Halo (Fallen Angel, #1)

by Brooke Blaine and Ella Frank

[moraa]

1.5 stars

I’m not going to mince words in this review and I’m not going to go on and on either. So I’ll divide it into two sections: likes and dislikes.

Dislikes:

• Brian – as a character he’s absolutely horrendous. We know nothing about him. But as a manager he’s ghastly. The way he runs his clients' careers is so unbelievable that I don’t see how he’s still working for them (another problem which is made worse by their flimsy reason for keeping him
as their manager).

• Lack of nuance – everything in this book is completely on the nose starting with the MC names (Halo and Viper??) right down to the literal descriptions of how everyone is feeling (clenching of fists and growling is enough; they don’t need to say something ‘angrily’).

• Lack of characterisation – Viper is a bad boy who loves to get laid and Halo is a good guy with special (musical) talents and who’s still in the closet. Everyone else remains in the periphery for the rest of the book. Need I say more?

• Lack of world-building – here I do not mean in the stricter sense but with regard to their music and their careers. We know TBD (the band, which later changes its name to Fallen Angel – on the nose again) is a famous rock band but we don’t know just how famous they are. We also don’t get any insight at all into what their lives as musicians are from the daily things such as being hounded by the press to recording music in studios and trying to accommodate a new member (it can’t be that easy after 10 years surely) etc etc

• Lack of UST – now, anyone can argue that this book is smut and so the focus isn’t really on the above points (I’d beg to differ but let’s assume for that’s the case for now). None of that can account for the fact that there was close to 0 unresolved sexual tension in this book. None at all. Why you ask? Well, my theory is comprised of two words: insta love.

Likes:

• Humour – I wasn’t rolling on the floor laughing but I did laugh out loud a couple of times.

• Length – I didn’t have to sit through too much of this.