LUCIAN DIVINE by RENEE CARLINO :: REVIEW

“Angels can be obnoxiously self-righteous.”

We love our ‘Angel’ books….LOVE them! So, we started Lucian Divine with excitement and a girly giddiness. We immediately fell in love with the humour, the writing and the characters. But then again, we love Renee Carlino’s work, always have done. Whilst we didn’t find it particularly unique we fell in love with everything it stood for and the quirkiness of it. Who doesn’t love a cheeky bad boy Angel who loses his heart to the one he’s meant to watch over?!

‘I’m on the other side of life, Evey, existing where death belongs and yearning to be with you. Yearning in brief moments to bring you here, into the darkness. When my thoughts are so painfully selfish, I cannot breathe you in at all. I cannot love you when I hate myself. Don’t say my name. Don’t think about me. Don’t imagine how we can be together.’

Lucian, our guardian Angel is not only super swoony, he’s funny, caring and a ‘man’ with a big heart. He loves and loves hard to the point of no return. He looks controversy and rules straight in the eye and shows it his middle finger, because he wants and craves Evey. The connection was strong and believable and we swooned alongside our beautiful and sweet heroine who’s had a run of bad luck in boyfriends….until her Angel.

“You do not get to leave me, Lucien.”

“We were made for each other, Evey. I believe that.”

‘It never felt wrong to me.’

Halfway through we started wondering where this story was going as it felt as if it had almost lost its momentum, despite us loving the beginning, but let us tell you it suddenly completely pulled the rug from under our feet. We have to admit we found it a tad slow and stilted in the middle until it became very fast paced and changed in atmosphere entirely. Partly, this caused us to feel like this was two separate books as one half had such a different feel in comparison to the other. Yet we were once again utterly riveted and spellbound. We had tears threatening and we began to pray that love would conquer all, no matter what. We felt it, we believed in it and wow did we need to see Lucian and Evey get their much deserved happiness. How it all came to be in the latter part completely turned everything around and we ended up undeniably loving it once again.

“Did I not make it clear? I’m in love with her. The crazy kind of love that you and I have seen over and over…in them, not us. It’s the rip-your-bleeding-heart-out-and-step-in-front-of-a-speeding-train kind of love.”