Lucian Divine

by Renee Carlino

[whisperingchapters]

Review with my co-blogger.

THE STORY

Amanda: After reading Renee Carlino's Swear on This Life, I was crazy excited to read Lucian Divine!! I even got my copy from Renee herself after she read my review!!! But now it's my third DNF book ever! I'm crying, it was so bad I had to stop at half way.

Genesis: I feel the same! I read and loved Before We Were Strangers and Swear on this Life. Both books made it to my fave reads of their publishing year. When I heard Renee was expanding to the paranormal genre, I jumped with glee! I couldn't wait to read a new book by Renee. When I started reading, I was actually liking it and found it funny at times, but soon it started going downhill for me. I'm surprised I didn't DNF'd it like Amanda did. I guess it really was a trainwreck: I couldn't look away, in this case, I couldn't put the book down.

Amanda: I found myself forcing my way through the first 50%. I only got that far because, like Gen, I saw it like a trainwreck - just not a very good one, I guess! LOL! I kept waiting for it to either become clear that the whole thing was meant as a humorous read because it was just SO ridiculous, or for it to just suddenly get better... By halfway, I knew neither was going to happen so I moved on.

Genesis: Ridiculous is right! My jaw would drop open at all the ridiculousness happening. There was this one part that showed Evey couldn't live without Lucian She said she would cut her wrist if she couldn't be with him. and I was so disgusted by this! I used to be a cutter myself and let me tell you, I hate when people joke about it or don't take it seriously. I was offended by the statement and how Evey didn't even think of the consequences of this action. When I reached this point of the story, I knew I wouldn't enjoy it much, and I was right.

Amanda: I couldn't figure out why all of a sudden this seemingly normal human was just accepting the presence of angels, guardian angels, this particular angel's story, and was suddenly in love with him!! Get out of here, that's insane. At one point, I remember telling Genesis that to me, it seemed more like reading the script of a porn video, than a book. And now knowing what I missed (see Gen's spoiler above), I'm angry that I had any part in this book or its promotion.

My mental health history is something I am vocal about - as well as awareness and understanding - and part of that history includes cutting and suicide attempts. That topic and those things are no joke! We take them very seriously at Latte Nights Reviews, and obviously, would never promote them!

Genesis:  I agree. I do not promote them when they are being made fun of or mentioned so lightly. If it's a book that's serious, like Girl in Pieces by Kathleen Glasgow, I'll gladly promote it because people should be educated and if that's the only way, by reading fiction, then okay! But it disgusted me so much when I read that in the book. Funny thing is that I wasn't even that offended with the religion aspect, which was also taken lightly and sometimes offensive. I did get offended since I'm a Christian, but the stunt about the cutting had my blood boiling.

THE CHARACTERS

Genesis: Evey was a character I found myself liking in the beginning. She seemed to have a good head on her shoulders, with a vision of what she wanted to do with her life. When Lucian came into her life, it's like everything stopped. She would still go to work and everything, but it's like Lucian became her everything, and vice versa. I get that Lucian is a guardian angel and because of the paranormal aspect of the story, it's okay for Evey to fall for Lucian immediately. The problem I had was that I. Could. Not. Buy. It! The romance and the story itself were unbelievably rushed. I told Amanda this should have been a series, not a standalone, because it's like the author tried to make everything fit into one short book.

Amanda: I had the same thought process about Evey in the beginning — I liked her, she seemed like a regular person, and the date at the beginning is totally relatable! Then Lucian happens and everything goes straight to hell! (pun intended) All of a sudden, she's flighty, she bails on working at the beginning, at her bosses and there is no recognition of that at all! Some guy shows up, angel or not, and you're suddenly a dufus?! Nope. Not feeling it. I could not get into this at all — I need to care about the people I'm reading, care about their relationship, and I was closer to hate! Their relationship made no sense — the sex was alright, because who am I to judge sleeping with a guy you've just met because they're sexy and you want to? But to fall in love in the span of what I think may have been 24 hours (?), get outta town!

Genesis: Exactly! It's like Evey forgot how to be herself and be her own person. Lucian was no better. At first, I liked him and could see his appeal, but after? Hell no! He knew he was putting Evey and himself in danger. If he stayed with her, he would possibly die, but he didn't care. He jeopardized Evey's life, instead of stepping back and searching for an alternative. He would depend so much on Evey! I was glad to see that as the book progressed, Evey would tell him that they needed to have distance, like a regular couple, which had me doing a fist pump because it was about damn time she noticed their relationship was toxic and co-dependent.

Amanda: I wound up putting the book down somewhere in chapter nine. When Lucian admits he changed from "guardian angel" to someone who was in love with Evey after he went into someone else's body, and through their eyes saw her naked and it turned him on. Yes, that is a real part of the storyline. Ugh. At that point, I closed the book and had to admit defeat lest I push myself into the dreaded reading slump that occurs post-total-garbage-book!

Genesis: As you can see, Amanda has some negative strong feelings for this book LOL. I really should have DNF'd this one like she did. I had really high expectations for it and it didn't even come close to meeting them. It was a major disappointment that left me disgusted and wondering what the hell I had read.