and vulnerable Sara that gets herself into trouble in no worse place than the Bermuda Triangle. Thinking she's about to drown she seems to give up only to discover she's safe on an Island. She's also alone and isolated and not sure how to survive.

Thankfully Darian is around. He has saved her and placed her on the island and is bringing her food. Since he doesn't speak English and Sara hasn't learned much of any other languages, there's a huge language boundary at the beginning. But, that pales to Sara's constant uncertainty that any of this is real. Perhaps that's a contributing factor to why Sara never seems to catch onto what the reader can easily discern is going on with Darian. Even before we get the larger reveal.

Suffice it to say, if I had any quibbles it would be that as bright as Sara is and has to be to have turned Darian's head in the first place, she should have figured some of this out, even if she didn't believe it. But, love has a ways to go and there's always the potential conflict with the mother-in-law to be.

I enjoyed the hint of a notion of travelers from far places being wise enough to know they must tweak the DNA to survive in new world. And, all I can say to that is, Melanie you have a lot of writing ahead of you while you examine all the different types of creatures they may have left throughout the vast universe.

Great Romance for romance lovers, but how would I know that? Good character development, which is always a plus. The bonus of Science Fiction that doesn't necessarily drive the story. And lastly, a good Young Adult fiction.

Thanks for the good read!

J.L. Dobias… (més)