Sarah's Library

6/12 - This could have been a five star book, except for two things - a complete lack of characterisation of Ryder and, after numerous sex scenes Hayley's constant refrain of "this is sinful, this is wrong, what would mother/Rachel think" got pretty tedious.

We learn almost nothing about Ryder except his name, the fact that he's not as good a fighter as his 'brother' Dillon and he's never met his father.  We know everything about Hayley's life, family, likes and dislikes, but Ryder just feels like a one-dimensional, just passing through a scene in the background character, he doesn't feel like a hero to Hayley's heroine at all.

Hayley has no self-esteem or confidence, and while her feelings of inadequacy spoke to me, they also got on my nerves.  I have my own problems with the same feelings, so I could empathise with her, but it was like a cd on repeat - saying the same things after each sex scene all the way up until her performance at the strip club, when she finally began enjoying herself without the Catholic-like guilt trip.  There was one scene where Ryder is enacting her fantasy of having sex at a party (originally in a closet, changed to a balcony for extra privacy) during which a couple come out on to the balcony where Hayley and Ryder are wrapped around each other, screend by some potted plants.  The couple are mostly invisible to Ryder and Hayley, so all they can do is keep quiet and listen while the couple engage in some dirty talk.  All through the scene I was hoping that the woman would turn out to be Hayley's sister Rachel, who is part of the reason for Hayley's low self-esteem, showing Hayley that Rachel, and presumably others out there, aren't as uptight and regimented as she thinks they are - that she's not going to have her mouth washed out with soap if she swears or go to hell for her salacious activities.  Unfortunately for the story (I think it would have added a lot for Hayley to realise not even Rachel's perfect, so she doesn't have to keep striving for what she sees as perfection) the woman is just a walk-on with no name.

I didn't like the story was wrapped up, I mean what are Dillon, Chance and Hunter going to do without their brother; they're going to be much busier answering prayers a man/angel down.  Plus, what if Hayley discovers a personality trait about Ryder the mortal that she doesn't like - she didn't know any more about Ryder the nephilim than we did so she didn't get a chance to like or dislike his full personality, you never know he might turn out to be a toilet seat leaver-upper, toothpaste cap leaver-offer, book page folder-downer who doesn't cook or clean.  Because Hayley never saw those aspects of his character, she might be falling in love with a disaster, but that's ok because he has lots of money.  Anyway, this was worth reading, even if it wasn't quite as good as its predecessor.