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The premise of this one sounded really interesting. One character (Ferenc) is forced to serve as the hell's ferryman across the river Styx for all eternity UNLESS certain circumstances come to pass which will allow him the freedom to leave and go "topside" to reunite with his human mate, Leo. Part of the deal is that Leo will be reincarnated over and over, but he will not remember Ferenc until the very last hour of his life, which the two of them will get to spend together. This pattern will continue until those circumstances happen, at which point, Ferenc will have to find Leo within his current lifetime and re-establish their bond before Leo dies one last time.
BUT - all this, including the epic battle between heaven and hell that leads up to it takes place within a single chapter, the Prologue.
I continued reading hoping for more of the creativity the author displays in the prologue, but alas... all I got was just another generic, dull, repetitive story that's been written thousands of times before. AND although this book is billed as the first in a new series and the blurb says it can stand alone, 90% of the secondary characters come from other books by the author and they clearly have complex histories with Ferenc, but there are so many of them, it's hard to keep track, and I had no reason whatsoever to care about them. Authors who do this (call books standalones which are not) do themselves no favours - I have absolutely no inclination to go back to find out about these characters and am unlikely to read more books by them if this is their MO.
I didn't care much about the leads, either. Leo spends over half the book angsting about how he's straight but attracted to Ferry (awful shortened version of Ferenc) and talking to secondary characters about it; Ferry, a four-thousand-year-old supernatural being adjusts to life in the 21st century in the blink of an eye, and once Leo does finally give into his attraction to Ferry (around the half way point) it's as though he'd never thought of himself as being straight. Full disclosure: I read to 50% and then skimmed the rest.
That's just a quick summary of my problems with the book - AngelFire's review HERE is excellent, and says everything I would if I had the time!
BUT - all this, including the epic battle between heaven and hell that leads up to it takes place within a single chapter, the Prologue.
I continued reading hoping for more of the creativity the author displays in the prologue, but alas... all I got was just another generic, dull, repetitive story that's been written thousands of times before. AND although this book is billed as the first in a new series and the blurb says it can stand alone, 90% of the secondary characters come from other books by the author and they clearly have complex histories with Ferenc, but there are so many of them, it's hard to keep track, and I had no reason whatsoever to care about them. Authors who do this (call books standalones which are not) do themselves no favours - I have absolutely no inclination to go back to find out about these characters and am unlikely to read more books by them if this is their MO.
I didn't care much about the leads, either. Leo spends over half the book angsting about how he's straight but attracted to Ferry (awful shortened version of Ferenc) and talking to secondary characters about it; Ferry, a four-thousand-year-old supernatural being adjusts to life in the 21st century in the blink of an eye, and once Leo does finally give into his attraction to Ferry (around the half way point) it's as though he'd never thought of himself as being straight. Full disclosure: I read to 50% and then skimmed the rest.
That's just a quick summary of my problems with the book - AngelFire's review HERE is excellent, and says everything I would if I had the time!